Aftermarket Head Unit Problem. HELP PLEASE

[sedoriku]

So today I decided to replace the factory Monsoon Head Unit in my Firebird, but I encounter some problems. First I have to say that I didn't use a wiring harness, and cut the wires...not really wise somehow because some of the wires have the same color... for example there are 2 orange and 2 yellow... And also there was another harness plugged to the Monsoon stereo, something with 5 wires I think, it is on the right side of the Monsoon head unit, in the backpanel. What is that for?? Where should I connect those wires? I actually didn't use those wires, I have no idea what they could lead too...please help!!!
Anyway, I tried my best to connect everything all together, and the new Head Unit seemed to work well at first. Then I decided to start the engine and I would get a parasit sound when the engine is started (not when it is off and I just have the contact on)...well, this could be okay, but then I realized that once I put the lights on, the sound of the Head Unit just stop, even though it still stays on, I just have no more sound!!!!! I guess it means that the amplifier is not powered anymore, but why when I put the lights on?? Wrong connection somewhere?? And I also noticed tonight that even when the lights are not on, the gauges are always lighted??!?!?! What's wrong.
Then I was a bit upset with all those issues, decided to leave everything like that for now, but when I pressed the lock button on the remote, the alarm went off... Everytime I want to lock my car the alarm comes on. I disconnected the Head Unit and now I can lock the doors and the alarm doesn't come off.
So I definitely have issues here, what could be wrong, and do I have to use this other plug with the 5 wires??
One more thing since Im writting all this, can I just disconnect the front speakers wires from the amplifier and just reconnect them together without going through the amplifier (I bought aftermarkets speakers and they are 4 ohms). I guess it would just be like connecting the speakers to the head unit directly, since from factory it is first going to the amplifier and then going to the speakers... Am I right here??
Anyway guys, thank you in advance for any help, I would greatly appreciate, Im stuck for now, and I can already hear my workmates tommorrow mocking me because I screwed with the installation...
HELPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

[sedoriku]

My bad for the second plug, the wiring harness with 5 wires, I guess it is the plug going to an optional cd changer, so I don't need to use it.
By the way, back to my problem, I have 3 wires that I didn't connect to the aftermarket HU, there is the illumination, the dimmer and I don't know what is the 3rd one. And from the wiring harness coming with the HU, there is a 2 wires that I didn't connect: the one for an optional CD player, and another one to power an amplifier... do I have to connect something to this one?? Im lost...

[96firebird311]

Holy cow dude. I don't know what wires you have crossed where....did you follow this?:
Pin#.................Color...........…….......Func tion
1......................Grey....................... ..Front Left Speaker -
2......................Tan........................ ...Front Left Speaker +
3......................Dark Green.............Front Right Speaker -
4......................Light Green............Front Right Speaker +
5......................Black .................Ground
6......................Brown..................Illu mination
7......................Grey...................Dimm er
8......................Pink...................Powe r Antenna
9......................Yellow.................12V Ignition
10.....................Orange.................12V Constant
11.....................NA.....................NA
12.....................NA.....................NA
13.....................NA.....................NA
14.....................Dark Blue..............Steering Wheel Controls
17.....................Light Blue............ Right Rear Speaker -
18.....................Dark Blue..............Right Rear Speaker +
19.....................Yellow.................Left Rear Speaker -
20.....................Brown..................Left Rear Speaker +

Yes, ignore the other smaller plug. You won't be using that. You will not need the blue wire coming from your new headunit. (sometimes has a white stripe) That is a remote turn-on for an aftermarket amp. Engine noise from the headunit can usually be cured by using a different grounding point. Do NOT use the ground wire. Instead find a spot close by and sand it down to bare metal. Ground your new headunit to this.

[sedoriku]

Nobody to help me here???

[sedoriku]

96firebird311, I followed the wiring scheme (thank you guys, I got it on this forum), but seems that I messed with the wires somewhere...I should have used a wiring harness I guess instead of cutting all the wires. Because of course I realized afterwards that some wires were the same color, even though they have different functions...
As for the engine noise, I will try to connect my ground somewhere to bare metal, will see if it stops the noise. I still don't understand why the sound switch off when I put the lights on...

