Hey guys,

I'm new to the forum and have done some searching around for the problem I'm having and havent really figured a whole lot out.

First off, the car is a 1996 Honda Accord Ex with the 2.2L vtec motor. Car has 245,000 miles on it.

It came with an aftermarket radio and this past weekend I decided to swap it out with a newer on I had lying around because it has an ipod hookup. I've done 3 or 4 radio swaps in various cars, all without incident.

Anyway, I got everything uninstalled and rewired so I fired my car up to see if the new radio would work. It didn't. Did some research and some testing of my wires and I find out that I'm getting 12v from the continuous wire but nothing from the keyed hot wire. Check fuses. In-car fuses are fine but I blew the 15A fuse under the hood. No big deal, I replaced it, and it blew again. At this point I figured I've got a short somewhere in the hot wire between the fuse box and the radio.

Last night I decided to run a new hot wire from the fuse block. Pulled the fuse block, cut the hot wire about 2 inches down off of the fuse. Ran my new wire with better, thicker insulation. Got everything hooked up, replaced the blown fuse and fired it up. What did it do? Blew the fuse again. So at this point I know theres no short in my wiring to the radio, as its new. Also, my power windows and sun roof are no longer working. I've checked all the fuses and everything seems in order.

Basically, my question has two parts.
Do the power windows and radio wiring all come off of the same harness from the fuse block? And if so, given the mileage on my car, is it possible that this harness may just be going out which is giving me all the trouble? I'm either going to run a hot fuses wire straight from the battery for the radio, or get a new harness. I'm leaning towards a new harness as my power windows and sun roof are no longer working.

What are everyones thoughts? Sorry for the long post, I'm just trying to be as descriptive as possible so I can give you guys all the info you need to help.

Thanks, Zac

 

Thanks for the in-depth info Zac.

you'll want to start by disconnecting the radio and seeing if you still blow the fuse, or if the radio wiring is backwards or has an internal issue.

Use a DMM to look for shorts and measure resistance at the fuse box. simply unplug the fuse and measure resistance on the load side of the fuse - reference to ground. this resistance will identify the presence of a short.

fuse boxes and harnesses can fail over time, though it is less common.

when you jacked with the fuse box you could have easily loosened the wiring for the windows and sunroof.

i'll use relays to get a switched ignition - switch the battery constant (i run new constants)

 

Thanks Hope!
I'm going to try to shake things out this weekend. For the time being I ran a wire off the battery but i'm thinking that was more of a temporary fix. I left everything in my wiring exactly the same with the exception of the switched power source now coming off the battery rather than the fuse box harness. The radio works, running straight off the battery with an in-line fuse so something has to be wrong on the load side of the fuse, or within the harness, as you said.

I also pulled the harness again to see if anything looked amiss to figure my power window problem, but didn't come across anything, but I plan on giving it a closer look when I get some time this weekend. It would be my luck that in messing with the harness I managed to loosen one single wire out of many, and it just so happens to be to my power my windows!

I will probably end up using relays to get my switched ignition back, like you said. Right now it just has 2 constants so i've gotta turn it off and pull the face on the radio to keep it from draining my battery.

Zac

 

you can visit an autoparts store and pick up some of these CooperBussman
15600 Series ATC Fuse Panel

A single, common power input makes it simple to wire for multiple circuits - each rated to 30 amps, up to 32 volts. Available in 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20 fuse position models with short or long base. Molded of high grade thermoplastic, for superior performance. Quick-connect terminals for easy installation. Recessed fuse contacts provide finger-safe protection. Fuses and circuit breakers sold separately.

 

essentially, the stud on the bottom is the power feed for the unit. then you have six fused outputs (or whatever qty the holder came with).

I recommend getting two of these - one for battery constant and one for switched ignition. you'll run a new 8-10AWG wire to the battery (fused at the battery for wire size) for the first one. One of the constant outputs will feed the switched fuse block using a 30/40A relay. This way you have a neat and tidy fused power source using standard ATC fuse sizes.

When it comes to vehicle wiring, you want to be careful not to damage the factory system. When adding stereos and other electrical accessories, i prefer new fused runs. The factory fuse box was sized for the car as it came from the factory.