I recently purchased and installed a JVC HDR-50 radio. Best buy wanted too much for the installation gear so I went to Meijer and bought a scosche installation kit and the special wiring harness with the door chime module, also schoche branded, only $40 instead of the absurd $110 price Best buy wanted. I wired it up to the JVC Harness using butt splices. When I went to install it, everything went well till I realized their wasn't enough room for the radio to fit with the module. Their was a pocket on the left side next to the steering wheel in opening for the radio so I crammed all the harness in there including the door chime module, and then I wrapped the plug around back so I could plug it right in. Afterwards I screwed the radio in, and then fired the car up, and everything seemed to work fine... or so I thought.

The next time I turned the car on was about 6 hours later, the car was sitting in the cold for a while, and The radio started to fire up, and then just immediatly shut off. I mean the radio seems to think the car's off the way it acts because eject works, but nothing else will. I took the face on and off several times, and nothing. Eventually I just turned the car off, and restarted it, and the radio fired up fine.

As time goes on though this is getting more and more annoying. Sometimes I can restart the car and it still won't do anything at all. However if the car's been running for a while, or the interior is warm, the radio will work fine with no problems. Even odder is if I just turn the key to the on position or the acc position the radio works too. It only does this after I start the car.

I'm wondering if this is a problem with the harness. Maybe the butt splices are insulated enough? I dunno anyone got any suggestions? I'm hoping to get some time to re-install the radio this weekend. Thinking about shortening the harness greatly and using solder or twist caps this time, and then insulating the wires with electrical tape. maybe then I can fit the harness in the tiny little opening in the back! Thats the only conclusion I can come to. For whatever reason the Radio is getting the signal that the car is turned off, and I don't know why!

check your ignition source..

Ok stupid question time, what do you mean by that? You mean the ignition cable? I just matched color to color on the wiring harnesses, and plugged the finish product straight into factory plug.

Butt connections are weak, especially if you do them wrong. I'd pull on your wires and make sure they're all tight in the butt connectors.

Yeah I was afraid of that really. I think I might redo it with twist caps.

No, because that would be worse.

Solder

So theres no easy way out then? Solder is just such a pain, and takes a lot more time. I know way back in 1998 when I got my first aftermarket stereo and I had best buy install it they used twist caps, they seem to work alright. When I got my grand am in 2004, I got real lazy and just twisted wires and wrapped electrical tape around them, never had a problem with that radio... other than the fact insurance kept it after I totaled the car.

Well I got a legit problem here, so guess I'll try doing it the right way.

Also I'm probably going to cut out a lot of wire too as there simply isn't a whole lot of room. I'm thinkin about taking that harness down from 6 inches to an inch, maybe a little larger. Would that cause any problems?

I'd like to try to avoid that side pocket if I can.

Alright... didn't feel like reading through it all.
But my JVC deck wont function in cold weather either. But that's like -30 celsius or colder weather. Don't know why, but I'm just saying maybe it was just because of how cold it is outside... cause after the car has warmed up mine starts working, so your wiring could be fine...

Yeah I live in Indianapolis, so it doesn't get that Cold here, but it has been colder than normal latley, and its gotten worse with how cold it is. This week its in the teens, currently the coldest week, and getting it to come on is a pain .

The thing is it will still come on if I turn it to ACC or even the ON position, it just won't come on when I start the car. The illumination comes on, dims, and then it goes black. Eject works, and nothing else... basically like the car is still off. Eventually after its warm enough, I can restart the car, and the radio will fire up. Is yours the same way?

For me it will start to light up, and it will get the background, but then freeze there. No info coming up and nothing playing.
Once it's warmed up enough(usually right at the end of my drive). It will start to play but its really fuzzy. Then if i restart the car yeah it will usually play normally.

Well I guess I'll give the wiring harness a try, try to wire it up better. I might even go see about exchanging my deck at best buy. I don't think its broke, but hey it couldn't hurt. ITs still within 30 days. It could be it just doesn't like the Cold, and thats it, but I guess it couldn't hurt to try wiring it better. I'd swap the harness for another but i Screwed myself on that... threw away the receipts, packages, etc. Not sure what I was thinking there. Mainly I was just thinking I had the radio set up in the mounting kit, and the harness all together and I wanted to clean up the mess I made.

Well I went ahead today and completly redid the harness with solder and heat shrink tubing. I then further insulated it using black conduit and electrical tape. Then I tried it out... and same problem. So in desperation I ran to best buy and even exchanged my head unit... and same problem.

So its not a problem with the head unit being cold, its not a problem with the harness having a bad connection (and yeah the butt splices def weren't very secure), so only thing left is the module. Anyone else use a scosche wiring harness w/door chime module? Here's the exact part:

http://www.amazon.com/Scosche-GM09SR-Replacement-Interface-Feature/dp/B000VD7SGK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1263174940&sr=8-1-fkmr1

At this point you've eliminated all the other options. It's gotta be a bad module.

Guess so. I guess I better go try and exchange that. I would of done it today, but ran out of daylight, and patience.

