VRGNCD5

Man, today sucked. I attempted to install my Soundstream amp and Clarion EQ, the amp install went fine, the damn eq has me pulling my freaking hair out. There are 3 wires that come off the eq, power,ground and remote. I wired these through the deck, turned the ignition on, deck would come on but amps wouldn't turn on, no music and the eq wouldn't turn on. I jumped the power/remote leads to one another on the amp and it came alive. Disconnected the remote for the eq, everything came on, except for the eq of course. So then I tried putting the remote lead onto the accessory lead from the deck and the eq stayed on even when the key was off. WTF?? I could not get the damn eq to shut off w/ignition, f*ck it. Got everything powered up, even the damn eq(with remote lead wired to constant power lead) hooked up the front rca's off the deck to the "radio input" on the eq, hooked up the rca's from the bass amp to the "sub output" on the eq and the rca's from the rear speakers amp to the "rear output" on the eq, nothing. OK, now im getting pissed. Decided to just live with my system w/o the eq until I can calm the f*ck down and figure it out, put everything back together, damn stereo won't fire up now. Took it all apart again, check the harness on the deck, getting 14.6volts w/car running(pretty damn good huh?) Everything is wired just as it was before but it won't turn on, fuse on the accessory lead is intact, fuse for the radio in the drivers side fuse box is intact, is there a fuse under the hood I should check? I had to wrap it up or else I was gonna start smashing sh*t, just let it ride until tomorrow when hopefully I can figure this crap out. Anyone have any ideas why my damn stereo won't fire up now?

Bass Mechanic

if your saying that everything works when they are connected directly to the acessory wire then why dont you connect a relay up from the HU remote, and then connect the power for the relay to the accessory power and use the relay to turn the amps and eq on.
it kind of sounds like the EQ draws too much power from the remote turn on from the HU for some wierd reason. as a result the voltage is too low on the remote lead to turn the amps on. it sounds liek you have a volt meter., why not try to take a voltage rewading on the remote wire with all the items connected to it. try hooking the eq remote up last and i bet the voltage of the turn on wire drops significantly.
if this is the case use a relay to turn these devices on.

seth90dx

Hehe... You dont have it so bad homie At least you dont have to deal with the mess of wire under my center console Here is how I did it and it works great. My HU has a remote conection wire Im sure yours does too. I hooked up both my amps and the EQ to the remote wire on the HU. Then I ran a seperate wire from the batterie to under my console, put a fuse on it and hooked up the HU and EQ to that. Then all you have to do is ground them... Im SURE thats the way you hooked it up. I have 2 amps so its not a LACK of current in the remote lead... REDO and check the wires! Make sure you solder everything... Also make sure you got the ignition wire hooked up to ONLY the HU because this wont work with the EQ, I tried... It works like an amp, it says on the instructions that you can hook it up to any remote turn on switch...... <------- Bullsh*t, I tried with 2 different switches and it didnt work with iether.

VRGNCD5

Yeah man, I hooked up the power,ground and remote wires off the eq to the corresponding wires on the HU, eq and amps didn't turn on. I disconnected the remote lead off the eq and the amps turned on. I then connected the remote lead to the "accessory" lead off the deck (20a fused line wired to ignition) and it came on, but wouldn't turn off. WTF??? Then, to set it off, once I got everything back together, the damn deck wouldn't turn on. Pulled it all apart again, check to wiring, all looks fine. checked the fuse under the dash, fine, checked the accessory fuse off the deck, fine, is there a fuse under the hood that could cause this not to work if it's blown? I hope the deck didn't blow(no sparks or burnt pc board smell during this process). I had to end it for the day, car torn apart, I was gonna start smashing sh*t. Any ideas?

VRGNCD5

I did this too: After seeing the amps wouldn't turn on w/the remote lead of the eq connected to the remote lead off the deck, I removed the remote lead off the eq and fired up the amps, while they were on and music was playing, I touched the remote lead from the eq to the main remote connection(off the head unit) and the amps shut off.

Bass Mechanic

you need a relay to turn the EQ and amps on. the HU does not provide enough current for the components your using.

VRGNCD5

I wonder if it would work if I connectd the eq to the remote lead off the deck only? Im not sure about a relay, ive never used one and personally, don't see the need, a relay does't send more power than is sent to it correct? If that's the case then I don't think it'll solve my problem. Im gonna see if the eq will turn on when it's the only thing connected to the remote lead off the deck then go from there. I hope my deck comes on today And speaking of my deck, people are saying check the fuses, if a fuse was blown, I wouldn't be getting any power to the deck right? Well, im getting 14.6volts when the car is on.

VRGNCD5

it was a fuseh: but not the fuse on the accessory lead, not the main radio fuse under the dash, the damn backup battery fuse(for the radio) under the hood. I was a millisecond away from ripping all the wires out of my dash and smashing my Alpine head unit and ****ting on the damn EQ Glad I didn't:thumbup:

BassMechanic was a big help in helping me diagonse it, I learned more in the 1/2 hour conversation with him than I can ever remember learning about car audio. Thanks for the help bro

VRGNCD5

**Update**

Got my front speakers finally and installed them, no probs there. While I was at it, I gave the eq another shot, this time using the relay method. Didn't work I have realized now that it's the remote lead that is my problem, for some reason it won't power up my eq. but if i were to jump the power to the remote lead on the eq, it powers up. not quite sure why this is considering the same remote lead powers up 2 amps for me everyday. :dunno: Anyways, seems like a cool, blue led switch is my only option.

Bass Mechanic

i got your IM but what you have here sounds like the relay is not wired correctly yet. or possibly the eq has somthing wrong with it.
the remote wire from the HU should ONLY power the coil on the relay. the power that goes through the switch part of the relay is essentially a switch just like the one you are describing installing. the relay itself provides the function of a switch just the same as when you connect the remote wire of the eq directly to the power connection. in fact you should be hooking that switch part of the relay between the power source and the remote of the eq.