[sedoriku]

I went to an car audio shop, and they told me that I may have screwed the system by cutting the wires, because some of the wires are supposed to be for the alarm, some for the airbag... WTF?? Why would the wires for the airbag or the alarm go through the radio?? What should I do now?? Should I try to replug all the wires back to the factory plug, then try it on the Monsoon Head Unit, and if it works well, just get the wiring harness for the Firebird?? (I should have bough the wiring harness first anyway, it would have saved me some hassle, and at least would have been much easier to reconnect the factory head unit) Damn me and my impatience, couldn't wait to get the new HU installed...
Advices please....anyone went through the same??

[96firebird311]

Please don't go to that audio shop anymore. They obviously are trying to either 1) rip your off or 2) don't know s#it. (I'm sure #1) Yes, some of the colors are the same, but speaker wires are always next to each other on the harness. So the grey RIGHT NEXT TO the tan wire would be LF-. The other grey would obviously be your dimmer wire. Same with the brown and yellow. Also, +12V wires are almost always a slightly thicker gauge then the speaker wires. I suggest you calmly go over your wiring again.

[sedoriku]

Thanks 96Firebird311, you seem to know what you are talking about. Im definitely not going to this shop anyway, they want to rip me off because I didn't buy my head unit over there. Anyway, I stopped at a GM dealership, and they told me that I shouldn't have cut the wires, because I somehow opened a loop, and the alarm doesn't know how to do anymore and that's why it comes off when I try to lock the car. So they told me the best thing to do would be to reconnect all the wires to the factory plug and get a wiring harness...So Im probably gonna do that, reconnect the factory plug, and I will try it on the Monsoon HU to make sure I reconnected everything the good way.
I don't really understand why putting a wiring plug would change anything, but well, i will try it. It is just a hassle to replug everything, splice the wires once more....

[nda0602v6]

Originally posted by sedoriku:
Anyway, I stopped at a GM dealership, and they told me that I shouldn't have cut the wires, because I somehow opened a loop, and the alarm doesn't know how to do anymore and that's why it comes off when I try to lock the car.

Sounds like a bunch of crap to me. Dealerships will always make things seem like they are worse than what they actually are. You can spice the factory plug back on if you want but keeping it off will not mess up your car or the factory alarm. People cut those plugs off every day, its no big deal. I would do like 96firebird suggested and redo all the wiring. If you can't figure out the two yellow and grey wires (such as seeing if one is thicker than the other), you will need to use a testlight. If you don't have a testlight, you can rig one up using an old tail light bulb or even a flashlight bulb. The testlight will show which of the two yellow wires is putting out power... your switched Positive 12-volts (switched meaning when you turn the key).

Hook the factory Yellow switched wire up to the Red wire on the new HU harness. The other remaining yellow wire on the factory harness is the left rear speaker -. The factory Orange wire will hook up to the Yellow wire on the new HU harness. Use the testlight for the two grey wires as well. One of the two grey wires will be your dimmer. When you hook up a testlight to it, turn on your parking/head lights and operate the dimmer switch. You should be able to see the testlight dim while you operate the dimmer........this is your dimmer wire. If your new HU doesn't have a dimmer input, make sure to cap/tape off that wire so it doesn't ground out on anything and blow a fuse. The other remaining grey wire will be your front left speaker -. Also make sure to cap/tape off any other wires that you end up not using.

[sedoriku]

nda0602v6, thank you for your advices, I will try to test the wires tonight, and reconnect everything the good way hopefully. I just can't see why cutting all the wires before the factory plug could do anything, especially if I rewire all the wires after that... what is the difference if it goes through a plastic plug or if I just connect the wires together directly??
I have to check too if I didn't blow one of the fuses somewhere.
I don't really understand why I have no more sound when I switch on the headlights though, seems like switching on the headlight is switching off the amplifier. And why do I always have the gauges on my dashboard slightly lighted even though I didn't put the headlights on...strange...
One more thing, about the front speakers that I changed for aftermarkets, can I just unplugged the speakers wires from the amplifier and connect them directly together, so it will just comes out the HU...

