Parking brake ground wire for DVD playback

[mmcglynn264]

I've just finished installing a Viper alarm system in the 1998 New Beetle i bought for my daughter! The factory head unit was pretty busted up i.e. missing eject button, broken tape player, so i found a good deal on a Clarion NZ500 for a replacement. All the wiring is done including a back-up camera I installed above the license plate. However, I need to hook up the parking brake wire ground to the Clarion in order to get the DVD player to work. I know i can bypass it but, since she's a teenage girl, I don't want her to be able to work the DVD feature unless the emergency brake is engadged. Can someone please tell what color(s) the wire is and where exactly i can find it? Otherwise i just won't hook it up at all since I purchased it mainly for the nav and ipod hook ups anyway. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[sean_fabanich]

cant help ya with the color of the parking brake....

but youll probably need to find it. as many nav units only have access to setting routes and searching things when the car is not in motion...or the parking brake is set....not sure how the clarion one works...but you might wanna check that out if you cant find the color of the wire...

of course i bet you can sneak a peak into teh console to see the wire color...as only a few wires should be in there.

[mmcglynn264]

Thanks for responding. Hopefully someone out there will be able to tel me the parking brake ground wire color. According to the install manual of the clarion head unit, it says "When he paking brake wire is not connected, the monitor will not show any video sources." So, hopefully, that means it won't effect the nave system. I'm goung to try looking in the console today. I was hoping to put the dash back together this morning after i finish wrapping all the wires from the alarm install. I guess before i do that i'll open up that parking brake console and se what i can find but i've looked at pictures of that section and i didn't see any wires.

[mmcglynn264]

I took apart the center console of my daughter's 1998 new beetle and found the switch just below where the emergency brake is hinged. there are two wires connected to this switch, brown and brown/white. I connected the saftey wire from the stereo to the brown wire since the wiring diagrams i found online all show that for the new beetle the brown wire is the ground. However, it didn't work. I will try reversing the wires next to see if that works but, I'm going on vacation so it will have to wait until i get back. I will also be installing a backup camera to the head unitl at that time. i will post when it's completed.

[JP]

I had the same issue in my yukon, found a dvd relay kit on ebay that lets you run the dvd player while in drive it was like 18.00

[Droid]

you don't really have many choices as to what that switch is switching, it is either switching +12 volts or gnd.....either way, if it is +12 volts, wire one side of a 12v realy coil to it, adn the other to gnd....and then use the no contact side of the relay to switch whatever you need....the only thing i would be careful of is to be sure it is actually 12 volts...and not a logic signal for the ecm..12 volts or a relay coil would cause damage to the ecm if it is....

[h_2_o]

the ones i've installed (I can not speak for your particular unit) but other clarion models. the easiest way to do it is get a standard switch from radio shack and run it inline to any ground. that's it. I've never actually seen one that wants a +12, that does not mean there isn't one just i've not seen one.