My little brother has just got his first car a 93 MK3 1litre - I've put some small 3.5/4" speakers in the front speaker pods, all the speaker cable etc in one neat little ISO cable i brought for him.

The problem is, is when I plug the stereo in, it doesn't turn on, I've tested it in my mk1 golf and it works perfectly, so obviously there isn't any power getting to the original VW provided stereo wires. (I've checked the ISO and all wires match up perfectly, i've even been on www.the12volt.com site to double check against the wiring diagram.

There is no power going to the male power ISO cable (this came with the car and has VW labelling all over it and is original factory male power ISO cable that came with the car). - I've taken off the glove compartment to try to see what's wrong but can't follow the wire as I do not know how to get more access to the dash as all the wires are hidden.

I presume the fault is that of a fuse? - my question is how do I find which fuse is the problem, if not the fuse what the problem is so i can fix this.. ?

Any help is much appreciated

Thanks

WildChild

I have the exact same problem in my girlfriends Mk3. Cant find anything wrong with the fuses so i suspect a dodgy earth. I'll be rewiring i think.

this sounds daft but have you got the conectors in the right way round? on my old mk3 i had a kenwood head unit and it wouldnt turn on, the connections were the wrong way round. simple as that!

In theory you shouldnt be able to get ISO connectors the wrong way round - they have differently placed tabs.

I've checked all my fuses and power to the connector with a multi meter and there is nothing. At all. Not even with the ignition on. On my GT all is well, the stereo is fine but my GF's CL, thats another story. Sorry to hijack this thread but we seem to have a common fault!

Danny, no worries mate, might as well solve it at the same time :)

- If anyone has any suggestions it would be good, In the mean time I am taking his car down tomorrow afternoon for some mates too have alook at it at a MOT garage near me. - They'll find the fault and fix it, i'll let you know what it is if they can squeeze me in :)

if its the fuse then the cigarette lighter and interior light wont work either so if they dont then its definitly a fuse if they are still working then i hav no idea!

i have this exact problem

new headunit. old one works (but is shit) and the new one just wont turn on

anyone got any ideas?

try with the multimeter, putting the positive needle on the live cable and then negative on earth to see if it connecting properly, if all is well then f*ck the ISO and wire it yourself, a lot cheaper if u know what your doing

as above ^^if it aint a fuse,just run a new live.easiest and cheapest option

Edited 14 May, 200719 yr by afcjay

i had a problem with mine ..and in the end i discovered it was a faulty ignition sw

right ill get someone that knows about this to look at it tomorrow

the strange thing is the crappy tape player that was in there to begin with will work but the new one wont come on

anyone had this problem before?

I can't get my head unit to work either, there is power getting thru, cos a light flashes, but it just wont come on, i'm not really in the know about this sorta thing, but a guy from a car audio shop couldn't figure it out either, tried every ISO that should hav worked, but still only the flashing light

IT could be that the ISO connector isn wired properl itself. I'm fairly sure that with most head units there are 2 likes, the constant live that keeps all your settings saved and allows the clock to display, and the ignition live. On some head units, these need to be swapped round to work correctly. I think Sony units are one of the culprits for this, and possibly JVC i think

Right..........Most VWs have the power feeds around the wrong way. Or just have the one feed.

If you are putting in an aftermarket headunit that has a lead that plugs into the back of the headunit, there should be two wires you need to no about, a red and a yellow. These are the power feeds for the headunit. There needs to be power going to both these to get the headunit to come on.

If the headunit is coming on but loosing the radio stations or forgetting what track you were on in a cd, then these are the wrong way around. There should be on most units simply "bullet" connectors on these wires. just pull these apart and put them into the other colour.

If the radio isnt coming on then it is missing one of the feeds. If you have a multi-meter, test the power ISO for power. the pins that should have power are the one next to the earth and two pins above the earth.

You can always put both leads to the wire that has power when the igniton is off, this will alow the headunit to come on without the keys needing to be in the ignition. just make sure you turn it off otherwise you will drain your battery!

hope this helps.

EDIT; Forgot to add. sony and jvc and anyother unit all have the same power feed locations. no need to swap them just because it a diffrent make

Edited 6 July, 200719 yr by Steve-Squareback

Like he said^^^

The 86c(or eafrly ones at least) only has 1 permanent power feed. You need to connect both the ign and +ve to the single power cable. most stereo looms come with a double plug to make the bridging easier.

This post literally saved me from pulling my hair out. Wires both wires to the permanent live feed and hey presto. 

Thanks so much!