Car Audio anyone have any experience here?

mkopec said:

So my kid bought a cheap Alpine for his 2007 ford fusion with an amp and a kicker for the back. Everything is great except the remote turn on wire they sent with the kit does not have a 3.5mm plug on it and the head unit has a 3.5mm plug for the remote turn on for the amp.

Reading shit about this is if you dont use the remote turn on the amp just stays on and drains battery.

So how do I get a regular wire with no polarity into a 3,.5mm plug? Why do they make this shit so difficult?

Below is the plug for the remote turn on circled in red.

View attachment 412174

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Edit2: First, check Void's post below and see if that is the correct manual. If so, he is right with the blue and white. That picture looks like the same set up, even if it's a different model number.

Small edit1: Some head units may have multiple outs for the amps, including a separate remote wire in the wire cluster. Count your wires to make sure they are all documented in the manual, maybe.

It has been a while since I have done an install, but I think the 3.5 plug they use is for amps that have extra controls built in. You can bypass it altogether, as described below.

First, verify how much power the amp can take over its remote wire (hopefully in the manual). Next, plug in the wire harness you are going to use and verify the remote wire (usually yellow looks like Alpine uses red) is dead, when the car is off, using a voltmeter. Might as well test the yellow, constant power, while you are there. Turn on accessories and test the red wire again and verify that it is not too much for the amp.

If the yellow red ignition wire passes the test:
In this case it would be easier to wire your lead wire for the amp into the ignition wire (red) coming off the car harness. When you are wiring up your car kit, to the head unit, twist the head unit ignition wire and the wire you are going to run to the amp, together, then stick them in one side of the wire butt connector and crimp it closed. Then pair the other side of the butt connector with the ignition wire in the wire harness. That's all you need.

Void said:

Yeah, that's the steering wheel remote plug, not the remote power.

According to the manual here https://pdf.crutchfieldonline.com/ImageBank/v20180405110600/Manuals/500/500CDE170.PDF your remote turn-on is the blue/white wire.

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That looks like the right set up. After a closer look, the yellow and black are a larger gauge, which would indicate constant power. That would make red the ignition, and there is also a blue and a blue/white in the picture.

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