New Head Unit Won't Power On..

[KevinMcQ4367]

So I took my radio out and got an adapter for the ribbon harness and hooked up all the wires to me new radio wires. when you turn the key the radio wont power on. but if I go and hook the radio up to a battery with alligator clips it turns on. so I don't know whats wrong. any thoughts of how to get it to work?

[2002BonnevilleSE]

I had to run a power wire from the headunit to the fuse box under the back seat. Make sure you hook it to one that only works when the car is on.
the 00+ cars can be a pain to do.

[KevinMcQ4367]

the 12v constant? and is there anyway you could tell me which one you hooked it to and how?

[KevinMcQ4367]

I got it. we plugged the switch wire to the fuse in the back called SRI which is for the air bags, but we bought an adapter to plug into another circuit into the same fuse slot. and hooked the 12v constant to the positive terminal on the fuse box.

[KevinMcQ4367]

I got it. we plugged the switch wire to the fuse in the back called SRI which is for the air bags, but we bought an adapter to plug into another circuit into the same fuse slot. and hooked the 12v constant to the positive terminal on the fuse box.

[sjg88]

I had the same problem when splicing the adapter to the new head unit's wiring. The red switched positive line from the adapter had NO power. However, Both yellow constant positive wires had power along with all the black wires being chassis ground as labeled.

In the 2000+ Bonneville, the cigarette lighter positive is switched and stays on 10 minutes after the key is removed, so I spliced the cigarette lighter positive to the switched positive line on the radio. This was easy since the cigarette lighter is right below the radio.
The only possible bad thing is that the radio will stay for 10 minutes after the key is removed if you don't turn it off.

I might eventually splice into a better switched positive since the fuse box is under the back seat for a but for now it's jut not that big a deal.