So for months now my battery has been draining practically over night and sometimes it would would last for days. I checked all the lights to see if they were on. No Dice. I was sure that it must have been some sort of short that was killing it. I even replaced the battery.

However I did notice that I could turn on the radio with its power button even with the key out but sometimes that wouldn't work and I assumed that's what made my battery last. The last owner must of had it put in the truck. Its one of those gimmicky fold out to show the display Dual brand heads. PITA if you ask me.

I assume that it has some sort of setting to make it so it doesn't pull or a combonation of turning it off before the car. IDK. If I hit the power button it folds itself up and appears to be off but is still pulling power. I did the old meter trick on the battery to find that it was pulling 1.1 A with everything shutdown and closed.

So I started pulling fuses and sure enough I found the fuse. The RDO BAT (radio battery?) fuse didn't end the pulling but the RDO IGN (radio ignition?) did the trick and took it down to 0.6 A which I think is just from it not sleeping at the moment. I can now sleep easy now that I can leave it for days without it dieing and when I get back in I just pop the fuse panel off and put the fuse back in to have music.

So does anyone know whats going on with my radio? I'm thinking it was wired up wrong and I'll just pull it out to have a look. What exactly should I look for to make sure everything is in the right place? Thank you to anyone who can help.

 

https://blazerforum.com/forum/audio-...l-parts-11284/
In post one it gives the wire colors for the vehicles harness (I am guessing the previous owner probably cut the OEM harness off and hardwired it (which is stupid these days since you can get an adapter to use the vehicles harness and the radios harness)

So, then all you need to do is look up the head unit that you have for the wire colors for which is which, and make sure its all wired up correctly

 

So pretty much I just have to make sure that its hardwired up correctly or should I buy a harness for it? Thanks for the reply btw.

 

I would just hardwire it correctly. In the factory configuration, RDO Bat was used to provide a low constant current to the radio to maintain station presets and the time. If your radio has presets this should do the same when connected appropriately. RDO IGN provides power for the radio when the key is on, in accessory, or when the truck is operating under retained accessory power. It sounds like the line that RDO Bat is currently connected to should be connected to RDO IGN. I doubt RDO IGN was ever connected.

 

if its hardwired, buying a harness will do you no good, since the factory harness is most likely cut off.
Then you would be looking at going to a yard, getting the factory harness, splicing that in. Huge pain in the end.

It, ultimately should have had the adapter harness in the first place. I do not understand why people do not use them, they are cheap, and extremely simple, and right every time.