New Radio shorts chime and defogger

I have a 1999 Saturn SL and after installing my radio the chime (lights on
or keys in ign) and the rear defogger stopped working. I am thinking it is
drawing too much power and I should run a straight line to the battery for
the live wire (inline fuse of course) and add a line that goes through the
ign switch too. Anyone else hear about this before or have any suggestions
before I start?

Thanks,
Jesse

 

Most radios nowadays have +12V always and key on. My aftermarket sony took
99% of its
power from the always on and just used the +12v as a signal to shut it off
when the key was off.

The chime fuse is low, only 3-5 amps. I bet factory saturns are set up as I
just described.

Your aftermarket deck is using more of the key-on power. A relay wired in
to this circuit, new chime fuse, and decent sized fused +12v always power
cable will fix your situation.

 

I have a 1999 Saturn SL and after installing my radio the chime (lights on

Haven't heard of that before......what kind of radio?

Do things start working if you simply disconnect the radio?

You shouldn't need any extra wires......I've never heard of people with
Saturn's needing them before with an aftermarket radio......

 

You screwed up something on the install.

 

Please explain how you installed the wires....

did you cut and snip? <-- Thats a no no.

cause for like 12 dollors you can buy a converter harness that will connect
your steros wiring harness to your cars harness by plugging them togather..
thats the proper way of connecting them.. Most of the stero installs I have
seen that were cut and snip always gave problems because of shorts and loose
wiring..

heres a pic.
http://www.installer.com/wires/wh39.jpg
$11.50
http://www.installer.com/wires/index.html
scroll till you see 71-1858 WH-39

it's about 1/2 way down the page.

you'll attach your stero wires to this harness then plug it into your
harness inside your dash where your old stereo was.

 

Turns out it was the radio, I first installed a Kenwood and I now believe it
was defective. It recently broke (after only a year) so I replaced it with a
Pioneer. To my surprise the Pioneer didn't cause any shorts. I think the
Kenwood had a defective power unit that caused it to short and die quickly.
Thanks for all the replies, even if it was just "You screwed up something on
the install"....

Jesse

 

Glad you got it sorted out.. If my reply sounded as I as blaming you for a
shotty job, that was not my intention.

 

....one good point I read in this post was reference to the use of the
adapter. However recently when I pulled my Kenwood out for repair I noticed
I made the wiring harness (the Saturn adapter soldered/shrinked into the
Kenwood adapter) maybe a foot long - in the future I will make them as short
as possible because of space issues.