[96firebird311]

It makes no difference if the plug is on there or not. I have NEVER used a wiring harness on any of my own cars. Simply because 1) they take up too much space behind the headunit and 2) why pay for something I don't need. I'm very confident in all my connections. I take my time and do it properly.

And are you asking if you can just hook your new aftermarket speaker directly to the headunit? Of course! [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ May 17, 2005, 01:47 PM: Message edited by: 96firebird311 ]

[nda0602v6]

Originally posted by sedoriku:
why I have no more sound when I switch on the headlights though, seems like switching on the headlight is switching off the amplifier. And why do I always have the gauges on my dashboard slightly lighted even though I didn't put the headlights on...strange...

You just have your wires mixed up.

[sedoriku]

I know I can hook up my aftermarkets speakers directly to the head unit, the thing is I didn't want to run a wire from the speakers through the door (well, I wanted to, but I couldn't do it, the wire was stuck somewhere..), so I just used the factory wires in the door. And I believe those wires are coming from the amplifier, right?? So there should be a speaker wire going to the amplifier and then from the amplifier to the speaker?? Im still right?? So can I just disconnect the speaker wires going to the amplifier, and the other one going from the amplifier to the speaker, and just connect those wires together so I don't go through the amplifier anymore and I assume then it would be direct from the head unit to the speakers... Following me here??
By the way, I was pretty sure I had all my wires connected the good way, but obviously not, Im gonna check it out again. One thing I forgot to mention, which I thought was kind of strange, didn't look like a factory thing, there was a bare wire going to the other plug (the one Im not using anymore, for an additional cd changer)...it just didn't look right...

[nda0602v6]

Originally posted by sedoriku:
I know I can hook up my aftermarkets speakers directly to the head unit, the thing is I didn't want to run a wire from the speakers through the door (well, I wanted to, but I couldn't do it, the wire was stuck somewhere..), so I just used the factory wires in the door. And I believe those wires are coming from the amplifier, right?? So there should be a speaker wire going to the amplifier and then from the amplifier to the speaker?? Im still right?? So can I just disconnect the speaker wires going to the amplifier, and the other one going from the amplifier to the speaker, and just connect those wires together so I don't go through the amplifier anymore and I assume then it would be direct from the head unit to the speakers... Following me here??

Yes you can do that as long as you keep track of all your color codes. If you do a search, there's also a color code chart which breaks down the "output" wires from the Monsoon amp to the speakers. But if it were me, I wouldn't do it that way simply because thats way to many spicing points. It's really not that hard though to feed new speaker wire through the rubber boots inbetween the doors. I did mine without too much trouble and I didn't even need to use a coathanger to fish it through. All I can suggest is to take your time and if you get frustrated, drink a cold one and go back at it.

One thing I forgot to mention, which I thought was kind of strange, didn't look like a factory thing, there was a bare wire going to the other plug (the one Im not using anymore, for an additional cd changer)...it just didn't look right...

That "bare" wire you're seeing on the CD-Changer plug is normal. All it does is wrap around all of the other wires which acts as shield to help prevent interferience.

[sedoriku]

Thanks nda0602v6, you are of a good advice one more time. Well, I don't know how you did to go through the rubber boots in between the doors, I just couldn't get through. Thanks for letting me know that the bare wire is normal, so nothing wrong here. I spent the last 2 hours trying to reconnect the factory wire harness, and it is a real pain, since I cut the wires very close. I kind of gave up and will connect the wires directly without going through the wire harness, I have a tester with me, so I shouldn't mess this time. It seems that I have a problem with the dimmer wire anyway, since it switches off the sound of my radio when I put the headlights on... this is just weird, Im pretty sure all my connections are good now. Someone told me that he had a problem with that dimmer wire once, because he cut all the wires instead of using a wire harness... but I checked the wire harness they sell at Pep Boys, and there is nothing special about it, nothing is making a loop or whatever, all the cables are just the same, goes out the same way as if you cut the wires (the color changes, that's it), so I really don't see why it would be a problem to cut the wires.