Installation of a double DIN DVD player in 2004 Vibe with Moon & Tunes

[IMFletch]

Hello, wonderful Vibe people!After almost seven years I'm upgrading my stereo and need some help. (And here I thought I knew everything about Vibes from reading these pages over the years.)Here is what I got: a really crappy Asian knock-off double DIN DVD player/bluetooth/SD card car stereo. I bought it off of eBay for $138.99. It included a rear view camera which I'm probably never going to install.(I'd include a picture here, but I'm not sure how to do that. Instead, here's a link to an auction with the same stereo: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors..._1167)As I said, the stereo is crap. The interface is terrible, some of the words are misspelled, and it looks like it was programed with Windows 3.1.BUT... the individual pieces work just as they're supposed to. The DVD player has a nice picture and great sound, the bluetooth picks up immediately and plays/controls media files from my phone without any delays, and the SD reader works great, too. I notice no difference in sound quality from the six disc changer I've had in that car for almost seven years and this new cheap stereo.Definitely worth $138.99.Now, to my problem.I bought a harness/wiring kit from Wal-Mart. The kit included the antennae adapter.I figured out where all the wires went and left the two orange ones loose. As others have mentioned, the stock six disc CD player had two blocks connected to it. The larger gray one is obviously for power/speakers, but I'm not sure what the smaller black connector is for. I left it hang loose.After powering on the car, everything worked great. But then I started noticing a few problems.The console lights are out. The three dials for controlling temperature still work, but there is no light coming from them.Every once in a while, the car stereo shuts off for about three seconds. It's as if the power was disconnected from it. I thought this was due to cold (it's been pretty bad here in the east lately) especially since it stopped once the car warmed. But the last few days I've noticed it continues to happen, even after the car is warm. I noticed a related issue last night: when the power to the radio goes out, the power to the cigarette lighter mobile phone charger goes out, too. So this is definitely a power problem and something is overloading, but only for a few seconds and then the stereo works fine again.Last night was the worst discovery yet: I got pulled over! All my rear lights are out. The hazards work, as do the brake lights when I tap them. But no driving lights in the rear at all. (Front ones work fine.)My course of action now is to unplug the stereo, check all the fuses, and reinstall the stock radio to see if everything works again. Then I'll retrace my wiring, reinstall, and see what happens.A few questions:In order for the DVD screen to work work, I have to connect the "Brake In" wire to a ground. I connected this to the car chassis. (Disconnecting the wire makes the screen shut off immediately, so I left it attached to the bar behind the stereo.) Should this be connected to a battery ground, or is the chassis bar okay?All the wires from the DVD player are matched properly to the diagram with the wiring harness. The orange ones are loose. Should I connect these to anything?Does a stereo like what I got require some sort of power converter or amplifier, or should it work using the existing power? This would reveal if I have a connection wrong or if I"m missing a piece of equipment.How DO I post a picture here? I'd like to show everyone what I'm doing. I couldn't find any other examples of double DIN stereos installed in Vibes so I'd like to offer my experience and troubleshooting for other people, whether I get my stereo working or not.Thanks!

[IMFletch]

Attached files

[Sublimewind]

