uh oh - installed stereo..now warning lights are on!

[bigchillcar]

i didn't read in the installation package until after the fact that the negative terminal nees to be disconnected for the new stereo install!

the prior stereo was marvel of early 90's engineering and determination..it took my brother and i about 9 hours to do the job..about half of it was removing the old amp, crossover box and whatever other unidentifiable things which included at one time front and rear radar detectors and a phone system with a mic button on the steering wheel. amazing amount of wire..will be posting all of it in another thread pronto. i bet the car lost 20 lbs. of stereo gear and wires!

the new blaupunkt bermuda looks great and sounds great, but...

my seat belt warning light, convertible light and my airbag lights are all on and stay lit. the seat belt and airbag lights are supposed to extinguish after about 5-6 seconds..not sure why the top light is lit?? we had the top down for the installation just for convenience.

what to do now? does it need the bosch hammer? we tried disconnecting the negative cable for 5 minutes and hooking back up, but no go. need help!!!
ryan

[Don Plumley]

Disconnect it overnight.

[bigchillcar]

we tried 5 minutes and nothing. will overnight really work?! i was thinking i'd have to find a service shop, but we have no porsche dealer here in arkansas!

[bigchillcar]

don, found this link. you mentioned going to a specialty porsche mechanic for my exact same problem with these three warning lights back in december.


ANY 911 Mechanics out there?

[Don Plumley]

30 minutes might not be enough for the DME to reset. And overnight means you'll stop tinkering with it and enjoy a beer.

Remember the durametric scan tool? Might be in your future...

But an overnight discharge is free and worth a try. Then a few restart cycles.

Hopefully AFJuvat will chime in - I'm just making guesses....

[bigchillcar]

thanks, don...just back inside from disconnecting for overnight. will let you know tomorrow when able from work. i have a bad feeling i'm gonna need that damn tool, too. one step forward, two steps backwards it seems lately..

[bigchillcar]

also posted this on rennlist...my 1st post there..lol.

[bigchillcar]

don...no go on the overnight - all three warning lights mentioned are still on. i've gotta find the tool (may have to buy it) unless a local exotic car shop may have one. damn. anyone else? anyone have any luck with the durametric tool?

[bigchillcar]

help!!! i have a shop that will check the codes for $75 and stop there.

[bell]

i have run into this numerous times.
do you still have an amplifier in the car? if so and it was still connected to the cars positive terminal then unhooking the battery won't work due to the capacitors in the amp.
disconect the main power wire from the amp and disconnect the battery again, also to make sure the system is drained of power use a 12volt test light and touch the positive terminal (the car side not the battery).....when the light is out the system is drained of residual power.
then leave the battery unhooked for about an hour.....
then reconnect the battery and start it up.....let it idle for a few minutes or until warmed up.....then shut off and start it again and it'll reset....
worked for me a dozen times at least.

[bigchillcar]

bell, thanks for your message! we got rid of the old amp, crossover and a lot of components. as soon as i can get the pics uploaded, i'm gonna post a thread of all the old ***** we pulled out of this car - a box fullllll of old wires and then the components and a piece of plywood that the amp was mounted on in the front trunk.

we simplified everything (brother used to do installation work..couldn't have done it without him). we just have a blaupunkt, 45 watt max power (18x4 regular?) anyway, the original radio harness was toast so we tossed and i think the memory is set to constant power and the stereo itself to switched power, if i understand correctly. then we pulled all of the speaker wire that used to run into the front trunk back into the car, shortened it and ran direct connections. ground was easy enough to find. any thoughts now based upon what you said without any amp?

[bell]

high power radios also have "big" caps in them, i would still try what i posted.

the memory for the computer draws less than a clock.....a quick way to drain it is to hold the +terminal to ground while it's unhooked from the battery.....but i don't suggest this with german cars as they can be more sensitive......hondas no problem ....but not our p-cars

[bigchillcar]

okay, bell. i will forward this thread to my brother (not a member) and see if he's clear on what you're suggesting..radios aren't my long suit. i kinda think i follow, but i want to make sure that my brother does completely. thanks!
ryan

[bigchillcar]

bell, my brother had suggested we try disconnecting both bat terminals and 'holding them together' for like 5 minutes or so. he says this has worked on other cars for him. just to be clear - is that what you're saying that i should NOT try?

[Don Plumley]

I wouldn't discharge anything by holding the + and - terminals together. Use a light bulb/test light between them at least.

[bigchillcar]

don, i'm assuming this introduces a margin of safety of some sort? i do have a test i could use for this..

[bell]

whenever you touch the +/- neg terminals together this discharges all the power in the system, but does it very abruptly with a spark sometimes, our 911's do not like that kind of activity so using the test light to drain the system adds a safety margin to the process but accomplishes the same task.

so touching the terminals together will work....but not advisable on anything german....911's especially.

[bigchillcar]

okay, i'm sitting here alone and bored and made up my mind. i've wasted an entire day doing nothing. i'm going to go purchase a bottle of bourbon, come back and do some p-car work in the carport even though it's like 39 degrees here.

bell, can you talk me through how i'm going to hook up this test? assume i have disconnected both bat terminals and i have a test light available? now what? what goes where? what touches what? the bourbon, btw, will be for the ^%$^%#!! hours i spend trying to fish that ^%$%@! wire out of the a-pillar that runs to the interior light on/off button! also wanna clean that isv valve with carb cleaner and q-tips.

[Don Plumley]

Ryan - The idea is a stored charge is keeping your DME from fully resetting. Not sure if its is, but it's free to try.

The purpose of the test light is to discharge any current that is stored in your car stereo capacitors or anywhere else in the system. With the battery cables disconnected, simply connect one test light clip to the + terminal and the other to the - terminal. If the light glows, then goes out, you had a stored charge somewhere. If nothing happens, then no stored charge.

It's that simple.

[bigchillcar]

don...why, i believe even a caveman could do that! just got my bourbon..i'm set to do anything now. so, i'm hoping for scenario one: light goes, then goes out with discharge. scenario two: i'm still fukked..