I got a 04 s2k. It has a alpine cd deck and besides that im honestly not really sure what else was upgraded. All i know is that under the hood there is a 100amp fuse/jl audio wire running into the firewall. Now there isnt a ton of bass so maybe whatever was in it was taken out before i got it or else just upgraded stock speakers. Whatever is in it is hidden VERY well.

So here is the problem. The other day I plugged my phone charger into the cig lighter, instantly blew a fuse causing the radio to die. So i put a spare fuse back in and planned on not using the charger anymore. Yesterday everything worked fine, but today when I turned the car on, BAM radio is dead again. What could the problem be and what would solve it? Would it be a good idea to place a little larger fuse or..... Any help would be appreciated.

 

I don't know how the factory radio is wired up, but it seems odd to wire an aftermarket one through the cig lighter circuit. IMO it should be on it's own fused circuit. Upon doing that you should be fine.

Another thing, track down where that power cable is leading to. I would hate for you to find out it goes nowhere once it shorts out against your car and catches the trunk carpet on fire. If it goes no where, pull that fuse out. When you want to later use it, plug the fuse back in and now you have a good power cable for an amp.

 

if i'm not mistaken the radio switched 12v and cig lighter are on the same fusible link. check to make sure that nothing is lodged in your lighter cylinder that would short out the lighter and blow the fuse - the power wire going to the rear with the probably un-necessary 100A fuse in it is most likely not causing your problem. if you are blowing fuses only when you use your cig. lighter i would start with the socket itself.

 

The radio has 2 fused circuits into the harness.

Did you test the charger in another car to make sure the charger didn't go bad?

The fuse under the hood would have went to an amp. Does your car have any amps in it? If you have no amps I would pull that fuse out and put the body of the fuse hold back together to dead end the circuit safely.

I would check the wiring on the accessory port, and if that's fine I would also pull the deck out (its only 4 screws) and look at the wiring. You might have a short in the harness behind the HU cuasing the fuse to pop.

If your car had an amp and now it doesn't god know what you might find behind that HU.

 

im having a similar problem. i just installed a kenwood headunit and at first it would blow the acc fuse like every few days, but now it blows the minute the car turns on. i checked my wiring behind my head unit and the wireing is perfect everything is insulated. do u think that it could be my cigarette lighter thingy because its still the one from 2000 and its not mint any more. if i just remove that for now could that be my fix or do u think i have a short somewhere else? because my stock radio no longer works anymore.

 

I have a similar problem as well. I have a kenwood had unit. if I turn my car on (engine off) and plug in my air compressor to the 12v socket, as soon as I hit the on button to my air compressor the acc fuse blows and my radio dies and so does the 12v socket. it happened to me twice so far. I have yet to do it with the engine on to see if that makes a difference. I am able to charge my cell phone to the socket and all is fine though