The Story:

I have a 97 2.2 CL and took out my old cd player and put a Pioneer headunit in. I hardwired it all up, no adapters. The cd player would ONLY work when i wired the 12v ignition and 12v battery wires from the cd deck to the 12v ignition and 12v battery wires on the car. It wouldnt work when the 12v ignition and 12v battery wires were seperated. Every time i would turn my car off the presets and clock would reset. I called local car audio professionals and they said check for a blown fuse...which there was (7.5a Radio fuse under the hood i believe).

After solving that the cd deck was saving the presets and the clock was fine. The cd player will now also turn on and off whether the car is on or off. I took the car out and did some afternoon errands, one of which was a haircut.

The Problem:

After only being away for twenty minutes (after doing another errand before, parked for an hour and started fine) did my car refuse to start back up, even when jumper cables were connected. I still get power when i turn the key, but the car will not turn over. It will only start when i bump start it. I also realized i blew my security power fuse the same day.

The Question: What the heck is wrong? (Besides my lack of electrical knowledge)

Thank you!

 

sounds like you have the hot 12v where the keyed 12v is.
hot all the time and keyed power should not be connected.
check all your fuses underhood and underdash

 

Indeed, keep your switched and constant separated. Never want to cross two 12v wires that are not from the exact same source. When you hooked both switched and constant together, your constant from the radio was powering up whatever else is attached to that switched lead after the relay, thus you had a dead battery or several blown fuses. Separate wires, check all fuses. Do you have bose?

 

Yeah i have blown a couple fuses. The starter fuse was good though. And i do believe i have Bose, it doesnt always say it on the stock head unit does it?

 

Pulled all fuses, 2 15a fuses were blown. I disconnected and head unit wires and replaced the fuses and the car starts and works properly. Thanks guys.

What could i connect the light dimmer switch to?

 

Orange dimmer wire for the deck? Safely... nothing. I avoid those like the plague unless a customer specifically asks for it. They have a habit of playing nasty tricks with the dimmer or parking light circuits sometimes.

 

Red/orangish with black stripe? If it's not connected i dont have any gauge lighting...?

 

Kinda lost me there, where is this at? I know that the dash lights should work no matter if the dimmer/illumination is hooked to the radio or not. Guessing a wire has become disconnected elsewhere?

 

Yeah sorry you're right. It's not the dimmer wire, although that's what some diagrams were saying. It's a red wire with a black stripe, and it illuminates the gauges, climate, and other buttons on the console. I wasn't sure what's safe to connect it to?

 

Red w/black is parking light circuit. Are your dash lights currently not working? if so, reconnect where it came from. That is a positive polarity wire. If it is disconnected behind the radio it should not matter. The only Honda I know of that has an issue with lights and whatnot on radio removal are the 96ish to 99ish civics with keyless entry... need to leave the radio hooked up in the dash when you install another.

 

Radio wiring:
12v constant: white/yellow
12v Switched: white/red
Ground: black
+illumination: red/black
Power antenna / amp turnon: yellow/white
Left Front Speaker: + blue/green - grey/black
Left Rear Speaker: + blue/yellow - grey/white
Right Front Speaker: + red/green - brown/black
Right Rear Speaker: + red/yellow - brown/white