I've installing a second-hand Sony CD Player in the other half's '97 Fiesta (I know, it's not a Skoda but I just need a bit of advice).

The only problem is, I connected it all up, only to find that it won't switch on, however, it will accept and eject CDs.

Have I simply got the switched and constant power leads the wrong way round, or is it something more sinister?

I've done plenty of these things before but never had this problem before.

Cheers.

if you have the ignition on, then the power connections should still be fine even if they are reversed. Have you checked the fuse to the switched supply of the headunit. Sonys will allow you to eject CD's with the key out. So, check the fuse at both the headunit end and the fusebox end as it sounds like one of the 12v feeds is not working at all.

Well the strange thing is the Ford headunit works fine - it switches on when you turn the key and will power up without if you press the power button.

it could be the fuse on the Sony, does the one you have, have a fuse on the back of the headunit. Check this, or if its inline on the power then check that its not blown of missing all together. If all are present and correct then try the HU in another car. If it still doesnt work then I suspect the HU is duff.

Righty-ho. I'm going to give it another try tomorrow morning and see how it goes.

There is a fuse on the back of the headunit, but that is ok too. The headunit didn't have a wiring harness so I had to buy a wiring harness and Ford-to-ISO adapter harness - I just hope it's not either of these two causing the problems.

I'm going to try switching the power leads around. If that fails, I'll try powering it direct from the battery to double check it actually works. Failing that, I think your point about a duff headunit may well be right!

I'm tempted to go out and buy a multimeter so I'm not fumbling around in the dark (electrically speaking).

My local ALDI has them in for £4 !

Bargain.

My local ALDI has them in for £4 !

Bargain.

I take it you mean multimeters! I see Maplin have them in for £4.99 too.

Right. I went and got a multimeter this morning and thought I'd give the install another go.

Firstly, I checked all the power connections after each connector block - all fine.

Next, I plugged the HU in again and reset it. I could hear the cd mechanism whirring away, but no life on the display. Just to make sure, I disconnected the power leads and swapped them around - same thing. So finally, I joined the car's continuous power to the HU's switched and constant power leads, so it had power all the time - still no difference.

However, after checking my aftermarket harness against others on the internet, I could see that the switched power lead was sitting in the wrong position in the power connector. After a quick re-jig, I plugged it in and to my amazement, it worked!

The only issue I now have is that the volume has to be turned up very high on the HU to hear anything through the speakers. If it goes up to a reasonable level, the speakers start distorting. The only way around this was to adjust the fader, to either front or rear bias. This seemed to cure the problem. I think that perhaps once again, the dodgy Chinese £3 wiring harness has got the speaker wires muddled up.

Oh well, at least it works now, but the old saying "you get what you pay for" may well be true here!

Edited 17 November, 200916 yr by Karlos69

The fiesta is a very simple system, so I'd check the speakers since they were paper and prone to rotting on the older cars.

The fiesta is a very simple system, so I'd check the speakers since they were paper and prone to rotting on the older cars.

Well this is what I thought - a Mk.4 Fiesta is hardly state of the art and the speakers are, like you say, made of paper.

The strange thing is, the fader control, either on full front or full rear, still operates all 4 speakers equally, and the balance is the wrong way round (i.e. left is right and vice versa), which is why I think the cheapo harness could be to blame.

Also the harness doesn't have an illumination wire on it, so the HU doesn't dim when you turn on the headlights. I think I might have to just purchase a proper job harness for it.