whitedevilc5

hi,
just recently purchased a single din radio. It fit fine, I tapped into the yellow wire underneath the passenger footboard by the bcm for power. The problem is, when I turned the car on, the radio turned on but it drew excessive power from my battery. I dropped as low as 10v. So I pulled the power from there and tried to tap into fuse #22 with a fuse tap, but now the radio won't turn on at all. Any suggestions? Maybe another place to draw power from?

Thanks in advance,
mike

sirdano

How do you know it was 10v? Did you use a voltmeter at battery?

whitedevilc5

yes and I also watched the voltage drop on my dash until a message popped up and said "low voltage". When I pulled the connection from the radio and re-connected the battery, everything worked fine again

Paul 75 L82

You can buy a proper harness for that, you can't just hook it up like the old days.

foggy

There is no power wire in an adapter harness..
Tap into fuse under pass side kick panel fuse block.
There are a couple that have power ON in acc position and in run position

LS1 REDBIRD

Same issue here, I used a Metra wiring harness. Installed a aftermarket single din an now my battery dies after two days.

GCG

For the 97-03 models in the passenger's foot well behind the toe kick panel and to the left of the BCM are three wires that are blunt cut and taped over:

1) Black is ground
2) Yellow is switched power via fuse #11
3) Orange is hot at all times via fuse #7

These wires are not present in the 04 C5, therefore power has to be provided from a different source.

whitedevilc5

as stated in the OP, I have already tried this method. This is what caused my battery to die/drop voltage. I am looking for an alternative option. Unless the black wire needs to be grounded, this option doesn't seem to be working properly

whitedevilc5

and the winner is.... Paul 75 L82! Bought the adapter harness and everything works perfectly. No voltage drop. Thanks for the info all!

whitedevilc5

never mind, killed my battery again. Back to square 1. Noting that the yellow wire (yes, the pigtail one next to the bcm on the passenger footboard) has been the culprit. Does the black ground wire from the pigtail need to be grounded as well? This is the only other thing I can think of

midnight01

Find the wiring harness to the exact left of the metal as shown in my pic, I tapped into the Pink wire (I believe its acc ignition). Thats how I got it to work. There was no battery drain at all.

GCG

Supplying power through a switched source to the radio cannot, per se, cause the battery to die. Have you checked to see if the radio remains powered after turning it off and shutting down the car? How about the door-mounted subwoofer amps? These amps should turn off and on together with the headunit.

Usually headunits require an always on (low current) power source to retain settings and a switched (high current) source to operate. Have you double-checked all connections between the radio harness and the adapting harness?

GCG

You didn't mention if you're keeping the rest of the system intact and just replacing the headunit.

If that is the case, to properly do this you will need an adapter (not just a harness) to provide the required interface. This is due to the way the factory system was designed.

The 2 most common adapters are:

• Axxess XSVI-2004
  Axxess XSVI-2004
• Pac Audio ROEM-VET1
  Pac Audio ROEM-VET1

Replacing the head unit should be just plug-and-play by using either one. Both have setup adjustments to customize sound/levels. After tweaking them to your liking, they shouldn't require further touching.

whitedevilc5

I have the PAC, all hooked up. The radio works with it. The only issue is that tapping into these wires constantly kills my battery. It is a brand new 800cca battery, so that isn't the issue. I'm not sure what else to do to get the radio hooked up properly without dropping voltage

whitedevilc5

checked all connections. The radio turns off with the ignition. The amps turn off as well. A bit frustrating, since everything is hooked up and works as it should with the tapped power source. Only issue is the drop in voltage followed killing the battery minutes after letting it sit. Fuse tap didn't work, unfortunately

whitedevilc5

I could not find this wire. Where did you pull it out from?

GCG

It seems your new radio is introducing a high current drain even when turned off and that is what is killing your battery. If that is the case, using a different point of connection is not going to change anything.

If this is happening even when using an ignition-switched power source, there's a possibility that the drain is occurring through the only other power connection to the headunit: the always hot wire needed to retain settings. Have you measured the current through that wire when everything is turned off? It should be very, very low.

Just to double-check, is the BLUE WHITE from radio connected to BLUE on the PAC ROEM-VET1? If you wired "blue white" to "blue white" instead, your door subs will not turn on and then no real bass. On the other hand, if the BLUE on the PAC ROEM-VET1 is wired to an always hot source then your door sub's will never turn off, draining your battery.

GUSTO14

You might want to contact Dennis at Double D Mods.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...le-d-mods.html

He's the guru when it comes to radio installations on the C5.

Good luck... GUSTO

scottunger

whitedevil, did you find a fix for this issue?

Bill Curlee

LMAO!! If attaching the head unit to that pigtail YELLOW wire is KILLING an 800 AMP Battery, bud,,, you better call the fire department!

Here is the source of your problem.
That SWITCHED Yellow Wire is powered through the IGNITION SWITCH.

The VOLT METER in your car on the IPC,,, DOES NOT,, display actual BATTERY VOLTAGE.

It displays the voltage out of the IGNITION SWITCH.

Your IGNITION SWITCH is defective. VERY VERY VERY COMMON issue.

The contacts inside the switch get carboned arced up and when the load increases the contacts drop voltage just like you are seeing>

Here is a post that will help ya:

- C5 ignition Switch repair - http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-t...ch-repair.html

Let me know how you make out...

Bill