Ok so I was installing a new stereo in one of my cars...not a subaru, a toyota mr2 actually...but anyways i didn't know which wire was which... so after about 20 mins of searching i finally got the right power and ground and the stereo came on...i quickly grabbed some crimping things and tried to crimp the power together...the wires started SMOKING!!...so i quickly pulled them apart...turned off the car and twisted them together...turned the car back on...nothing...kept trying other stuff and still got nothing to the radio

The radio's a blaupunkt and has a built in fuse, so i don't know what could have happened there, but I tried a new fuse anyways and it didn't help. I checked the fuse in the fuse box for head unit and that wasn't broken. Needless to say the stereo won't work now. What did I do? Can anyone help me?

 

oh yeah one thing...shouldn't i be able to arc the power wire and see sparks just to see if its still working or not?

 

this is true but dont do it. get a test light. see if there is 12v if not check the fuse panel and see if a fuse popped most likely this is the case. if it isnt then you probably fried the wire which sucks but there are other methods of hooking up a stereo. if all else fails run a power wire from the ignition harness you will find your constant 12v there and a ignition 12v. again use a test light or multi meter goodluck.

Jess

 

is there a visible way I can see if i fried the wire?

 

you can only see whats visible unless you want to tear the dash apart.

Jess

 

well i tried it again so i don't think it went into safe mode. I checked all the fuses and they're all fine so I tried crossing the wires just out of frustration. Fortunately, or unfortunately, whatever, there were no sparks. I guess the power/ground got fried?? can I source a new one from somewhere? cig. lighter maybe?

 

which wire started smoking? so did the positive and negative wires touch each other? but over all if you see smoke it means the wires are fired. usually you can't see it unless it burns through the plastic insulation.

for a quick fix you can tap off the cigarette lighter to see if the deck is still working. i've done this a couple of times when i couldn't find a power wire (trying to fix a messed up installation from someone else) also make sure the cigarette lighter has constant power when the car is off or the deck will not have memory. if you can't find anywhere to tap into the best resort is to run a dedicated fused wire from the battery or fuse block.