The stereo was recently stolen out of my 1990 Honda Civic (2 door hatchback), and ever since I have had to jump the car every couple days to get it to start.
The battery is only a few months old, and I just wonder if in ripping the stereo out it cause the loose wires to always be drawing power. It’s gotten so that I won’t drive it because even after driving around for forty-five minutes or so it will not come back on once stopped.
What can I do to get it to stay running until I can get the money to put in a new stereo? Will a new stereo even fix the problem?
It’s possible that what you said is what happened. There’s metal behind the center console, and the stereo has 2 power wires going to it. One of those wires has power even when the car is off (to supply power for the stereo’s preset memory and clock). If that wire is touching the metal, it’s grounded, and is discharging your battery.
The easy check is to dive under the passenger side of the dash with a flashlight and look at the wires. See any that are bare, and touching metal or other wires? Wrap electrical tape around each wire individually to prevent contact. Or if you’re lucky, the thief cut the wire between the harness plug and the head unit, which means you can just unplug the broken wires and throw them away.
Yes, replacing the stereo would fix the problem if that’s indeed what it is, because you would be hooking the wires back up to a stereo where they belong.
When you replace it, get one with a detachable face, and take it with you whenever you park. Hopefully you won’t get one stolen again.
You should also check that a power wires to the radio are not touching or shorting to a body part. Chances are they probably did not kindly remove the radio and a wire may be shorting to ground.