Parasitic draw from aftermarket stereo

[yeahokay]

I have a 99 ford explorer and it has an aftermarket stereo that recently started having a parasitic draw after I have messed around with other wiring in the area. The wiring to this stereo is a hacked up mess. Can anyone point me to what I should might be looking at with it? This is new it did not do this when I got it a few weeks ago. So I’m guessing some wires got jostled that started this. It pulls about .4-5 amps after the key is stunned off and around .3-4 amps after the battery saver relay kicks in. I have about 4 maybe 5 hours before it won’t start. Right now I have the stereo fuse pulled but that kind of sucks.

 

[J_C]

It is a bit easier to predict normal faults than those caused by a botched aftermarket stereo install.

Redoing all wiring might help. There are two power feeds, one for the memory which is always live, and the primary for the amp/tuner/etc. Since the amp/tuner should be off (if it wasn't wired up wrong which we don't know...) I'd suspect a short in the always live wire to something else.

There are wiring diagrams for several, if not all possible radios linked in the 2nd gen wiring diagrams in my sig, but these are all factory... no telling what shenanigans an aftermarket radio installer used to install it, so you have to kind of dig through the rat's nest, separate the wire bundle and check every wire for bad connections, frays, insulation damage.

I'd also consider the possibility that the radio itself has damage, maybe stress on the wires, pulled up a solder joint on the connector to it or something.

 

[yeahokay]

It is a bit easier to predict normal faults than those caused by a botched aftermarket stereo install.

Redoing all wiring might help. There are two power feeds, one for the memory which is always live, and the primary for the amp/tuner/etc. Since the amp/tuner should be off (if it wasn't wired up wrong which we don't know...) I'd suspect a short in the always live wire to something else.

There are wiring diagrams for several, if not all possible radios linked in the 2nd gen wiring diagrams in my sig, but these are all factory... no telling what shenanigans an aftermarket radio installer used to install it, so you have to kind of dig through the rat's nest, separate the wire bundle and check every wire for bad connections, frays, insulation damage.

I'd also consider the possibility that the radio itself has damage, maybe stress on the wires, pulled up a solder joint on the connector to it or something.

Thanks for the ideas! I plan on replacing the stereo at some point. After thinking it over I think I’m just going to give the wires a quick look to see if I can find something obvious. And then just add a toggle to cut power to it for now. When I replace there stereo I’ll redo the wires at that point

 

[Pete Deering]

Thanks for the ideas! I plan on replacing the stereo at some point. After thinking it over I think I’m just going to give the wires a quick look to see if I can find something obvious. And then just add a toggle to cut power to it for now. When I replace there stereo I’ll redo the wires at that point

You did not state what model radio you are talking About. But in general, you probably have two power wires. One should be normal off, when the key is off and on when the key is on.
The other power is on all the time. For the clock. The clock display should get brighter when the key is on and dimmer when the key is off. If you have a high end smart radio, you probably have other power input wires. Do a online search for the radio manual. To get a wiring diagram for your radio.

 

[C420sailor]

I’d bet on a bad head unit over wires “getting jostled”

If you pop the unit out, it should be easy to inspect the connections. If they look good, my $$$ is on the unit.

Who makes it?

 

[Mbrooks420]

Agreed, it’s possible the deck is bad. Disconnect the harness and see if the draw goes away.

 

[yeahokay]

Thanks for the ideas! I plan on replacing the stereo at some point. After thinking it over I think I’m just going to give the wires a quick look to see if I can find something obvious. And then just add a toggle to cut power to it for now. When I replace there stereo I’ll redo the wires at that point

Stereo replaced and parasitic draw is gone also a few speakers were not working that also turned out to be the stereo.