electrical problems

[Jimbo92]

i pushed my park brake and saw a spark and now the interior lights and radio lose power when the key is off it only works when the key is on, before the radio would stay on when the key was off, what the heck happened is it a problem with the ignition? no fuses under the dash are blown but only two light up the test light.

 

[TheRookie]

I strain to see the two as related. (e brake and radio) Except that the e brake is near the fuse box. First, I can only assume its an aftermarket stereo since the radio Shouldnt work with the key off. SO, chances are whoever installed it (read: wrong) may have taken a power lead from near there. Look for an inline fuse in that area.

 

[Crankcase]

Something might be shorting out down there...reach down, and pull the little brown wire connector off of the parking brake....See if that makes a diff...

 

[Jimbo92]

ok i took out my cd player and the only way the interior lights will come on is if the key is on and the red and yellow wires are touched together that should go to the cd player.

 

[TheRookie]

Look for an inline fuse. Whoever installed the CD player shouldnt do electrical work. From your wire crossing technique I can gather that instead of running a line from the battery like you should for the stereo they ran it from a lighting wire around the fuse block. Start tracing wires.

 

[Hartman]

Check all the fuses on the fuse panel and under the hood. More than likely one of those is blown.

 

[Jimbo92]

its supposed to be the same wire because the cdplayer and interior lights are on the same fuse, what i have gathered is that the ignition wire is good but the hot wire is bad because the hot wire is giving no power it is what must have shorted out

 

[TheRookie]

Only supposed to be the same wire if its a stock head unit. Aftermarket units require a new wire. Too often people just use the old pos and ground wires. This is a terrible idea. Aftermarket head units have too much draw for this.

 

[Jimbo92]

apparently i found this out the hard way, i am in the process now running a new hot wire from the bat. and figuring out why there is no sound coming from the speakers

 

[TheRookie]

I too found this out the hard way once long ago. It is written on the wire usualy as well as in the book. Ah well live and learn