Does anybody know a way to wire your radio so that you can play music without leaving the keys in the ignition. I would just really like to be able to do that, but idk if its possible.

And i dont have the stock unit, i have some DUAL XM... with the ipod usb thing, i like it alot except for this. Is this a feature of the unit itself or is it a wiring problem because i did do it myself, i didnt use the store bought harness.

 

That's not a bad idea. Kind of like the window thing. You can still put up and down your windows with the key out for like 10 seconds or so after shutting it off. You'd want to setup some kind of longer timer obviously, but not long enough to drain the battery.

 

on one note, i hope that you didnt splice into the factory harness when u can get a conversion harness for around 10 bucks from walmart. but if u did its ok i guess, just make removal at anytime i pain.

besides that you can make it so that the head unit is on all the time by taking which ever wire is your accessory wire (i think it may be yellow) and connecting it to the 12v constant wire (which is usually red). the colors may be reversed, just look on the wries that are coming out of the after market head unit, they should be printed on there.

of course if you do it this way you will need to actually turn off the unit every time you are done with it, or else it will drain your battery while the car is not running.

now if there is a way to make it stay on after you turn the car off and then it shuts down when after a certain amount of time or when one of the doors are opened like most newer chevy, dodge, and ford vehicles, im not sure of a way to do that.

good luck

p.s. i had a sony xplode unit way back that actually did have a feature that kept it on for like 15 seconds after the car was off. try looking online or in the manual that came with the unit.

 

You know if the radio is left on, it will drain the battery

 

is there an on and off button?


I changed my headunit out the day i bought the car to put my navi in.... i dotn rmemeber that was two years ago...

 

you could wire it to a times switch to where when the key is turned off, it will stay powered for an hour or two...

 

well i didnt splice any wires except the ones on the actual unit, i just took the ones coming out of the back of the unit and used those u looking ends things that you clamp to wires only i cut them so there was only one prong. I then soldered that prong to the wires and its almost an exact fit like the prongs on the store harness so... O and i did this cuz everywhere i looked the harness was $30. i didnt check ebay r anything cuz i just wanted to use the damn thing

but what is the times switch?
and im looking for something that will stay on for a while sorta like newer cars. but i dont really want to have to turn it on and off myself every time, i like it going on itself. Maybe if there was a way to wire it so it works off the door opening or maybe just a 15 min timer idk.

 

i meant timed switch, so that it will use the memory wire or an alternate constant power wire to run the radio for a set amout of time.

 

i c. i think i might look into that

 

man u don't want this... i wired my radio up... and the radio froze on me... it stood on with the car off... till i unplugged the battery...

 

You can easily do this, just take your red wire connected to the aftermarket and hook it to the yellow wire. The radio will always stay on unless you shut it off. Not something I would personally do, but to each his own.

 

Ok here is what I did... The red wire is your ignition and the yellow is your memory wire(always on). I hooked a switch up that spliced into the memory wire, ran into the switch and the other end was a wire that went back to the ignition(red) wire for the cd player. Doing this, I am able to turn my cd player and cigarette lighter on at the flip of a switch.

 

i understand the switch idea. but if i dont really want the switch, cant i just wire it up to the yellow wire and use the power button on the cd player

 

yea but your clock and cig power will always be on