Ignition wire and remote wire........

[alaskajoe]

im new to the forum, just bought a 99 explorer. needed a new stereo, last one worked fine but was about ten years old, pulled it out and tried installing a brand new sony and my ignition wire doesnt work, neither does my remote wire from my stereo to my amp, checked all fuses and wires seem fine is there anything else that could be causing this?

 

[PandorasCustoms]

Alaska...

Did the radio you pulled have an "anti-theft" system in it? I am not familiar with the fatory HU for the '99 model, but I know I did an install on an old Sunfire about a year back, and I actually had to reinstall the factory HU and disable the "Anti-theft" feature. It essentially makes it to where the car will not start if the factroy radio is removed.

Also, as far as the remote wire for the Sony. What is the model number of the HU?
On some of the Sony's I have worked with in the past, you actually have to enable your Remote wire from inside of the HU settings. Like, if you have the Subwoofer turned off in the settings, it will not allow the remote to generate signal.
Or, it could be something to do with the amplifier.

Have you used a volt meter to test the power and primary wires at the amplifier?
Or, you can use a test light to check that power is getting the amplifier side of the remote. By debugging the exact location of a power failure, it is much easier to debug.

Please provide the Model information for both the Sony head unit and the amplifier and I can try to help do a little debugging.

 

[alaskajoe]

the hu model number is cdx-gt640ui
the amp model number XM-DS1300P5
both work when i connect remote and ignition wires to constant power wire, which is what im doing now as a quick fix. seems to be a car related issue. the theft light is blinking when the car is turned off, goes away when i start.

 

[alaskajoe]

could it be a faulty head unit?

 

[PandorasCustoms]

Yeah, the ignition sounds like the anti-theft device was activated...
From what I recall, you have to leave the battery unhooked for around an hour, and it will reset the computer system.

(Wait, when you say the ignition wire, do you mean the radio wasn't turning on at the same time as the car, or the car wasn't able to start? I was under the impression that the ignition itself was not working).)

For the remote, you need to hook it back up through the Blue/White wire on the back of the HU, and then run a test light on the amplifier side of it. You need to know if the Head unit is properly supplying the power through the wire.
As an alternative (Not recommended, but it works), you can wire the remote wire through a full-time primary wire that is routed through a switch. It would allow you turn the amp off at any time you want by just flipping the switch. But, if you do this, you need to run a 5 AMP inline fuse in order to make sure that your car doesn't acccidently burst to much power through that wire.

 

[aaronajb1981]

Have you checked your fuses? If the radios ignition wire is energizing when the vehicle is turned on that is saying there is a bad fuse or a short somewhere. In the worst case run a new ignition wire to the radio.

Just an FYI if you do like stated above and do it with a toggle swithch and hook it to a constant power, you forget to shut it off and your battery may die. The amp will put a drain on if its left on.

 

[PandorasCustoms]

Just an FYI if you do like stated above and do it with a toggle swithch and hook it to a constant power, you forget to shut it off and your battery may die. The amp will put a drain on if its left on.

Yeah, I should have mentioned that part in my previous post.