Actually, I have several issues.

First off, I've replaced the factory mosoon with a Clarion HU. Had several issues in getting wiring correct, but eventually got it to work. Up until this time, had no problems. Since there isn't much room back there to stuff all the wires, I decided to remove an unused AULOC spliced into the speaker wires and radio ground. I cut each wire at the splice, and then taped up each end. As I was moving the wiring harness, I noticed that there was static coming from my rear speakers. The thing is, there was no radio installed, and the ignition switch was off, although wiring harness for the new HU was connected, but the HU was not. The more I moved the harness, the more static in the rear speakers. WTF?

So, I reconnected the AULOC, and that problem went away. Completed installation of the HU, and started the car to check everything out. The gauges acted as if I had disconnected the battery, which I didn't (wondering how removal of the AULOC had anything to do with this). The car started, and the HU worked fine, with good sound from each speaker. I also noticed that my trip odometer was now zero'ed out. Well, put everything back together. Went to start the car this AM, and the battery was now almost dead.

I've taken out the new HU, and removed the new HU wiring harness while I recharge the battery.

What do you think are causing these two issues?

Here's how I've wired the HU.

Aside from the speaker wires, here's what I got


camaro adaptor HU

Constant
power Orange yellow Red

Ignition
power Yellow Red Red

Dimmer Gray Orange/white Orange/white

Ground Black Black Black

One thing that comes to mind as a source of the problem, though I don't know what this would do, is that I spliced in the ground wire from the HU to the adaptor, leaving an exposed pigtail in the event I needed to an additional ground.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

 

the ground shouldnt be a problem. go outside and with the car turned off (dont even put the key in the ignition) and try to turn the HU on. If it turns on then you have it wired up to the wrong power.

 

Qwik,

That part is working correctly. With the HU switched on, I shut off ignition, and the HU stayed on, as it's supposed to. I opened the door, and it shut off. I tried to switch it back on, and it wouldn't, until I started the car.

I reconnected everything after charging the battery, and it all seemed to work fine. Car started, HU went on when switching it on, off with ignition off and door opened. I noted that when I worked to disconnect the HU connector from the camaro connector, I got a little static in the speakers again - this is with ignition off, HU off. Restarted car, all OK. Reconnected everything, checked HU operations, all was well. Disconnected, and this time, no static.
For tonite, I've kept it out of the car, seeing if the battery drain is due to something else.

 

Well, took everything out, leaving only original wiring harness, and the battery died overnight, so it looks like there is a short somewhere in the original harness???

 

I'm trying to figure out what could be causing this problem - The sound that comes from my rear speakers when moving the wiring harness around (like running a finger across a turntable needle) with ignition off and no HU connected appears to me that the constant power wire and one or more speaker wires are making contact. That may also account for the battery going dead, even when there is no HU connected. I've charged the battery yesterday, and left it in the car, but not connected, overnight to see if this is just a battery problem, but I doubt it because of the speaker noise. Any thoughts?

Thanks

 

Well, it looks like the problem was associated with my doing all this work while the battery was still connected, though I don't know why. With the battery fully charged and the HU not installed, the battery did not discharge overnight, like it had the night before. I reinstalled the Clarion HU today, and will see what happens to the battery over night. I did notice that when I connected the battery after the HU install that there was a little spark when connecting the battery ground. Well, will see what happens in the morning.

 

The saga continues. The battery was stone cold dead this morning. I currently have it in the garage being recharged. Since the battery is charging, I'm assuming that the problem is NOT the battery (even though temperatures are only in the 20's today). I've removed the HU, and will leave the HU wiring harness connected (the night before I didn't have anything connected, and the battery was fine the next morning - its when I had everything connected that the battery was discharged). This way I can see if there is something in the way I wired the HU connector/harness that's causing the discharge.

Is there any way, with the battery connected and ignition off, that I can determine which circuits are draining the battery?

 

disconnect the negative wire off the battery and put a test light between the ground wire and the negative post on the battery. The light should be on if it has a draw. A little draw is normal to keep all the computers and **** memory alive. Start pulling fuses. In your case I would pull the radio fuse, because that seems to be your problem.

If that makes the light go out of really dim then it is in that circuit. Put the radio fuse back in and start checking the circuit until you find what is causing the drain.

 

Thanks for the info. This morning, the battery was fine (other than the fact that it's < 20 degrees). Looks like the harnesses are OK. I just connected the new HU again, and left it sitting in the car. It's too cold to do as you suggest right now, but will try again if the battery goes dead. If so, I've got to figure out what's wrong with my connections.

