Radio cuts out

[richfolsom]

I'm hoping there's something easy that I'm missing here, but whenever I hit the breaks or use the turn signals, the radio cuts out. It used to be intermittent, but now it happens every time. I tried searching the site, but didn't find anything. Any help is appreciated.

[vandor]

Likely a poor ground or power connection at the radio.

[richfolsom]

I doublechecked everything going into the radio and it looked good. Here's my thought process/findings:

1. If the lights are off, and I push the break pedal, the radio turns off, then turns back on, even while the breaks are in.
2. If the lights are on, and I push the break pedal, the radio turns off, then doesn't turn back on until I pull off the breaks.
3. If I do #1 while the engine fan is running, then it behaves like #2.

So, my next step is to try this brown wire fix. The car also has an alarm system which is wired into the ignition switch. I pulled all that out.

I'll keep everyone updated. Hopefully this will fix it. I'm sure I have some sort of short in there somewhere, but I've looked all around and couldn't find it.

[RRoller123]

It sounds like the radio is being powered off a tap that is going low voltage when drawn upon, causing the radio to trip out. Try moving the power supply for the radio to a cleaner supply and checking all the grounds at the ground pod under the dash near the steering column. Overall sounds like a low voltage problem.

[richfolsom]

any idea which wire I should use? It's hooked up to an orange one now. I agree with your assessment. It does seem like it's that way. I have a 1981, if that makes any difference. I checked the ground pod, and it looked good to me.

[richfolsom]

oh man, now it's getting worse. I think they installed an alarm at some point, so I have tons of wires going into my ignition. I've pulled them all out, but there's one orange wire that's tied to another orange wire that goes to a relay of some sort. I can post pictures if that would help, but I'd like to just clean everything out of there and have only the bare minimum of wires in the vehicle.

[RRoller123]

Best just get Artigue's wiing diagrams and go slowly through them. I always find myself intimidated by the rats nest until I realize that with the proper wiring diagrams in hand, it is a "can't see the TREES for the FOREST" problem. They way I got through my mess (and it was a mess!) was to take 1 component at a time and thoroughly inspect every wire going to it and follow each wire to ensure that it went where it was supposed to go. I started with the dreaded Hazard Switch because I had e-flasher issues and so much stuff goes through there. Off hand I can say that I was eventually able to remove probably 20 feet or more of unnecessary wiring for power windows, door chimes, etc. and really simplified the mess back there. To get clean power for the radio I guess I would go back to the fuse box and follow out an unswitched circuit to find a good place to patch into. It seems that whatever you are getting power from now for the radio is a marginal circuit and that you are bringing down the whole thing.

[rlux4]

Do you have Brad Artigue's electrical diagrams? They are formatted so that you can print them out in any size, make them large enough to read easily. Mine are 11X14 and very easy to follow.
http://www.artigue.com/fiatcontent/spid ... 00elec.pdf
Ron

[richfolsom]

Thanks everyone. Here's where I'm at now. The car was very hard to start. never had that issue before. I'm going through the diagrams and I don't see any of the wires in the attached photos in the diagrams. They're wrapped end to end in electrical tape, which makes me believe that they're after market.

This says made in mexico and it's hooked up to some of the wires from the ignition...


Here's the back of the starter, you can see it's a mess...


I don't know what these two white wires are for. I don't see them in the diagrams.


I'll keep looking, right now it seems like I'm going backwards rather than forwards. Oh well, it's a good learning opportunity.

[RRoller123]

That first pic shows a relay in your hand, you could trace those wires and see where they go and if you don't need the item, viola out it goes. Car alarm you mentioned earler maybe? Personally I think a car alarm is somewhat crazy in these cars but to each his own. I try not to pass judgement on this sort of stuff.

[richfolsom]

I totally agree. especially now.

[Exit98]

I'm an electrical duffer, but here's how I solved my radio issue, based on some good advice from someone who knows.

I ran a dedicated hot line from a spade on the back of my fuse block directly to the radio for power. The fused circuit I selected is one that is on/off via the ignition switch.

No more static.

For a modern radio you also need a secondary "always on" power to maintain you pre-sets and clock. You can grab that one off your console light.

[spider2081]

Ok so one more opinion
The two white wires are for the key in ignition chime
The brown wire with the yellow splice on it is hot all the time and originates from the 4 terminal brown wire block behind instrument panel
The pink wire with the splice on it is a hot in start and run output from the ignition switch on the FI cars it feeds fuse 1, battery charge lite and ignition.
The red wire cut and spliced is hot in start only and originally went to the starter solenoid to engage the starter also to the fuel injection system

I think someone modified the wiring so the relay you have engages the starter. I can't make out the relay terminals in the photo you posted. I assume it is what is known as a Bosch style relay so the terminal # I list are based on that. I think relay terminals 85 and 86 activate the relay. One of these terminals should be connected to ground and the other connected to short red wire on terminal 50 of the ignition switch.

The brown wire splice should feed the contacts of the relay. These terminals are 30 and 87. so the brown wire should be connected by the splice to either 30 or 87 of the relay. the other of these terminals should be connected to the red wire that originally went to the ignition switch terminal 30.

Hope this helps. I am not sure it has anything to do with the radio cutting out.

[richfolsom]

Thanks. it may not help the stereo directly, but at least it'll help simplify the wiring as a whole.

[surfingfreeman]

I just fixed a very similar problem with my stereo, or I should say the installer fixed. First off the stereo has 2 amplifiers front and rear speakers and 2 subs, I bought an optima deep cell battery to allow for periodic deep draw down, there is also a 1 farad capacitor to allow for periodic need for higher power. So anyways, I had a POS Lada aftermarket ignition which was very sporadic in it's functioning, apparently the stereo I installer put the stereo headunit power on a circuit shared by the turn signals, so the problem which happend like clockwork was whenever I had the radio on and I hit the turn signal it would immediately shut the radio off and pull the antenna down, once I turned the turn signal off the radio would Come back on, this happend consistenly, then on occasion after shutting power off to the radio the engine would cut out and I would have to turn off the stereo to start the car again. My installer moved the power line from the circuit that the turn signals are on directly to the red wire coming out of the pigtail on the ignition, this completely fixed the stereo problem, I also found a used original Sepea ignition switch that I have installed and has had the added bonus of reducing the heat build up in the pigtail wires from the old Lada ignition. Your situation sounds more complicated in that there have been a number of PO electrical mods made. I also plan on installing a 3-relay product sold by Csaba that effectively reduces the load through the ignition. So sounds like you need to move your power line to a spot like the fuse box to prevent it from pulling power from some of the other components. Best of luck.
Mike