I've installed my empeg into a 05 ford focus and used the factory radio wiring harness using a Scosche harness that I've tested with a multimeter and it works fine until the car moves and the unit goes into standby like its not getting enough power or i shut the car off.

i'm getting about 13-14v on the ignition and the constant 12v line.

it will do it if the car is running or not just as long as there's movement.

ive tried tapping the aux power that i have for powering other devices such as cell phone chargers ect.

the connections are solderd and heat shrunk and i can jiggle all the connectors as hard as i want and it wont go into standby i can move the empeg in any motion and it still wont do it.

im out of ideas. the only thing i can think of is that its getting some type of interference from the ECU or the alternator.

Are both of the top and bottom front edges of the car sled (the metal frame into which the empeg gets inserted) properly bent/rounded, or is one of them just a straight metal edge ?

The other thing to check/fix, is ensure that the ground wire to the empeg is beefy and well connected.

the sled it self is mounted in a plastic double din mount, so i didnt have to use the tabs. so i hooked a ground wire from the sled to the inside metal frame of the dash

http://www.audiooutfitter.com/fd1426b/scosche/p163107.html

the ground wire im using is the same size as the harness wire. is that big enough?


ive been contemplating taking it to a stereo shop and bypassing the factory harness in place for a direct connect to the battery.

He's referring to the lips that hook on the outside of the dash to keep the sled from going too far in. All four edges should be bent into a lip, but some of the sleds were defective from the factory and the top lip didn't get bent. This can prevent the empeg from sliding fully into the sled.

Edit: There is an old FAQ about this, actually.

ahh. i will have to check this, as it worked in a previous vehicle i didn't look too far into the sled other then testing the harness connectors. i'm pretty sure mine is correct though.

Even if the sled edges are bent correctly, check to be sure that the player fully plugs into the sled. In other words, check to be sure that the edges of the plastic that make up the mounting location don't hinder the player from sliding fully into the sled.

Let's be absolutely clear about this: Going into standby, and acting like it's not getting enough power, those are two completely different behaviors. Which behavior are you getting? Describe in detail what happens to the player. For instance, does it stay turned off or does it come back on after a while? Is there a "pop" sound from your speakers when it goes off? Is the behavior intermittent, or is it 100 percent reproducible?

When you say "movement" do you mean rocking the car back in forth in one place by pushing on it, or do you mean the wheels have to be turning? Is it the slightest movement, or does it have to be a powerful lurching of the car to make a difference? Is it the act of taking off the parking brake or placing the car into gear that does it?

Next question: How is the player amplified, and how is it wired up, especially with regard to the amp remote wire and the ignition wire? What exactly are those lines connected to?



How are these things wired? Are they somehow connected to the player's amp remote line?

You said you jiggled the connectors but are you absolutely sure it's not this problem?



If you disconnect the empeg completely and just put a multimeter on either of those lines, can you get the voltage on either of those lines to change by moving the car?

I have to say, the only times that I've had a stereo go south when the car moves: It was ALWAYS wiring trouble: a loose wire, a loose connector, a broken solder joint underneath my shrink-tubing, or a wire chafing against something metal inside the dash.

Well i did check and it is sitting all the way in the sled.



ok. It goes in and out of standby. blinking led and then comes on and plays music. no battery icon.

no pop, but it does shut the amp down. 100% reproducible.



i cant get the car to rock enough to do it but letting the ebrake go and have the car move is backwards or forwards is enough to make it do it.






i do have a small (read 200w) amp that was going to go in place. however for trouble shooting i have pulled that out.

the aux power is provided by ford via a cigarette female end.175w /30amp line.



ill have to get some alligator clips and have somone ride along and read it out.


im going to try taking out the pins and looking at them even though i tugged on it for hours to see if i could do it.

the 12v pin on my sled was a little loose and i did re solder. still doing the same thing.

ahh figured it out. taped the multimeter on the wires and backed down the driveway and it dropped to 4v shortly and then back up to 12v. turns out it has a VSS wire (vehicle speed sensor) that also gives 12v at startup.so faster you go this wire turns the volume up automatically on the stock stereo. My connector was the wrong one for my model. i found the correct wire its now working great.

Awesome. GJ

Nice diagnostics.

I was trying to think of something that you could have wired it to that would have worked with the vehicle speed, but the only way I could imagine that is if you had wired it up horribly wrong: i.e, you connected the ignition wire to something other than the actual ignition wire. Since you were getting 12-14 solid volts on the ignition wire, I couldn't imagine how that could have been the issue. Ah well, lesson learned: always double check your assumptions. :-)

I had this strange idea that you might have wired it up to something that was intended for a DVD player: I.e., when you take off the parking brake, the DVD player shuts off. But again, you were getting 12 volts on the thing! :-)

Strange stuff!