1998 Grand Prix Stereo Wiring Problems

hi there - i recently bought a grand prix and wanted to put my old head unit into it - i don't remember the specific model of the head unit, a sony x-plod something, but that's irrelevant anyway.

i've gotten a few wiring diagrams (including from here) that all generally match up to the head unit harness i have, but plenty have problems have surfaced.

for starters, none of the speakers make noise, despite the use of the diagrams.

i managed to get power into it, but upon having my car off for more than, say, 30 seconds, everything in the head unit resets.

when the head unit is on FM, it works fine - but when i popped a cd in so i could better test for speaker sound (antenna didn't reach my lap where i was futzing with wires), the head unit blinks on and off at 2-second intervals.

no doubt i sound like a novice, which is true enough. i'm not sure if any or all of this has been addressed before; i've searched as much as i could on the site but couldn't find anything like this. thanks for your help.

well to be specific, the car in question was bought from my brother, who's into all sorts of dumb crap like finding a reason to destroy all the cheap plastic clips that hold door panels on and such. he did the hack and slash. after my failure with the cd player i tried putting the factory head unit in, using the factory harness and just twisting the wires back together. that still didn't work - it showed power by way of faint red lighting, but no clock and no button-pushing yielded results.

i'm going to try for the amp next chance i get; i noticed an unused outlet of sorts under the driver's dash area, i suspect now that this is relates to the amp in question? now to learn how to bypass it.