I drive a 93 Vauxhall Cavalier V6 which will only allow me to listen to the stereo when the ignition is on. Is there a quick and easy wiring 'fix' that will let me listen to the radio without even having the keys in the ignition.
I have a face off radio which I always remove when leaving the car, so there would be no fear of the battery draining (I hope).
Thanks in advance....
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Wally
Normally the radio should be operable with the ignition in the first (accesory) position, and not need the ignition fully on. I assume you want to avoid even this and operate it when the ignition is off, and key removed.
If it's the factory fit radio it should be possible to operate the radio with the ignition off, and key removed, although this feature can be disabled. Check the radio instructions for how to reactivate it.
Regards
John S
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It's not a factory fit radio. I bought the car without a radio and put a good quality Clarion into it.
I've heard elsewhere that Cavalier radios don't come on at position 1, but that it is possible to get them on all the time. I feel it should be simple enough to do myself without having to resort to paying a dealer to do it. IF I can get the right wiring!
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stereos usually have three wires providing power - permanent live, switched live and an earth. Usually the permanent live is there to keep your pre-set stations stored, but if you wired the permanent live in the car to the permanent AND switched live on the radio, i think this should do the job - don't blame me if your radio blows up though! And if anybody thinks that this is wrong, PLEASE SAY, because i don't want to be held responsible, i'm just trying to help!!!
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It's working like this, but the best is to switch a fuse between the connection, it's cheap and healthy :-)
Xavier
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Wally,
You're right, the Cav doesn't come with a Position 1 accessory live on the ignition switch.
Take a look at www.geocities.com/caroleandtony/in_car.htm
That's of course you're still using the original ISO connector.
You need to wire together connection 4 and 7 and connect to a permanent live.
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DD
The last 3 Vauxhalls I've owned (Vectra, Corsa, Astra) have all had an 'accessory' position on the ignition (where the radio operates), plus another feature. If the radio is on with the ignition on turning the key back to the off position leaves the radio on, but stops everything else. Only when the key is extracted does the radio go off. Now, I can't remember if my Cavalier was the same, but I believe it was - can you confirm this? This is obviously a function of the ignition switch design. The ability to use the standard radio with the ignition of is clearly a part of the radio design, and the radios will switch off after about half an hour if they are used in this way to save the battery.
Now, Wally's new radio doesn't have this facility, but does the Cavailier have this type of ignition switch? This should solve the problem - just turn the ignition off but leave the key in.
Regards
John S
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John S,
On my 1993 Cav the factory fit radio would switch off as soon as you turned off the engine, ie turning key position 2 back to position 1. However you could turn the radio back on again by pressing the on/off button. This was annoying as mine also had an electric aerial. The poor thing didn't know whether it was coming or going. Switch off the engine and it would start to go down, but if I wanted to continue listening to the radio I would have to press the volume knob in to switch back on the radio, and up goes the aerial again. You could however bypass the radio "on/off controlled from the ignition key" feature by turning on the ignition and then pressing and holding down the preset station buttons 1 & 3 and then turning the radio on. Now the radio would need turning on and off manually. However as you quite rightly mention if you left the radio on for a period of time (1 hr) it would turn itself off anyway to save the battery from getting flattened.
As you also mention, Vauxhall finally got it right with the Vectra, Astra's from built from "R" reg on, and the Corsa.
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Thanks for everyones help. Finally attacked it on Saturday afternoon with a pair of wire cutters and a multimeter. Wired the 12v accessory wire (black) to the 12v permanent (red) on the radio side and hey presto, it works with no key in the ignition. Now my CD changer remembers where it was and doesn't insist on reloading every disk whenever I start the car.
It must seem like a lot of trouble for such a trivial gripe, but it makes the world of difference to me.
Thanks again folks.
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Wally, I know exactly what you mean. I had to do the same rewiring when I replaced the factory fit Grundig for a Kenwood system with boot mounted cd autochanger.
Glad you got it sorted.
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