lights on, music off

we're working on my friends 1999 chrysler cirrus and we are having trouble getting his aftermarket deck installed. unfortunatly, my friend has chopped off the plugs and wiring harnesses that were connected to the factory stereo, so now all we have to work with is a fat pile of colored wires. we aren't really concered with the speaker wires because we are using an external 4 channel amp to power everything. I thought i had everything hooked up and i thought it was working but for some reason, when we turn on the headlights or parking lights, the deck turns off. Also, the colors on the wires we are working with do not match up with the colors on the wiring diagram i found on this site. heres what i think is goin on with our chrysler...

BLACK/ green = ground
RED / white = 12volt switched
pink/brown = 12 volt constant

thats how its hooked up now... but the lights go off...

i'm also very curious why our colors don't match up with those i found on this site. can someone help?

Try taking your deck's ground off the BLACK/ green and hooking it to the vehicle's chassis. Make sure you are not hooked into any lamp wires in the radio harness. Tape up all the other wires to prevent shorts. Most Chryslers use a braided ground strap to provide the radio with ground. The BLACK/ green wire may not be a good ground or it could be for a factory amp.

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sparky

Hey.  I am about to go into my 2000 Chrysler Cirrus Lxi in a day or two.  I've got a new headunit that I have to put in.  If I get in really soon, then I'll tell you know what the wire colors are for mine.  I'd do it now, but it's in the shop.  Sorry.

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That's my opinion. Take it, leave it, or correct me.

You could also try disconnecting your nwe radio and use a 9 volt battery to pop each speaker lead. Place the positive speaker wire on the positive post of the battery and the negactive wire on the negative battery terminal. If you have the correct speaker wires then you will hear a pop noise out of that speaker. The cone should move outward if the polarity/phase is correct. This will only work if the factory system doesn't have a amp inline. You may have used a lamp wire for a speaker lead and are sending voltage into the radio's outputs when you turn on the lights. Most installers recommend using plug kits to take the confusion out of wiring in new radios.

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sparky

use a test light or DMM. find the wire that had constant voltage (connect to yellow) turn the headlight on and see what wire powers up (cap it off) then the acc will only power up with the key. 

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Well, I would use a DMM first off. Just so you know there is no ground wire behind that radio. Sounds to me like you've got something hooked up to the illumination wire. As for using the existing wire, I don't see a problem with it providing you actually test the wires before just hooking them up.

If you have made the same mistake I did once, You have your Ground connected to a wire that feeds 12 volts to the stereo when the lights are on, an illumination wire.
When your light are off this wire sits at zero volts, when the light come on the wire goes to 12 volts and the stereo will turn off.

Thanks for all your help guys. turns out it was the deck ground. damn those bastards at chrysler for not putting a ground wire on the f-ing wiring harness. I had the deck grounded to a BLACK/ green wire which was the illumination for the stock cd player (kudos to those of you that had figured that one out). I made myself a new ground on a nearby chunk of metal and we were good to go. also i'm not sure who to report this to, but the wiring info i got off this site for this car was way wrong. most of the wire colors it listed weren't on any of the wires under the dash. luckly with a dmm and the new knowledge that some chryslers don't have a ground wire in the harness, we were able to get everythin squared away. THANKS AGAIN EVERYONE!

Glad to hear you figured it out. Now you know why you need to verify all wiring first and don't blindly hook everything up.

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sparky