Thanks again

 

Continuing the saga, left the new Hu connected to wiring harness, but not inserted into dash. HU works fine. After 24 hours in sub 20 degree weather, the battery is fine. A couple of things I noticed though, as I was just moving things around today. First, with the ignition off and door opened (to ensure the HU is powered off and only has only the battery direct connect for memory), when I connect and disconnect the HU from the harness, I note that the speakers are popping, like there is power going to them even thought the HU is off. Secondly when moving around the wiring harness that goes from the adaptor to the HU, I get staticy noise coming from the left rear speaker only, and only while I move the harness. Makes me think that I should redo the splicing between the adaptor and the HU, and ensure I've got the wires connected properly (which I checked, rechecked, and confirmed with the HU vendor). Possibly the adaptor has got a problem too, so if this doesn't solve the problem, then I'll go for new adaptor.

More later.

 

Time to get a new battery - Stone cold dead this morning, and nothing was connected, and not taking a charge, and its about 4 years old. Going to put the monsoon back in car and start all over again once I'm sure I haven't messed anything up in the factory wiring.

Still haven't figured out why;

- sound coming out of left rear speaker when moving HU wiring harness around, with ignition off and no radio connected - maybe messed up adaptor, as all the splices are clean, connected, covered with heat shrink and tape

- popping sound coming from speakers when connecting new HU to wiring harness. maybe coming from monsoon amp?

- with monsoon HU back in car, see if there is still something causing battery to drain.

 

After much reading and research, I'm focusing on the following. First off, I had to get a new battery, as the old one (4-years) would no longer take a charge.

I've left the stock monoon amp installed and wired, wanting to continue to use it with the new HU. I didn't think the amp has been involved with issue at all, until now. (I've also seen one other member here that had a similar problem in 2007 and have sent an email to find out how that was resolved). This is a convertible, and there is a grey wire in the harness that has no corresponding wire for the new HU associated with recognizing that an amp is in the circuit. Apparently, that is irrelevant. What is relevant is the fact that the amp is powered on by the presence of a signal in the speaker wires. IN addition, I noticed that the left rear speaker (the one I've been getting noise from when moving the wiring harness around) pin in the adapter was loose. I took the adapter apart, reset the pin, and it's now firmly installed in the adapter.

My thinking is that the loose wire in the adapter was somehow contacting the power lead (On the same side as the power wire in the adapter) when moving things around, turning on the amp and accounting for the sound coming from the speakers despite the fact that there was no HU installed. That also accounts for the popping noise coming out of the speakers when connecting the new HU to the wiring harness while the battery is connected.

It seems that the loose wire in the adapter was keeping a signal going to the amp, keeping the amp turned on and thus draining the battery (an old battery and cold weather made this even worse, killing the battery) - Anybody have any thoughts on this assumption?

Is there a separate fuse for the stock monsoon amp? If so, I might be able to determine if that's still a problem. I'm hoping that by redoing the adapter splices as a precaution, doing all the installation work with the battery NOT connected, that this will be resolved, pending what I hear from the other board member.

 

Well, it looks like this is the end of the story. Reinstalled yesterday with the battery disconnected. Reconnected battery, let sit overnight, and all is well this morning, car started right up.

Moral to the story is:

1 - when instructions say to disconnect battery, do it. I didn't, and that is likely one of the problems I experienced
2 - check the wire connections on adapters. One was loose due to my playing around with it a little, and this is also the likely cause of the problem too, as it appears that the loose connection was somehow touching the battery power line, causing the sounds I was hearing from the speaker, and leading to draining an old weak battery, causing its demise.

Regards to all who read through this thread.

 

Problem solved! Turns out that I messed up the adapter when I couldn't get the radio to power up. Put a new adapter in, double taped each of the wire splices, and all is well.

 

**** happens,
for me i check each and every thing while installing and i check them real good and STILL somtimes i make mistakes.

Glad u fixed it.

 

Im glad you found your problem, but it shouldn't matter how much you pull or twist around the wires. if your connections are done properly, then you should be able to pull on both sides of the wire without losing connection.

I always use GOOD crimpers, not autozone crimpers. There is a big difference in the way they crimp the connectors. Then heatshrink over them at least an inch on either side of the connection. On top of that I use large heatshrink to bundle all of the wires together.

Here are good crimpers that I am talking about. Actually the ones that are sitting in my toolbox.

 

In my last post I identified that all was well. Well, it wasn't The battery died again. Contacted the vendor, and got another HU of the same make and model. Installed that, and battery was dead the next morning, down to 8.5 volts. After installing an older HU I had in my basement using the same adapter, the battery, after several days, was fine. All the testing I did to find the circuit causing the draw down resulted in nothing found. There may be a problem with this make and model HU in the camaro, but there isn't anything obvious. The vendor is taking back this second unit, and I'm switching to a Kenwood. Hopefully this is the end of the story.

 

Story finally comes to an end. The Kenwood HU is working fine, and the battery is not discharging like it was with the previous HU. With two different HU of the same make and model, the battery died overnight, so there must be something happening with that make and model to cause that, which I could not detect with the usual drawdown testing (I used the same adapter with the Clarion, Aiwa and Kenwood, and only the two Clarions killed the battery. The Kenwood HU, for the extra $30 over the Clarion, provides much better sound too.