Problems Fitting Kenwood Head Unit In 05 Xsara Picasso

[sarpen]

Hi all

 

I am having problems fitting a new Kenwood headunit in my wifes 05 diesel picasso.

 

Removed the non working Citroen oem unit to find one black and one white iso plugs, ok I thought this should be quite an easy fit.

 

Power side was not an issue checked out 12 volt and switched 12 volt required swapping red and yellow wires on supplied Kenwood harness adapter. Unit powers on and off using key and shuts down on economy mode as normal.

 

Speakers however;

 

Wiring in manual against Kenwood wiring checked all matched (ISO)

 

Connect white plug to Kenwood head unit  - mis wiring check check wiring then power on message on head unit.

 

Disconnect white plug - unit powers on/off and operates normally.

 

Ok, I thought must be bad speaker or wiring fault, measured impedance at each speaker connection on plug 4.1 or 4.2 ohms on digital multimeter.

 

Disconnected each speaker ( 4 speakers & two tweeters on dash) one at at a time same message each time.

 

Ended up with all speakers disconnected same message when white plug connected. Dis connect plug unit operates normally.

 

Checked all connections at plug with all speakers disconnected all open circuit so no short circuit and no short between each individual speaker.

 

Tried resetting car BSI, made no difference to head unit & all dash functions are working trip economy computer etc..

 

I really do not know what else to try apart from biting the bullet and rewiring the whole car. Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

Regards Steve

Edited March 12, 2016 by sarpen

[paul.h]

I do not know much about fitting aftermarket radios, but it may just need the correct adaptor cable. Have you tried taking a speaker connection direct from the radio to prove the radio and at least one speaker ?

[oilburner]

I would suggest you take the power/earth feeds from elsewhere in the car, ciggy lighter etc and forget the cars ISO power plug, you should then be able to use the cars speaker plug with no problem. Either that or buy a Canbus interface, but thats the dearer option. PSA cars can be a royal pain in this regard!

[sarpen]

Thanks for your kind suggestions and I have done both, proved stereo works and scotchlocked onto cig lighter wiring.

 

It's Saturday so thought I would have a look at this picasso again especially after the wife reckoned she got a fright when the stereo burst into life whilst loading weekly shopping into the boot at Tesco. She then left said super market and went over a bump and stereo went off giving same miss wiring message. Aha I thought there is more to this than I already know. I entered car by passenger front door pulled out stereo and metered the speaker plug again all infinity between speaker leads and between each lead and car body. Ok I thought lets try again plugged all leads in pressed reset under head unit panel power on and away it went on the local radio station superb I thought but with the niggle in the back of the mind well you didn't actually fix anything so how can you be sure the jobs done. I got out of car went around to drivers door opened and there I was back at square one.There seems to be an intermittent fault on the front drivers door multi plug/wiring either in between door and door post or inside door. More investigation required.

[paul.h]

First thoughts are there is a loose connection, maybe a scotchlock or on the back of the radio or possibly inside the radio. Also on our C4 and C5 when a door is opened the car bsi (cabin fusebox) starts up and things can be heard as the car is readying itself for starting. So it is possible your power supply is getting power from the bsi as you open the door - maybe put  a meter on the cig lighter. If it does get power when the doors are opened but not the passenger door, then maybe there is a problem with the passenger door. The meter might also show if the power is being lost as you go over a bump or open the driver's door and instead of it being a problem with the radio may be a problem with the cig lighter supply.

 

If it does end up being to do with the bsi starting up, on our C5 in the cabin fusebox some of the fuses take a supply direct from the battery via a maxi fuse and go to things like electric seats (if I had them). If your car is similar you could take a radio supply from one of these and it would have a permanent live that is not affected by the doors. You would need to make sure the radio is switched off when leaving the car so the battery does not go flat. I used one of these when wiring up the towbar by using a spade connector in the supply side of the fuse hole, connected it to a short length of wire with a scotchlock fuse holder and then to the towbar electrics.