880 electical help

[ABXX49 20]

Okay, let me start off by saying I've installed a countless number of CD players in cars. This is the first one I've had trouble with, and also my first Pioneer.

I bought an 880 off of ebay a while back for about $200. I initially installed it in Octoberish. It would work fine when I normally had the car running, but when I switched my lights on it would cut in and out every second. I attributed this to a couple of wires being switched. (The first wiring diagram I had was wrong.) Well I eventually got this fixed by switching the two wrong wires. My CD player would now work with lights on and off. However, when I would switch from on to off my CD player would cut out for a second and restart itself. It would then play fine. (The other problem is that my CD player seems to have no track memory. It remembers my fade and volume settings though.)

New problem tonight. I took my father back to the nursing home tonight in the 'Bird. I took him inside and got him situated and took off when he fell asleep. About an 1-1.5 hours. (Worked fine on the ride over.) I went back out to my car and turn my key but my car made no effort to start, not even a click. So I returned the key to the off position and cranked again and it fired up as normal. I turned the CD player on and it worked for like one second and then turned off. At this time I had my lights on. It would then restart, beep 3-4 times, and then open the faceplate up. It wouldn't eject the disk, rather it would just sit there, open. Within 10 seconds or so it would close itself, try to turn on, beep, and open up again. It did this nearly the whole way home, but eventually quit. And by quit I mean quit. It just sat black.

I get home and restart my car. My CD player would work if I had my lights off, but if I turned them on it would do the beep and open thing again. I figured I might have a voltage issue? Well I ran downstairs and got my DMM. At the battery it measured 13.62 volts with the lights both on and off.

[ABXX49 20]

Any ideas?

[Quentin Jarrell 671]

I recall correctly the thunderbird has the same ignition as the Mustang. The headunit may have been opening and closing because it was gaining and loosing power. The Mustang I just finished had the same exact problem, the customer said it is a normal happening with those cars. He said a new ignition with keys was like 35 bucks. This could be your problem?

[ABXX49 20]

How would I test for a bad ignition?

[Quentin Jarrell 671]

On his mustang if you wiggled the key forward and back with the car running, (just a bit not enough to kill it) his accesories in the car wouldn't work. Meter the acc and constant wires at your HU while wiggle your key and see if you loose voltage.

[ABXX49 20]

Alright, I'll give that a try tomorrow.

[Quentin Jarrell 671]

I have been looking for some pics of a buddy of mine's super coupe. He had a retarted install in it. I never saw it finished but it had like six thousand hours of labor in it. He built the "packed rat" for Prestige Customs in New Orleans. Everytime I see your avatar I think of his car. If you ever watch Unique whips he was the guy from New Orleans that worked there for a few days till he told Will Casrto he did chitty work. LOL

[ABXX49 20]

By wiggle, do you mean like turn it on and off, but not all the way? Just wiggle it that way?

[Quentin Jarrell 671]

By wiggle, do you mean like turn it on and off, but not all the way? Just wiggle it that way?

yea on the mustang while the car was running if you turned the key untill it was almost to the off position the accessories would turn on in the car but if you just cranked it and let go nothing would turn on.

[ABXX49 20]

I hope to God this is what is wrong. I'm reading about bad ignition modules and it might be the answer to my other problem! When my car gets hot it wants to stall out sometimes. When I'm at low RPM my car wants to stall out. I'm reading that these might be a sign of a bad ignition module. I've been trying to figure this out for months, so maybe my problems will be fixed!

*Note: This probably isn't the case, as my life never seems to by straight forward or easy. One can always hope for a change of pace though.

[ABXX49 20]

Also, at idle with my windows all the way up, if I hit the up button on the window and hold it, my car nearly stalls out. Could this be related to above said problem?

[Quentin Jarrell 671]

Also, at idle with my windows all the way up, if I hit the up button on the window and hold it, my car nearly stalls out. Could this be related to above said problem?

The mustang had the same exact problem, but it only did it sometimes not all the time and sometimes the windows wouldn't even work at all.

[- Nickelz N Dimez - 0]

This happened to me last year when I had my Jetta.

I just had to buy a new igniton switch or something like that for 50$

Im not sure about your windows but..

Solved everything..

[ABXX49 20]

Also, at idle with my windows all the way up, if I hit the up button on the window and hold it, my car nearly stalls out. Could this be related to above said problem?

The mustang had the same exact problem, but it only did it sometimes not all the time and sometimes the windows wouldn't even work at all.

Same thing here. Not all the time, only sometimes.

[///M5 2,833]

Easy to test. Just run constant power to the headunit, when that fixes your problem (it will IMO) then you know it is your ignition.

[ABXX49 20]

After reading on the SCCOA (Super Coupe Club of America) forums I think I've chased the problem to a bad DIS Module. I'm going to go ahead and buy one off a guy there, as a new one is nearly $300.