Radio resets if I hold both window switches down at same time...

[papanoel]

Ok so my radio will reset itself if I use the windows switches at the same time. Usually once the windows reach the top or the bottom at the same time. But sometimes it happens if I just use both window switches together. I'm avoiding it now. The radio has reset on its own as well. But I can pretty much force it to reset about 50 percent of the time with the window switches.

Its an aftermarket stereo.

Any ideas?

[Josh]

Not sure exactly what is happening but when the motors hits the bottom or top of their travel they stall out. As true with any electrical motor, when the motor stalls it consumes the most amount of current it will consume. So stalling out both motors will suck up alot of current. This is what I know.


Now just pulling stuff out of thin air, lol:
-funky radio wiring
-bad alternator? Can't keep up to current demand and there is a moment where the car stalls, but not long enough to kill the engine?

[David T]

Ok so my radio will reset itself if I use the windows switches at the same time. Usually once the windows reach the top or the bottom at the same time. But sometimes it happens if I just use both window switches together. I'm avoiding it now. The radio has reset on its own as well. But I can pretty much force it to reset about 50 percent of the time with the window switches.

Its an aftermarket stereo.

Any ideas?

You should not continue to hold the switches after the window stops. It is very hard on the window motors, switches, and lift mechanism. Lower quality radios don't have good voltage regulation and filtering so they can be very sensitive to high/low volts, spikes, and surges. Get a power capacitor on the power input to the radio and have your battery tested. You may need to run a heavier wire from the radio to a power source also.

[papanoel]

You should not continue to hold the switches after the window stops. It is very hard on the window motors, switches, and lift mechanism. Lower quality radios don't have good voltage regulation and filtering so they can be very sensitive to high/low volts, spikes, and surges. Get a power capacitor on the power input to the radio and have your battery tested. You may need to run a heavier wire from the radio to a power source also.

New Battery 4 weeks old and 140 amp alternator for DMC MW
Alpine stereo

I know you shouldn't keep pressing the window switches at the extremes but it happens as soon as it hits the extreme. which i kind of have to do to make sure the window is closed. I've stopped using both switches at same time. But the radio will still sometimes reset on its own even with one switch being used.

[mluder]

Not to hijack your thread, but along similar lines, my original dash clock resets when I turn the AC mode switch to AC. It's intermittent but more often than not. Like with your window switches I can only guess it's some kind of voltage spike that's causing it. Haven't had a chance to test the wiring yet.

[papanoel]

Not to hijack your thread, but along similar lines, my original dash clock resets when I turn the AC mode switch to AC. It's intermittent but more often than not. Like with your window switches I can only guess it's some kind of voltage spike that's causing it. Haven't had a chance to test the wiring yet.

No worries.

I just remembered it also happened at night with headlights on + a/c and shifting into reverse. About 50 percent of the time. But when it did happen the radio would be stuck in a reset loop. Back in neutral it would stop.

[SIMid]

When I bought new LED window switches, one of them always blew the radio fuse when I operated it. After speaking to Dave and Julee about it, I had the switch replaced and all was well again.

Maybe try and get another window switch to test and see what happens.

[papanoel]

When I bought new LED window switches, one of them always blew the radio fuse when I operated it. After speaking to Dave and Julee about it, I had the switch replaced and all was well again.

Maybe try and get another window switch to test and see what happens.

The window switches have LEDs in them but they have been disabled.

[SIMid]

The window switches have LEDs in them but they have been disabled.

Have you got the old ones? Or one that still works? Worth swapping to test it.

[hmcelraft]

Sounds to me like the radio isn't grounded properly (or adequately) or, the ground you are using is not adequately connected to the vehicle ground.

[GR8SCOTT]

Did you install the radio yourself?

[papanoel]

Did you install the radio yourself?

Previous owner did.

[GS450-Junkie]

Did you ever resolve this issue? I'm having the same issue with my radio resetting when I turn on the headlights. Was yours a grounding issue?

[papanoel]

Did you ever resolve this issue? I'm having the same issue with my radio resetting when I turn on the headlights. Was yours a grounding issue?

I had all the grounds checked and cleaned. Also added a new ground.

[DMCMW Dave]

Run a better power wire to the radio directly from the fuse box area. Run a ground from the radio chassis to the ground post behind the vertical carpet. Modern radios take a lot of power to run, and the power and grounds on this car are too light for that.

A key difference - the OE radios have a hot all the time power and a hot with switch power. The hot all the time lead is only to keep the clock/tuner memory alive so they are very small current sources. The switched hot powers the radio.

Modern radios have it the opposite. The switched hot is simply a sense wire to tell the radio to turn on, the heavy current draw is on the "hot all the time" lead once the radio turns on. The chassis ground and the "hot all the time" lead should be to very good ground and power connections, not the factory radio ground. That is very tiny black wire and shared with a bunch of other things (like the fan motor!).

[GS450-Junkie]

Run a better power wire to the radio directly from the fuse box area. Run a ground from the radio chassis to the ground post behind the vertical carpet. Modern radios take a lot of power to run, and the power and grounds on this car are too light for that.

A key difference - the OE radios have a hot all the time power and a hot with switch power. The hot all the time lead is only to keep the clock/tuner memory alive so they are very small current sources. The switched hot powers the radio.

Modern radios have it the opposite. The switched hot is simply a sense wire to tell the radio to turn on, the heavy current draw is on the "hot all the time" lead once the radio turns on. The chassis ground and the "hot all the time" lead should be to very good ground and power connections, not the factory radio ground. That is very tiny black wire and shared with a bunch of other things (like the fan motor!).

