It has been a while since I did my Pioneer install, but you need the grounds connected, red and yellow are most likely your key switched power and your constant clock power. Ground completes the circuit. Red to red, yellow to yellow, and black to black. Ignore the parking brake for this portion. Your radio will come on and prove it works. Then you can do the parking brake and the rest of it.

I bypassed the parking brake as, in my radio, you only need to have the brake set for a few menu functions, like setting the wallpaper for some reason. I ran the parking brake wire to a cabinet light switch and then to a ground. My pioneer just wants a momentary "pull" of the parking brake, breaking the circuit, and then it is happy to let me do the few things I need. I just ran the cable through the glovebox so the switch is in there.

 

Thanks for your reply. Maybe just testing the connections by twisting the wires together isn't working. I was out of butt connectors, so they are ordered and should arrive today.

I will try red to red, yellow to yellow, and black to black to see if it comes on. Fuse was good, so not sure what else it could be.

Fingers crossed. Thanks for your help; at least I know I didn't miss anything else.

 

Yes, you need grounds to complete an electrical circuit, it is not optional... you should see the radio turn on with just yellow (constant 12v), red (accessory 12v), and black (ground). Pioneers don't like bypassing the parking brake feature. If grounding the parking brake wire doesn't work, I recommend an Axxess AX-TRIG1, otherwise the radio will not let you access certain menus and features.

Also, install your mic, unless you just never plan to make or receive phone calls.

Also also, at least hang the USB in the glove box, most wireless carplay units need USB connection to begin with. Save yourself some headache in the future.

 

Thank you; I wasn't going to use the mic, but maybe I will. I was trying not to take everything apart again to thread the wire somewhere. (Right now, I only have the radio out.)

I will look at the Axxess AX-TRIG1 - thanks for that tip. And I already threaded the USB thru the Aux port. I am going to try and Dremmel that to fit the USB.

I hope the butt connectors work. I was out of them and so I twisted the wires together last night. Maybe that's why it wouldn't power on. Home from work now. Going down the rabbit hole again...fingers crossed.

 

The easiest thing to do with the microphone is to sticky it just above the steering column, you don't need to take anything else apart. You can drop the wire underneath the dash and then reach from the radio cavity down to the lower dash area. No disassembly required, just a flashlight and maybe a grabby flex claw tool thing.

 

I ran the microphone out of the gap around the steering column and stuck it to the tiny little cubby hole to the right of the steering wheel. Not much room to put anything in there anyways.

 

Anyone else got a suggestion?

I just soldered red to red, yellow to yellow, and black to black (Pioneer power harness wire to Metra harness wire).

NO POWER.

Car fuse and radio fuse intact. No clue. Shouldn't be this hard...but here I am - Day 3.

 

Lets take a step back. Those 3 wires will turn on the radio with the key in the "ON (I)" accessory position. What is the voltage on the red and yellow wires? Is the fuse IN THE RADIO okay? Grab a multimeter, check voltage on the yellow and red wire, check ground continuity on the black wire. If you have a good ground and 12v on the yellow and red wires, you have a bad radio, which isn't unheard of in the cheaper pioneer product lineup.

 

Time to break out the multimeter or at least a test light.

Are you getting 12 volts from the pin for the red wire?
Are you getting 12 volts from the pin for the yellow wire when the ignition is in the ACC position?

 

Measured from the radio power pin. Red is right at 11.96; yellow is lucky to hit 4 with car off.

Puzzled as to why there wouldn't be constant power there. Fuse IN RADIO is good. Radio fuse in car is good.

Am I going to have to start checking other fuses (i.e., battery, ignition, etc.)? This is like going down a rabbit hole.

Factory radio worked, so not sure why now this new one won't...

 

Yellow is battery power. Red is switched and obvious black is ground. Blue has to go to blue or you get no sound. Blue turns on the amp

 

Yellow is battery power. Red is switched and obvious black is ground. Blue has to go to blue or you get no sound. Blue turns on the amp

Yellow is battery power. Red is switched and obvious black is ground. Blue has to go to blue or you get no sound. Blue turns on the amp

Didn't connect blue to blue. Just did the main three. Did not do orange for lights either...

 

I think I need to check both fuses with the multimeter. 🤦‍♀️

I just looked at them. Need to make sure both radio fuses are good that way...and then go from there...

