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constant power wire for head unit?


Mobious5

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If the stereo was installed correctly, there should have been a constant power switch going into the factory stereo.

I , however, never like the idea of running modern equipment on thirty year old wiring.

I ran my constant hot straight off the battery, with a 15 amp fuse. mine works great, and wont burn the car up if the wire gets compromised.

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Car stereos in the last 10 years have reversed thier thinking on the two power wires.

 

It used to be that the yellow wire was constant power and skinny while the red wire was thick (carrying the power to run the integrated amp....if equipped) and came on with the key.

 

More recent car stereos seem to have the constant power wire now as the fat one and the "on with key" wire as more of a trigger to wake up the unit.

 

If your constant power wire is the thick one, I modify the wire going to the cigarette lighter to be on all the time and take power off of it for the radio since it is strong enough to run a high current item like a lighter.

 

The reason for this was so I could leave a solar trickle charger in the car when sitting for long periods but you need the lighter to always be on.

 

It also helps with those lighter plugged aux jump boxes in that you can hook it up and let it transfer a bit of life to the battery without having the key on before you try to start it up.

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