Hi and welcome to GV.. Quote, originally posted by IMFletch »Hello, wonderful Vibe people!After almost seven years I'm upgrading my stereo and need some help. (And here I thought I knew everything about Vibes from reading these pages over the years.)Here is what I got: a really crappy Asian knock-off double DIN DVD player/bluetooth/SD card car stereo. I bought it off of eBay for $138.99. It included a rear view camera which I'm probably never going to installyou'll find you'll get what you pay for, not judging so, moving on(I'd include a picture here, but I'm not sure how to do that. Instead, here's a link to an auction with the same stereo: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors..._1167)As I said, the stereo is crap. The interface is terrible, some of the words are misspelled, and it looks like it was programed with Windows 3.1.see aboveBUT... the individual pieces work just as they're supposed to. The DVD player has a nice picture and great sound, the bluetooth picks up immediately and plays/controls media files from my phone without any delays, and the SD reader works great, too. I notice no difference in sound quality from the six disc changer I've had in that car for almost seven years and this new cheap stereo.Definitely worth $138.99.Now, to my problem.I bought a harness/wiring kit from Wal-Mart. The kit included the antennae adapter.I figured out where all the wires went and left the two orange ones loose. by rights you should have 1 maybe 2 orange wires and possibly 2 blue wires left over, one for power antenna and one for amp remote turn on... As others have mentioned, the stock six disc CD player had two blocks connected to it. The larger gray one is obviously for power/speakers, but I'm not sure what the smaller black connector is for. I left it hang loose.Do you have the stock sub? in the trunk? amp under the passenger seat?After powering on the car, everything worked great. But then I started noticing a few problems.The console lights are out. The three dials for controlling temperature still work, but there is no light coming from them.Every once in a while, the car stereo shuts off for about three seconds. It's as if the power was disconnected from it. I thought this was due to cold (it's been pretty bad here in the east lately) especially since it stopped once the car warmed. But the last few days I've noticed it continues to happen, even after the car is warm. I noticed a related issue last night: when the power to the radio goes out, the power to the cigarette lighter mobile phone charger goes out, too. So this is definitely a power problem and something is overloading, but only for a few seconds and then the stereo works fine again.Last night was the worst discovery yet: I got pulled over! All my rear lights are out. The hazards work, as do the brake lights when I tap them. But no driving lights in the rear at all. (Front ones work fine.)My course of action now is to unplug the stereo, check all the fuses, and reinstall the stock radio to see if everything works again. Then I'll retrace my wiring, reinstall, and see what happens.A few questions:In order for the DVD screen to work work, I have to connect the "Brake In" wire to a ground. I connected this to the car chassis. (Disconnecting the wire makes the screen shut off immediately, so I left it attached to the bar behind the stereo.) Should this be connected to a battery ground, or is the chassis bar okay?chassis should be fineAll the wires from the DVD player are matched properly to the diagram with the wiring harness. The orange ones are loose. Should I connect these to anything?what's the install manual say? orange is usually illumination and or phone mute IIRCDoes a stereo like what I got require some sort of power converter or amplifier, or should it work using the existing power? This would reveal if I have a connection wrong or if I"m missing a piece of equipment.you should have everything there to run aftermarket external amps, all you need is RCA outputs and a RTO (remote turn on) and it's got both... IF you have the factory amp and sub, you will need a LOC (line output converter) see Bluecrush's post on installing a HU with a LOC if need-be)How DO I post a picture here? I'd like to show everyone what I'm doing. I couldn't find any other examples of double DIN stereos installed in Vibes so I'd like to offer my experience and troubleshooting for other people, whether I get my stereo working or not.Thanks! My replies in bold... AFA posing an IMG... use the [IMG] [/IMG} tags... OR the thing that looks like a yellow topped mountain in the advanced toolbar.. Cheers!

[Sublimewind]

http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=30794Picture 15-16 shows the typical harness install, which mine is a Sony harness, and yours looks very similar (it gets copied a LOT)

[IMFletch]

Thanks, Sublimewind! Your demonstration page page is one I'd referenced repeatedly while installing the DVD player in the first place. So thank you twice over.I scanned the instruction manual of my head unit and took pictures of the interior of my disassembled dash board, then labeled everything in Photoshop.Sorry to say I still don't understand the picture thing. I use IMG tags on other forums to link pictures from my Flickr page, but I thought this site allowed pictures to be posted directly in threads. Is there a way to upload a picture to a post without first attaching it to an empty post? If not, I'll keep using my Flickr page for linking pictures.(Edit, now that I see there's an Edit button: Or do you attach the photo, post, then go into Edit and add the tags that way?(Edit again: Haha! So that worked. Now how do you show multiple pictures in one post?)Sorry if this is obvious. I'm off to work but I'll continue with this install tomorrow. Thanks again! And Happy New Year to you!

[Sublimewind]

You are double welcome..!!If you have a Flickr, just go to the pic size you want (show all sizes) then right click, copy image location... Come here, use the IMG tags OR use the button that looks like a mountain with a moon (it places the IMG tags for you, but at the bottom of the page, god forbid you forget a pic..lol)