HU wont turn on.

[lukeduke28]

i just tried to put my panasonic HU in and it wont turn on..

there is no room back there for the wires and it sits up really far. so i figured i would mess with it later so i left it. i put everything back and hook up the battery and it wont work...

i got a metra wiring harness, and the mounting kit is fine, and the ant adaptor is fine. something has to be wrong with that wiring harness..

i plugged the car wire thing into the wiring harness and soldered all those wires into the plug that came with the HU.. and it doesnt work.. if that makes any sense..

i have a 2001 cavalier.

[Willy D]

Do you have a test light or a volt meter?

You should have a red wire, a yellow wire and a black wire in the harness...

The red wire should be hot all the time (have battery voltage) as this is the memory wire....The yellow wire should get voltage when the key is turned on. This wire basically powers up the HU....Last is the black wire....it is the ground.....It needs to be a good ground or the HU will not come on...

Have you checked the fuses in the fuse box? Possibly could have blown a fuse there....Before you do anything, check ALL the fuses in the fuse box...This is best done with a test light, but if you do not have a test light, pull and check the radio fuse and the accessories fuse....If your fuses are all good, then you need to first check voltage on the red and yellow wire, then check the black wire to see if it is a good ground.....If you are not sure how to check for ground, you can do it a couple of ways....With a test light, connect the alligator clip to the POS. battery terminal, then touch the black wire with the tip of the test light...If it lights, you have ground....With a meter, connect red lead to bat POS and touch the black wire with the black lead...See if you read voltage.....Let us know what you find....I would bet on a blown fuse...

Willy

[Ranger SVO]

I have a dumb question, is your factory radio a data controlled radio, if so then there is NO ignition wire in the factory harness. Wanna double check, look at the red wire in the Metra plug, is there a corresponding wire in the factory plug. I'd be willing to bet there ain't.

For a data controlled system you will need the correct interface, it will provide you with the ignition line that you need.