Radio wiring harness

jamazing · Joined: 10 May 2008 Posts: 94 Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Hi guys,

First of all, let me say this has been really pissing me off... My kenwood dnx8120 keeps forgetting my customized settings after about 8 or so hours of the car being off. My only guess is that the reciever has a battery built in it and it expires after some period of time (I.e. Around 8 hours). I did not wire the headunit (constant 12v) directly to the battery like booklet said, I just put all of the wires in their proper connections to my plug and play harness that I purchased. Now do our cars harnesses have a constant 12v going to the factory radio? If so... Is that wire in the harness that plugs into the plug and play harness for an aftermarket deck? Everything else works just fine for the reciever it just seems to forget things like speed dial settings that I set up, custom eqalizer settings, and things of that nature if the car remains off for about 8 hours. If I go in the car after say 4 hours all of my settings are still good. Someone please help...

Ps. I would go swap the constant 12v wire out to the batter this morning and let it sit but unfortunately I'm at work and typing this on my bberry. I will be checkin my email regularly for responses though throughout the day.

Thanks a million guys!!!!!!

mattieg · Joined: 25 Oct 2005 Posts: 863

Ya you have a constant wire that saves information like the clock, your presets and etc. And then an ignition wire that allows the radio to turn on with the car. If you bought a harness its the yellow wire that needs to be connected. But it sounds like you connected both constant and the ignition wire to a ignition source. Otherwise the radio wouldnt even turn on.

jamazing · Joined: 10 May 2008 Posts: 94 Location: Pittsburgh, PA

I wired the red with the red on the harness and the yellow with the yellow. I can't figure this out for the life of me....

ryomanmkiii · Joined: 23 Jan 2007 Posts: 34 Location: Central Alabama

Unit could be faulty. It's possible.

mattieg · Joined: 25 Oct 2005 Posts: 863

very true. If you wired it correctly then it should save all the functions. And it wont be a fuse cause in the car then it wouldnt even turn on. My last gues would be to check a fuse on the back of the radio... but then again if thats blown it shouldnt turn on either. Just return it and get another one

Ace83 · Joined: 26 Aug 2006 Posts: 5590 Location: TX

it could be that the harness is different from our tc, sometimes color coding is different.. that unless the harness you have is one that is designed for the tc. and we do have a constant on our radio harness maybe you can just tap the wires manually

jamazing · Joined: 10 May 2008 Posts: 94 Location: Pittsburgh, PA

That would make sense but the unit doesn't lose ALL of the settings just my eq and phone speed dials... And only after an extended period of time. The radio presets and time etc always remain saved...