Thanks for the reply Dave. Couple questions then...what gauge wire for power and ground? Removing my current ground is easy...just a small black wire that connects to the large bundle by the radio bracket. I would imagine radio yellow would still connect to vehicle purple up by the radio... I would also imagine that the radio red wire would now get disconnected from vehicle green wire as it would instead get power at the fuse box like you mentioned. Can you clarify where power would connect in the fuse box area for that new wire?

[GS450-Junkie]

Anyone?

[DMC5180]

What is the Max rated power AMP draw for your new radio? This info can be used to tell you the minimum wire size needed for the length of the wire run. It should be stated somewhere on the unit or spec chart in the instruction manual. Run a direct feed and ground wire from the battery. Make sure you put an inline fuse on Feed wire if the radio doesn't already have one.

[GS450-Junkie]

Run a direct feed and ground wire from the battery. Make sure you put an inline fuse on Feed wire if the radio doesn't already have one.

Tried this....pissed off and confused.

Ran a red power wire directly to power on radio from battery. Ran a black ground wire directly to radio ground from negative battery post. With the key off or completely removed the radio front keys and radio clock light up. The radio will also play if I push the power button even with the car off.

Disconnected it from the battery and attempted to wire the radio power and ground thru the amp. Hooked ground to ground on amp and power from radio to 12V connection on amp. Same thing...radio lights up as car and amp are off. if I push the power button on the radio radio begins to play and amp turns on as well. Turn radio off and the radio and amp turn off but radio back lights remain on... All with the key off. Wtf??

[DMCMW Dave]

Tried this....pissed off and confused.

Ran a red power wire directly to power on radio from battery. Ran a black ground wire directly to radio ground from negative battery post. With the key off or completely removed the radio front keys and radio clock light up. The radio will also play if I push the power button even with the car off.

Disconnected it from the battery and attempted to wire the radio power and ground thru the amp. Hooked ground to ground on amp and power from radio to 12V connection on amp. Same thing...radio lights up as car and amp are off. if I push the power button on the radio radio begins to play and amp turns on as well. Turn radio off and the radio and amp turn off but radio back lights remain on... All with the key off. Wtf??

You went right to the battery. How do you expect it to turn on and off with the key?

The radio power sense wire must go to a switched source. The radio main power should go to the battery. The amp main power should go to the battery. There is a sense wire on the amp that should go to the radio (similar to the power antenna wire) so that the amp "knows" when the radio is on.

This should all be shown on the wiring diagrams that came with the radio and the amp.

[DMC5180]

Do you have the radio illumination connected to live wire?


Dennis

[GS450-Junkie]

I assumed radio yellow still connected to car purple and this was the sense wire just like the old setup.

I guess the good news is that even with the radio in stuck mode it was no longer rebooting every time I switched on my high beams....

Dennis....i had the orange illumination wire hooked to the rheostat bundle. I also tried it unhooked as well and had the same result.

[DMC5180]

I believe the purple wire is the live memory feed. It's not switched.


Dennis

[GS450-Junkie]

Yellow is constant 12V...I could run that to the amp, I could run ground to the amp as well. Can I pull red radio power from the rheostat? (Switch is no longer being used). I was going to run the orange illumination wire to the rheostat bundle as well...

[DMC5180]

Yellow is constant 12V...I could run that to the amp, I could run ground to the amp as well. Can I pull red radio power from the rheostat? (Switch is no longer being used). I was going to run the orange illumination wire to the rheostat bundle as well...


Your saying the Yellow wire needs constant 12V (memory)? The rheostat is (was) on the headlight switch circuit, you should connect the orange illumination wire to the red/orange wire. Instrument lighting will always be full bright though. Your radio Red wire theoretically would need the Key switched LG/w wire that supplied power to the OEM radio.

[GS450-Junkie]

I realize red power wire should go to LGW but when I do that radio reboots when the headlights come on or high beam is activated... I'm trying to remove the radio power from the headlight circuit completely so I don't want to use light green white if possible. The rheostat is switched power wouldn't that work?

[DMC5180]

I realize red power wire should go to LGW but when I do that radio reboots when the headlights come on or high beam is activated... I'm trying to remove the radio power from the headlight circuit completely so I don't want to use light green white if possible. The rheostat is switched power wouldn't that work?

well, the rheostat circuit is rather busy. Do you still have the A/C panel illumination relay? In other words, does your A/C panel light with the key ON or just when the headlight switch is activated?

[GS450-Junkie]

well, the rheostat circuit is rather busy. Do you still have the A/C panel illumination relay? In other words, does your A/C panel light with the key ON or just when the headlight switch is activated?

It is on always....but it is Bitsyncmaster's led AC panel system.i also have led in binnacle and outside marker lights and license plate lights so most of the load should be reduced.

Do you have another circuit in mind?

[DMC5180]

Well, technically its key switched, I guess that work.
Exterior lights are down stream via the headlight switch.

I gotta take a break now for Friday night Fish. [emoji3]


Dennis

[DMC5180]

Let me correct myself, after looking through the schematic a bit more, the red/orange and/or red/brown lighting wires would be bad choice for radio power.

Do you Have a manual or Auto?

[DMC5180]

I see from a different thread you have a 5 speed. I may have a solution for a non-load influenced circuit. Fuse 13 is key switched (in your case unused) the circuit terminates at the red bulkhead connector under the coil cover. You could tap into the Green wire from that fuse location. Or install a bussman (add-a-line) ATC fuse holder in that fuse location. I use one there for an alternate key switched power source myself.

looks like this. The top fuse is the new circuit it has a 3-4 inch pigtail you butt splice your feed wire to and run it up the console as required. The bottom fuse is the original circuit (unused in this case too) no factory wire cutting.

should be available at your local auto store.

45562 45563