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**SOLVED**

Hey y'all.

I have a 2005 Civic EX Coupe. My friend was attempting to help me with installing a kill switch to the aftermarket radio because I was (mostly) sure that it was draining my battery even while the car is off. But that's not the issue here. The issue is, while my friend was attempting to figure out the voltage coming through the factory harness (blue plug) he shorted out the ignition wire by shoving a stray wire into the factory connection (literally don't ask, I don't ****ing know why either). Right now it's only pushing 2V on both the factory plug side and the aftermarket harness side. The battery wire is pushing 12V on both the factory plug side, and the aftermarket harness side. And before you ask, yes, I had a solid ground. I used the metal from the blue clips on the ground wire of the aftermarket radio's harness. *All of the connections between wires are crimped with fast wiring blue clips (twist on's for speaker wire)*

Alright, so my current issue is obviously that the ignition wire for the factory harness is shorted and practically shot. I noticed that the factory harness connects to another harness behind the HVAC system and radio, but I have no idea if the shorted wire goes beyond that. None of the fuses that seemed relevant were shot; I even checked the ohms on them with my multimeter, and they all read at zero. I also don't know if there are any inline fuses anywhere that might be shot because of this.

Unfortunately, I still have more.

So, the previous owner installed an aftermarket alarm system that I've used for a majority of the life of the car. Only recently have I uninstalled it and programmed a factory FOB to it. But, because the aftermarket alarm was still wired into the car (I just unplugged the control box, basically) I re-routed the shorted ignition wire from the factory harness to the ignition wire on that aftermarket plug. I clipped out the excess wire from the factory harness so that I wouldn't have any disruption in ignition power between the aftermarket alarm harness and the factory harness (since the factory harness wire is shorted anyways). In doing so, the radio works BUT every time I turn the car off it factory resets.

Sadly, that's not the biggest issue. The biggest issue is now that I've done that bypass, more stuff isn't working:

1. The power locks and the FOB don't work unless the key is in the "on" position, or the vehicle is actually running.
2. The dome light doesn't come on when the car door is opened or when the doors are initially unlocked and locked.
3. In the "accessory" position (not running) only the cigarette lighter and parking lights/headlights work.
4. The gauge cluster only lights up and has any sort of power when the key is in the "on" position or the car is running. Same goes for the HVAC system.
5. When the car is off, and key is out of the ignition, there's no verbal sound that the headlights or parking lights were left on. Normally it beeps real loud to let you know you forgot to turn it off.

Sigh. It took me 3 hours on the phone with my dad just to figure out and re-wire the temporary solution I'm using now. But that's not going to fly for me, because I need everything else more than the radio itself. I'd like to have the best of both worlds and get everything functioning as it should again. Driving around using a bluetooth speaker for music while having a subwoofer wired up that I can't even make use of is pointless...

I know for sure the ignition wire is shorted and shot, but I don't know how far back it goes... what's the best way for me to get my radio working again AND keep everything else working as normal? Can I re-wire the shorted out ignition wire somewhere else? Can I just replace the whole harness that's between the blue plug and the gray one it plugs into (first photo, yellow circle on left)? Assuming they even make that anymore.

Thanks y'all.

I've attached photos, labeled as best as I could. I also included a PDF of the instruction manual for the aftermarket alarm. Unfortunately I had already closed everything up because I thought the issue was solved, it wasn't until I went out to get food that I realized everything else that had stopped working.. that's why everything is covered in electrical tape and the photos are so dark. Sorry ahead of time for my awful labeled photos. I tried to explain it all well, but I'm sure some of it is confusing.

**UPDATE**

I removed the bypass wire from the alarm, but all the issues from above are still happening. So the bypass wire is not the issue, presumably. From the way it seems, that shorted out ignition wire has completely ****ed up my system.

**SECOND UPDATE**

I have checked all of the fuses in both boxes (under the hood and under the steering column), and found a blown 10A fuse that the manual labeled as "back up". Thank god it was a fuse and nothing major beyond that. Replacing that fuse has fixes issues 1 through 5. However, obviously the radio still doesn't turn on because I've disconnected the newly routed ignition wire. But for whatever reason, rewiring it to the aftermarket alarm's ignition wire causes the radio to factory reset every time I turn the car on.

So here's my new question: Where can I rewire the factory ignition wire to that won't cause it to factory reset each time the car is turned off? Is there a wire on the aftermarket alarm's harness that would work better? This has been a roller coaster for me for the last 36 hours, believe me.

Thanks guys.

**FINAL UPDATE**

Once I replaced that fuse it all worked as normal. That wire that was previously reading 2V is now reading 12V. I used that blue wire and an additional blue clip to connect the wire I had cut out of the back of the factory harness. All hunky dory now.

Now the only issue is figuring out what's causing the battery drain. But I'm troubleshooting that now, so it's all good. I disconnected the subwoofer from the battery, and the radio from the harness. If the battery isn't a few volts down by Friday then I'll know it's one of those two causing the problem. From there I'll troubleshoot further, but for now I'm happy that the current crises has been averted.

Thanks for coming along on my 36 hour nightmare. Hope y'all have a great week.

 
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More photos

Just removed crimp from extension blue wire and yellow ignition wire from aftermarket alarm. The wires are still disconnected until I find another solution, but I at least know this one works (just not the best).

 
Rep Power: 222

You need to fix all hacked wiring, remove the alarm, and wire the stereo properly (no twist connections).
That short shouldn't be too hard to find once you get into things