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Pioneer to Kenwood Deck Help

D

Dave98SVT

CEG'er
Joined
Aug 14, 2006
Messages
124
Location
Jenison,MI
I had a pioneer deck (installed by previous owner) in my car that I'm swapping for a new kenwood. I have the deck connected and all the door speakers work. However my amp doesn't turn on, my sub doesn't work, and there is no am radio reception. On my wire harness there is solid blue wire for amp power and one striped blue for antenna control. I didn't hook these wires up because the two corresponding blue wires in the dash are connected to a thicker guage black wire with a wire nut. I can't see where the wire goes but it appears to go through the firewall. Does anyone know what this wire is? Should I pull the blue wires out of the wire nut?

Any advice is appreciated.
 
Do you have a power antenna? The wiring diagram I have for a 98 SVT w/amp doesn't show a solid blue wire, but a BLU/BLK for fused ignition, and a BLU/RED for the power antenna.
 
Yes, I have a power antenna. Here are pictures of the wires
wires002.jpg

wires001.jpg
 
None of the wiring diagrams show those wires. 1998 Contour SVT correct (gathered that from your name)? I'd check the two connected to the black wire and see if that goes to ground. If there's no AM reception but there is FM reception then there may be an issue with the head unit.
 
The car is a 98 svt. Not sure that this was the smartest idea but I got frustrated and took off the wire nut and connected the two blue wires to the deck and just left the black wire unconnected. I get am reception and the antenna works but my sub and amp still don't work. What all needs to be connected to the deck for the sub and amp? I have my rca's for the sub plugged into the sub output, and the amp power wire is now connected, am I missing anything?
 
I have a shut off switch for my amp, so this is how mine is.

I have a blue wire that is from my deck hooked up to a terminal on the 3 way switch. I then have one of the two sides of the switch hooked up, so it leads back the amp.

So basically run a blue wire from the deck to the amp.

Is this what you needed?
 
I am still very confused and frustrated. I have all the color coded wires hooked up to the plug on the deck. Everything works except the sub and amp. The only wire that isn't connected to anything is the black wire (pictured above) that was originally connected with a wire nut to the amp power control and antenna control wires. Does anyone know what this wire is or how I should hook it up.
 
Do you have the blue wire from the cd player ran to the amp? Thats what i had to do before my amp worked ^.^
 
I think I can solve this with asking about your antenna, Do you have a power antenna? is it working properly? (up when on, down when off?)

On some units the power antenna wire only sends a signal when the unit is switched to radio. When it is switched to CD, the antenna goes down (thats how it is on my Alpine). The amp remote wire is a constant power to turn on the amps when your radio is on.
Your solid blue wire is the antenna remote wire, blue w/white stripe is your amp turn on wire. I dont know how this person has them hooked up but it appears they hooked them both up to a black wire. Typically this would mean ground (wrong) but it could just be run to the trunk to use as a remote wire or to trigger the antenna?
Another question I have is I see the wires are split coming off your right front outputs (Grey wires) I see 4 wires coming off the two, but I only see it on the right front?
 
The antenna works fine now. Only problem is the sub and amp aren't working. This is the first audio work I have done my car. The previous owner split the wires in the front to hook up tweeters I believe. I have the amp power control wire from the deck connected to a blue wire that is labeled amp control but the amp and sub still don't work.
 
So you have a control wire run from your amp in the trunk, all the way to the cd player correct? And that is connected to the blue wire labled "amp control" correct? or are both wires still under the wire nute connected to the mystery black wire? Just want to make sure this is wired correctly before we start trouble shooting.
 
CarpePoon said:
So you have a control wire run from your amp in the trunk, all the way to the cd player correct? And that is connected to the blue wire labled "amp control" correct? or are both wires still under the wire nute connected to the mystery black wire? Just want to make sure this is wired correctly before we start trouble shooting.
Click to expand...

Yes the amp control wire is connected to the deck. I took the wire nut off the ant and amp wires and connected them to the deck. The antenna now works but the amp and sub do not work. By the way the amp and sub always worked fine with Pioneer deck. Also I am able to adjust the sub from the deck which you're only supposed to have the option for when a sub is connected.
 
If you want your antenna to go up only when the radio is selected connect blue to blue from HU to harness and blue/white to blue/white from HU to harness... If you'd like your power antenna to stay up all the time when the radio is on, connect blue/white from your HU to blue/white and blue from the harness. this will power the amp and the power antenna when the radio is on... as for the sub you'll have to find the turn on wire for that and tie it into blue/white from the radio as well...

Blue on your head unit is power antenna, wire only has power when the source is set to radio.

Blue/White on the other hand is the remote wire, which has power whenever the radio is turned on.
 
Heres a stupid possibility. Since I dont know what kenwood you have. Do you have a sub defeat feature in the setting menus? On some units it will just cut the music to the sub RCA's, on others it cuts the power to the remote wire.

So you confirmed that is the amp is not powering on? or is it powering on and not getting music? If its not powering on, check the menu's like I said, Also check the bottom of the radio for any switches. Also there is usually a wire fuse in-line right behind the radio in the remote wire, check to make sure that isn't blown.
 
Hopefully it's not some relay setup like I ran into one time on a custom install a customer brought me... had ground and trigger up at the dash for the relay in back... that was a fun mess..
 
Whats the yellow wire connection in the picture that goes to the HU Remo Cont wire?

And does your HU save all of the presets and time when you shut the car off?
 
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