 

Yellow is battery, its the memory wire so it should be 12v at all times. You do have the rca's connected right? You need blue on ant adapter to blue/white on radio and blue/white in metra harness all together

 

Yes, the RCAs are all connected for the speakers. Didn't use the rear monitor and rear view ones.

I've read a lot (and watched a lot) - no one has mentioned connecting those three blue wires together. I can def. pull the radio tomorrow after work and solder/connect them together.

Something is def. off. When the car is off, the power door locks don't work. When the car is on, they work...

 

BOTH fuses read 1.4. They "look" good, but...

I'm going to double check them again tomorrow along with some other fuses under the hood to see if that is running normal. MM was set on cont., so - I think I had everything right.

Question - if both fuses ARE bad, would the original stock radio still worked? That's what is getting me.

 

The stock radio worked? Look at grounds, then. Ground your radio to the bar behind the dash. The factory radio can also ground through the radio chassis even if the ground wire is bad.

 

I may be getting hung up the use of a past participle here, but it says the stock radio worked.

Do you still have it? What happens if you plug the stock radio back in? Does it still work?

 

I do still have it, and that was my next step, but then (see reply above) we discovered the Backup fuse was blown.

Now need to figure out why the radio is blowing the dash lights fuse.

 

It's the orange hooked up and if so what is it hooked to.

 

Most people hook the orange to the red. Dash light circuit are sometimes wired funny

 

The orange wire (sometimes orange/white) is connected to the dash illumination circuit. If that wire is bare and touching a ground, or connected to the wrong wire like an amp turn on (blue), it would blow the dash light fuse. I would disconnect it for now to ensure the radio is in fact what's causing the dash light fuse to pop and not something else.

I haven't connected the two orange wires to each other or anything yet. I guess if it's touching something, that might be it. I was going to go out at lunch and fix the fuse, but I guess I'll wait until I get home to solder the two orange wires together. If that is the issue, I don't want it blowing again. Thank you!

Most people hook the orange to the red. Dash light circuit are sometimes wired funny

To the RED? My red is connected to the other red...I am going to do orange to orange...and hope that stops the dash lights from dying...

 

I haven't connected the two orange wires to each other or anything yet. I guess if it's touching something, that might be it. I was going to go out at lunch and fix the fuse, but I guess I'll wait until I get home to solder the two orange wires together. If that is the issue, I don't want it blowing again. Thank you!


To the RED? My red is connected to the other red...I am going to do orange to orange...and hope that stops the dash lights from dying...

You can always hook orange(light) wire to reds. All it does is turn lights on when switch is on. Orange to orange should work but don't use the orange w/white stripe

 

One orange on radio and one in metra plus there's an orange/white that doesn't get used

Illumination and amp turn on wiring is not quite as universal as other colors. On JVC for example, orange/white is illumination and gets attached to orange on a metra harness. Amp turn on and power antenna are blue, and get connected to the blue/white "p conn." wire on a JVC. I quote JVC because I've installed so many I have this memorized, check your radio's manual.

You can always hook orange(light) wire to reds. All it does is turn lights on when switch is on. Orange to orange should work but don't use the orange w/white stripe

Not true, and I don't know why you'd want to do this. On the radio side, if you connect orange (illumination) to the car's red (accessory), you would just dim your radio all the time?? Modern radios are backlit, and touch screen radios like OP's will just dim the screen. And if you connected all the oranges and reds together, I imagine turning your headlights on would power the radio up, and/or blow a fuse. Definitely do not do this.

OP, read your manual for the harness and the radio. You want to connect illumination (car) to illumination (radio), this will dim the screen slightly on most modern aftermarket radios when the headlights are switched on. You don't want to connect the dimmer wire, which changes the intensity of illumination on the factory radio. I don't think the metra harness even has this as an option. The orange/stripe may or may not match, color wise, but their functions should and that's what matters.

Source: Professional car audio installer for 6 years.

 

Not true, and I don't know why you'd want to do this. On the radio side, if you connect orange (illumination) to the car's red (accessory), you would just dim your radio all the time?? Modern radios are backlit, and touch screen radios like OP's will just dim the screen. And if you connected all the oranges and reds together, I imagine turning your headlights on would power the radio up, and/or blow a fuse. Definitely do not do this.

This, dimmer orange to orange only. You can leave it off and it'll never dim (I had one Kenwood radio that had a manual dim button with no actual wire for auto), but having it connected to hot all the time on a "smart" radio will dim the screen and set everything to "night" mode if you use Android Auto or Carplay.