Odd power problem with Kenwood headunit

Hi All,

I bought an '90 Acura Integra with a Kenwood KDC-216S headunit in it. I swapped it out for my Pioneer. Now I am trying to install the Kenwood in my other car ('90 Pontiac Sunbird (in which I had the Pioneer)). But.. the headunit gets no juice. When I hook up the constant/switched wires properly, I can hear the unit making mechanical noises (like loading a CD) but no display appears and then the noise stops and nothing (it's dead).

When I hooked the contant and switched from the headunit up to the constant from the car (2 wires to 1), the unit powered up like normal, but whenever I turn off the car, the memory resets, so this is not feasible. I tried all different combinations of connections (switched to contstant, constant to switched, constant to constant, etc) and it just does NOT want to work properly...

My friend also has the same problem with his Sunfire and Panasonic headunit. Is this a common problem, and if it is, what can I do? (Please note that the Pioneer was working perfectly in the Sunbird and the Kenwood was working perfectly in the Integra...)

Thank you for ANY help!

Hi there

This may or may not help but I had the same problem with A Kenwood head unit where it did the same as yours does switching on and then off.

I found that if I soldered a new earth lead on to the wiring loom and then with a ring tag  bolted it to the chasis on the car it worked maybe because the previous wiring loom had a very poor earth I'm not sure but it worked for me

I'll keep on trying to find out for you anyways.

If you sort it out in the meantime just let me know .

Take care

Placebo-Pete

Thank you for your information!

Sadly, it didn't seem to help. I guess the ground is okay... Do you have any other ideas?

Hi there

afraid not at the moment, other than all the other usual stuff to check such as broken connections poor pin contacts on the power lead and on the head unit itself  etc.etc

Don't worry we will eventually crack this thing

Placebo-Pete

Ok thanks guys.

I will check the fuses (I am actually a little hopeful!) tomorrow and let you know.