i read in the manual that it could be either grounded with the black wire, OR ground the sled. But for me, only the sled seems to work, could it be my car wiring isn't doing the trick? When i poked around with my meter i thought it would do the trick.

If grounding the sled wire doesn't do the trick, then either that wire has pulled out of the sled wiring loom, or you aren't using the right wire on your car's docking connector.

Don't just poke around with a test-light or a multimeter and "assume" a given wire does a given thing. The car wiring looms are very deceptive in this way and you can make things go badly if you do not use the right connections. Do not guess as to the functions of the wires on your car wiring loom, get a proper harness adapter from a place like Crutchfield so that you are absolutely certain.

Well... i did buy one of those aftermarket harnesses, and i also confirmed with other sources that the wiring colors are correct. Like Crutchfields and other wiring diagrams for my car. So i am pretty sure i got the wiring right. i was very careful with all steps. Heck i even checked my stock HU since it had the information on the unit itself. But then again i'm not saying i can't make mistakes =)
But from what you are saying, i can assume that the MK2 needs only to be grounded with the black wire? And not me getting another ground source to the sled cage itself? Am i making sense? i didn't mention earlier that my stock head unit had a seperate ground wire screwed to the outer case, and to the car chasis. It's a used car so i couldn't tell if that was stock or not. Thanks for replying. =

The player should be able to turn on and play when you use the ground wire from the sled's wiring harness. Grounding to the sled should not be required in order to make it run. You might want to try sled grounding if you're having a ground loop problem (noise), but just to get the thing to boot, that shouldn't be required.

If the player won't run when using the ground wire from the sled's wiring harness, then one of the following things is wrong:

- There is a wiring fault at the sled's wiring harness. For example, some of sled looms have wires that pulled out of the connecting pins because they weren't crimped properly.

- There is a wiring mistake/fault somewhere between the sled and the car. For instance, some wires connected to the wrong wires on the car, wires not properly crimped, ignition wire is not hooked up correctly, loose ground screw on the car wiring, etc.

- There is a blown fuse somewhere along the lines leading to the player.

- There is a fault internal to the player.

Thanks =)... i'll keep working at it now that i know i read the manual correctly.