I recently replaced my factory head unit for a nice Kenwood so I could play my Zune while cruising. In the process I lost the old feature of being able to turn the head unit on with the key off. Did I miss something in the installation process or is that feature only available on the factory unit? I did try to search to find somebody that had asked about this before, but I just didn't find the right search term.

Do any of the audio gurus have a suggestion? Any help would be greatly appreciated. My girlfriend enjoys sitting in the car with the heater going and listening to the stereo without the engine running while I run through the mall on errands! I guess that's the price I have to pay for having something as unique as the Crossfire.

Thanks

 

My Alpine does the same thing so I'd love to hear any suggestions.

 

You must swap the Orange and the Red wire I THINK.....or its the Yellow and the Red.... Whatever the power & acc. wires are, swap and you should be all set.

 

You all know you can purchase a wire harness and not have to worry about doin all that. I purchased mine its sitting at the house waiting for me to install once i get back in the states.

 

I hate to tell you,mjr6, but I did buy a full harness. So I'll pull the unit back out and switch several wires until it works, then I'll let you know which ones to switch in the new harness when you put yours in. I followed the instructions that came with it, silly me, letting some poor little child in China tell me how to wire up a German vehicle!!

Thanks for the tip labsrt.

 

Copied from the how to:

Splice and Attach the Harness:

1. When splicing the Scosche harness to the aftermarket harness that comes with your new headunit remember that you can do this inside.
2. Match the colors of each wire and crimp them together with the crimp caps. Do this for all the wires EXCEPT the Red, Yellow, and Blue wires. The constant and switched power wires are flipped, so you will need to connect the Red wire of the Scosche harness to the Yellow wire of the aftermarket one and the Yellow wire of the Scosche harness to the Red wire of the aftermarket harness. The Blue antenna wire on the Scosche unit is actually the remote wire. Attach the Blue-White wire from the aftermarket harness to the Blue wire on the Scosche harness. (See Picture) It is usually recommended that you use the RCA Pre-Outs in the back of your aftermarket unit so that you do not blow out your speakers. However, I have yet to have any problems. I haven't seen any posts with problems from this either.
3. Now is a good time to run the wires for a Line-In connection to an iPod or any other device (See below)

 

Good looking out on the info for the harness. Looks like I'll have more work cut out for me than expected. Job went from a 20 min job to about a 35 min jogb. Its all good though.

 

Thanks Import Lab I'm sure when mine was installed they missed that. When I get a minute I'll pull it and make the correction.

Kenyon - I too bought a new harness with my Alpine.

Thanks guys!

 

I know you were just kidding (Right?)

Use a lead tester to identify which of the red and yellow wire is "on" when the key is on and connect that to the wire that the stereo instructions says connects to that wire on the harness/connector on the stereo. Same for the Yellow ("Always on").

Before you even do that, look in the head unit manual to see if the unit even supports the feature of being turned on when the car is off. Not all do, or have some arcane switch sequence you will need to learn.

And China is on it's way to ruling the world so better get used to them tell you what to do...