No power to centre console

As the title says!

Last year I replaced the standard fit stereo with a cd player and a row of gauges (analogue clock, boost, voltmeter).

I kept the original radio control/digital clock in the top slot and took my permanent live power feed (+12v before ignition) from this to power my new cd player and analogue clock. But now, the digital clock has gone off, the analogue one has stopped and the cd player wont power on.

At first the fault was intermittent. The digital clock would come back on displaying '8888', so I could reset the time and I could set the time on the analogue one. But there would still not be enough power to turn on the cd player and a few minutes down the road the clock would go blank again. It also affects the cigarette lighter socket. I plugged my 'drive-smart' unit into the lighter socket when the clock was working, but I only got a faint voice saying the unit was activated but wouldn't power up.

Only seems to be he +12v before ignition affected (red wire). The +12v after ignition (yellow wire) seems to be working because I can set the time on the analogue clock when the ignition is on. Digital clock and cd player still don't power up even when the ignition is on.

There are a couple of unused plugs behind the dash left over from the original stereo: red (+12v before ignition), yellow (+12v after ignition) and black (earth). Ive tried taking feed off these too but they don't work either.

I've not had time to test the wires with a multimeter yet but has anyone got any ideas?

Thanks.

sounds electrical, good luck with all those yellow wires at spagetti junction.

You could try just reseating all the relays, fuses connectors etc, as it was intermitant to start with.
Even the computer company I work for factors in a percentage of repairs as "reseated, tested ok", especially older machines or ones that have been moved recently.

bad earth somewhere??

[Alpineandy]

bad earth somewhere??

You sound like an Alpine owner already

Two years ago I replaced my original Philips system with a CD Radio and it worked fine until 4 weeks ago. The CD radio appeared to have no power at all.
At the same time I knew the battery was getting to the end of its life - as it had some difficulty in cranking over some mornings.
So when finally it was flat I bought a new battery, fitted it and hey presto the radio sprang back into life.
Now whether or not it was a coincedence or the fact that the battery volts was not high enough ?? I dont know.
The earth straps are all good - as I replaced the rusted bolts and washers and cleaned everything up last year.
French and their electrics......great!!

By the way, when the battery volts went low the speedo surged to around 160 MPH which at first I thought was interesting, it was only when I noticed the miles on the odometer clocking up at a vast rate that I decided I'd better replace that battery sooner rather than later.

poor battery and suspect connection (somewhere) could end up with reduced voltave for the radio, causing it to cut itself out and not work.

Drivers side Earth is on the body shell, behind the kick panel to the right of the drivers right foot, just below the front bonnet release catch.

poor battery and suspect connection (somewhere) could end up with reduced voltave for the radio, causing it to cut itself out and not work.

Drivers side Earth is on the body shell, behind the kick panel to the right of the drivers right foot, just below the front bonnet release catch.

Same on passenger side..

Cheers, looks like I'll be pulling my dash apart at the weekend and investigating. I noticed the courtesy lights also aren't working. I'm assuming it's related.

EDIT: Also, the engine cooling fans aren't coming on when I switch the engine off. Assuming these also need a permanent live supply to work without the ignition, this must be related to. So going on the premise that anything requiring a permanent +12v live before ignition isn't working, there must be one common fault causing it that they all share. So, before I go burying my head in wiring diagrams and tearing my car apart, is there one single earth point I could check first which might cause the +12v before ignition circuit to go faulty?

Sorted! Turned out to be a combination of bad battery earth to chassis and blown courtesy light/cigar lighter fuse. Don't know how I missed the fuse, must have checked them half a dozen times!

Don't know how I missed the fuse, must have checked them half a dozen times!

Lucky 7 then !

Sorted! Turned out to be a combination of bad battery earth to chassis and blown courtesy light/cigar lighter fuse. Don't know how I missed the fuse, must have checked them half a dozen times!

I never visually check fuses - I always use a multimeter across the two pins in the plastic top on continuity beep. Saves having to pull them all out one at a time too...

Handy tip!

I think I will enter the 21st centry and get one of those DMM with a continuity buzzer, sould be able to fix electrical faults 1 handed then.

I've had more electrical problems on Audis than the GTA
Present ones playing up and the coupe set fire to it's engine loom