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No Radio; No interior LEDs

2K views 16 replies 4 participants last post by  Thebestestdrummer 
#1 ·
Well this thread includes problems with my radio and interior leds, I'm posting it here because more people view these threads versus the interior LED threads.

I recently installed interior Leds, THREAD HERE, and I thought everything went well, but apparently not!

I was removing the back panel, not sure what its called, the one with the hooks and stuff behind the back seats under the window. Finally removed it and realized my Interior LEDs were off. I'm like "crap, I forgot to turn off my led's and now my batteries probably dead. (It took us a little while to take out this panel...) I go ahead and try to start it anyway and it started just fine. So im like "Well shit." then I noticed my radio wasn't turning on either so once again I'm like "Well, Shit."

I start searching for fuses everywhere and Amongst my many Add-a-Circuts i finally found the culprit, My I.O.D fuse was blown. And Of course i have NO extra fuses anywhere. The next day i venture to O'Reily and buy some of those nifty Smart fuses that glow when they blow. I bout a 2 pack of 10 amps and a 2 pack of 15 amp. I stick the first 10 amp fuse and it blows. i like, "well, shit". I figured even though i never bother unhooking my ground when i play with fuses, that must have been the problem. So i pop the hodd in the parking lot and proceed to unhook the ground.

I stick the fuse in, nothing blows, (obviously, the ground is unhooked.) I connect the ground and look at the fuse, what do you know, its glowing! so that fuse blew too. Then i thought maybe or some reason Im just using too small of a fuse. So I pop one of the 15's in; it blows as well.

So now I'm thinking what the hell is wrong here. So I go into O'Reily again and ask the old grumpy and cranky clerk and tell him what just happened. He quickly and snappily states " You got a direct short" and then continued to not explain what might have caused it, where it could be located or anything useful whatsoever.

So before I start ripping everything out, Could it be one of my led wires came out somewhere? any ideas will help.

Thanks
 
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#4 ·
Well the store clerk is correct, dead short, and he would not know where the problem would be.

(1) I would first disconnect all of your wiring mods. where you tied into the factory wiring or fuse box.

(2) Replace the I.O.D. fuse, with the correct rated fuse and see if it blows.

(3) If the I.O.D. fuse does not blow start connecting 1 circuit at a time to see which one is the problem. If 1 circuit works correctly disconnect it and go on to the next one until you tested all the circuits.

(4) If the fuse blows you found which circuit is your problem and you know where to start looking for the short.

(5) After you fix the short now you can connect each circuit one at a time to see if the I.O.D. fuse does not blow. If the I.O.D. fuse still blows you have to much stuff connect and need to go directly to the battery and start using relays for each circuit that you added.

Hope this helps.

Greg
 
#9 ·
You use the dome light power wire to trigger the relay.

To trigger the relay through terminals 85 (- ground) and 86 (+ dome light) on the relay.

Power from battery through fuse to terminal 30 on relay.

Terminal 87 or 87A to your accessory. Most use terminal 87, but you can use terminal 87A, or you can use both 87 and 87A. Watch the video.

Greg


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vupmb2U-shk
 
#12 ·
I think I'm going to try to fix it for now and hopefully its a simple fix. Maybe in a week or two I'll try adding a relay to it...theres an event coming up Friday where i need to show it off and I feel like adding a relay will take more than a day for me.... plus I just bought a new sub box that I have to get everything hooked up too.
 
#13 ·
so radio comes on when i unplug all the LEDs from the main source.

all LEDS work when hooked up to a 9v battery.

does this mean that the problem is somewhere in the stock wiring? Am
I drawing too much power?

Will a relay fix this? thanks
 
#14 · (Edited)
Well if your radio now works and the fuse has stopped blowing i would say the LED lights were your problem. If I remember you have a lot of LED lights & fans connected to your electrical system. I would put them on a separate circuit just to be safe and you will have extra power for expansion. Don't over load the wire with drawing to many amps. LED lights have a small drain, but when you add them up you can draw some real current (amps.)

My bed lights, I have 300 LED'S (1, 16'-4" roll 5050 LED's) draw about 6.5 amps. so they do add up and I have them on a separate 7.5 amp. circuit with relay. A 9 volt battery will light them up, but it won't last very long.

I put yellow/orange LED 5050 lights on the rocker panel edge for running lights. There are 105 LED per side and just one side draws 2.2 amps. of power.

Like I said, LED lights have a small power draw but add up quickly in large amounts.

Greg
 
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