1998 Honda Accord Alternater problem

heres the deal: my friend has a 1998 honda accord, i put a pioneer head unit in about 4 months ago, and recently there battery has just been dying. they took it to the dealership and the dealership found the radio to be the culprit. according to the dealership, just taking the face off the pioneer head unit prevents battery drainage. i took a look at it. and if the cars in the 'start' position, and you snap the face plate on, automaticly the dome light comes on and the "open door" dummy light pops on. however if the car is just in the 'start' position and u turn on the radio, its perfectly fine. if you turn on the car and its in park the radio is fine. but if you put it in drive, it sounds like an alternator whine. and no matter what if the face plate is on the head unit, the dome light and door open light stay on. I really would apreciate it if anyone could give me some insight! thanks!
-kole
xzkolezx@aol.com

I'm sorry-- this is entirely unhelpful, but I just couldn't resist.

The problem started when you installed in your friend's car. (As any installer knows, the easiest install in the simplest car becomes an evil gremlin when it's in your friend's car.)

Me

cmon pleaseee someone!!

maybe...did you hook up the illum and dimmer wires? i think they are pink and orange. something like that, check your manual. if they are connected, disconnect them and tape them off good so they don't short. see if this helps.....

anyone else???

Did you use a harness adaptor or did you splice into the OEM wires ? If you spliced into them, please give us a wire to wire color matching so we can help you pin point the wiring error.

-------------
Jeff
Velocity Custom Home Theater
Mobile Audio/Video Specialist
Morden, Manitoba CANADA

I used a harness, and sodered the connections and covered them with heat shrink tubing....Why would the open door sign come on...i didnt hook up the pioneer  system, so what other wires tap into the door sensor? And they took it by the dealership and they dont think its the alternator

What model Pioneer is it.  It may be the one with the alarm on it.  Some of the pioneers used to have an alarm that sounded when the doors were opened.  This maybe one of those units and the alarm part of the unit is fried keeping the circuit open.

Some newer cars have things like a/c, heater blowers, dome lights, airbags and alarms routed through the stereos you may need to completely review what was going through that OE stereo. In newer GMs you sometimes need to keep the OE stereo in the car and run some wires through it in order to not have your airbags go off right after the install. You may have some problem like that.