Xplicit wrote:Alright... didn't feel like reading through it all.
But my JVC deck wont function in cold weather either. But that's like -30 celsius or colder weather. Don't know why, but I'm just saying maybe it was just because of how cold it is outside... cause after the car has warmed up mine starts working, so your wiring could be fine...

Same thing when I was in -30.

The lights would turn on, and I would hear buttons, but the screen would stay black and I'd get no music....

Once the car was warm, I'd turn the deck off, and then back on, and voila! it works!


To the OP, I think that it's just cold enough outside that the LCD doesn't work until it gets a lil warmer.

Blk04Turbo wrote:

Xplicit wrote:Alright... didn't feel like reading through it all.
But my JVC deck wont function in cold weather either. But that's like -30 celsius or colder weather. Don't know why, but I'm just saying maybe it was just because of how cold it is outside... cause after the car has warmed up mine starts working, so your wiring could be fine...

Same thing when I was in -30.

The lights would turn on, and I would hear buttons, but the screen would stay black and I'd get no music....

Once the car was warm, I'd turn the deck off, and then back on, and voila! it works!


To the OP, I think that it's just cold enough outside that the LCD doesn't work until it gets a lil warmer.

I have yet to see this behavior in any of the Alpine, JVC, Clarion or Pioneer DDIN screens I've put in (gets to -40ºC here). If yours does it, it's likely got a defect.

My Pioneer screen would get kinda slow at reacting but it still worked. So far the Alpine doesnt mind the cold.

i got a alpine that dont start in the cold if its warm out its no problem but at soon as it gets below 30 it wont work

Well it's been warmer in Indianapolis and the deck's worked fine. BUt whatever the problem is, its not the harness, or the deck, its gotta be the door chime module that just doensn't like the cold. I left the module in the car in the cold while I redid the harness, and the deck was brand new from best buy. I left the module in the car because I didn't want to get a false sense of security, like its warmed up from being inside, works fine, then I fire the car up again and it doesn't work.

OVerall though, cold or not, it has had more success since i took the time to do the harness right, and I'm glad i took the time to do it that way.

Cory, I have a similar problem and I am also using the Scoche $40 chime replacement harness. When it is very cold outside, i would say 20F or below, upon startup my door chimes will sometimes ring normally and the radio will work, and once in a while upon startup the chimes will ding fast as if i just shut the car off....the radio powers up for a second then acts as if i turned the car off....My fix is usually to let the car warm up a minute or two and then turning the car off and restarting the engine. This has always worked for me. I doubt it has anything to do with your wiring, I'm sure most of us here are familiar with crimping technique....I'm thinkning it's something with the chime replacement module itself. Hope you have luck with your problem.





--Mike

Mike Sider wrote:Cory, I have a similar problem and I am also using the Scoche $40 chime replacement harness. When it is very cold outside, i would say 20F or below, upon startup my door chimes will sometimes ring normally and the radio will work, and once in a while upon startup the chimes will ding fast as if i just shut the car off....the radio powers up for a second then acts as if i turned the car off....My fix is usually to let the car warm up a minute or two and then turning the car off and restarting the engine. This has always worked for me. I doubt it has anything to do with your wiring, I'm sure most of us here are familiar with crimping technique....I'm thinkning it's something with the chime replacement module itself. Hope you have luck with your problem.

Yep exact same problem, and soloution. I've had more success with it recently. Typically just one restart and I can get the radio working again. Thanks for the heads up!

I just received my Pioneer Z110BT and I'm using the same Scosche GM09SR module in my '02 Cavalier to handle the chime functions. I spent a ton of time neatly connecting the wires with solder, shrink tubing, and zip ties. I couldn't wait to try it out so tonight I hooked it up and I'm experiencing the EXACT same issue! It's about 30 degrees out and the Pioneer HU works fine in the ACC position but if I start the car the radio won't come on after the screen blanks out. The chime seem to work and the green LED is flashing on the module but no radio.

Are you guys doing anything with the blue wire coming off of the module? At first I thought this had something to do with the radio not coming on but then I saw this thread. I'm pretty sure it's a remote turn on lead for an amp so I didn't hook it up to anything.

I didn't mess with it too much but I'll have to see if temperature or restarting the engine makes any difference. It's still going to be extremely annoying if I have to put up with this thing like this.

I just had a Pioneer DEH-P5900IB installed using the Scosche GM2000F module and I'm having the exact same problem as well. It was installed yesterday during the day and worked perfectly. This morning at 6:30am I went to head to work and it was doing exactly what Fast Si was saying.
The chimes went fast and the screen lit up, than a second later it went black and there was nothing at all. Never tried eject, but it seemed dead. After a 20 minute drive to work I tried turning the car off and back on... still nothing, yet it'd work with the key turned back to acc.
I took it back to the installer thinking maybe it was loose wires, they pulled it out, played with wires, and it was working just like it should with no problems.

Obviously it has something to do with the Scosche at this point since it's the one thing we all seem to have in common. Is there anything that can be done aside from find a different module?