stereo mystery...

[jon.f4]

Right, just fitted out my scirocco with 4x6 alpine speakers and got a new CD player.

Worked fine for a couple of days, now the stereo will only turn on when the ignition is off. Anyone know why?

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

[Nate]

Check that plugs still secure in the back of it, and yellow & red wire connectors still secure.

Assuming that's ok, its either that something is causing a huge voltage drop when ign on, of the unit has developed an internal fault.

[chrisme85]

not 100% but my mk1, the earth from the loom has like its own earth along the loom a black wire with a ring connector.. try that on a different bolt/screw behind dash... hopefully something simple like that..

[Jack92]

not 100% but my mk1, the earth from the loom has like its own earth along the loom a black wire with a ring connector.. try that on a different bolt/screw behind dash... hopefully something simple like that..

agree, could be a dodgy earth, you could just jump straight from the battery earth and eliminate the whole of the earth wiring.

if still no joy id personally multimeter the live to the radio with the igg off and then turn it on and see what happens. Weather the voltage drops or if the power turns off ect

hope this helps

[jimmy h]

Right, just fitted out my scirocco with 4x6 alpine speakers and got a new CD player.

Worked fine for a couple of days, now the stereo will only turn on when the ignition is off. Anyone know why?

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

Did you get this sorted?

I just fitted a brand new Alpine head in my Corrado at the weekend, worked fine to start off with now playing silly beggars.
Similar symptoms to yours, ie works fine untill you turn the ignition to crank the engine over. Then nothing, turn ignition off leave it for a while, stereo will turn back on, crank engine, no stereo...

At first I thought it was a dodgy connection or something? checked all them -fine! It seems when the ignition is turned it's having a funny effect

[Nate]

Could it be that power to the stereo is dropping out under cranking, and the unit is getting confused as it is still turning off when you finish starting and it turns back on

[jimmy h]

I'd expect current levels to get back to normal once the cranking phase was over and the engine running. The stereo does not work with the engine running.

[jimmy h]

After a bit of mucking about (again) with the multi-plug connections, I actually got the Stereo working with the engine running.

The Retailer who sold me the stereo had told me that you quite often get problems with VW ignition switches, I gave the plastic cowl where the ingnition barrel is situated a hefty wack and the stereo went off!.

With the stereo working and the engine running, if I gently wiggle the ignition key around in its slot you can clearly see that there is a bad connection, affecting the stereo - its only tiny but enough for the Stereo to lose its power..

Anyone know if this is a dealer part, or you can find a similar elsewhere that will do the same job, I seem to remember doing this job on a MK2 Scirocco but it was a very long time ago...

[DannyH]

pain in the bumper.

the switches are fairly commonly available i got one from ebay, it's a common switch on loads of VW's