Kenwood wiring help? Protect mode.

[zerogspacecow]

So the XJ I recently purchased came with a Kenwood head unit installed, but I seem to be having some problems with it. It works fine some of the time, but twice now I've had a problem where the sound will go in and out as I go over bumps. This will happen for a minute or two, then the head unit will go into "protect" mode. Apparently this means it's detecting a short somewhere.

The first time it stayed like that for about a week, then started working fine again. Now it's just started happening again.

I pulled the head unit, and the wiring was all sloppy (just twisted wires together), so I went through and soldered all the wires and taped them up. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to have helped.

So, my question is if anyone has had similar issues? Is there a place on XJs where a speaker wire commonly comes loose or something?

 

[USMCGunrock]

Does it still have the OEM speakers or aftermarkets? what year XJ is it? take ur door panels out and check the connections on the speakers. I have a 2001 that i replaced the OEM head unit and speakers because i only had 2 speakers out of the 4 that were working and intermittent. i saw the speaker connections on the doors to be corroded and one on the back to be loose. check the fuse on the head unit. This is how i did mine:

its a heat shrink/solder. did that to all my connections and then used ox-gard grease on my speaker connections

 

[zerogspacecow]

It's '98. It had the Infinity sound system originally, but all the wires going to the box under the back seat are cut. I think the rear speakers (in the headliner) are aftermarket, but I'm not sure about the others.

I'll take off the door panels tomorrow and take a look, thanks for the tip!

 

[zerogspacecow]

So today I pulled apart both front doors. The large speakers on the bottom both appeared to be aftermarket, but the wiring looked okay. I covered the wiring in electrical tape electrical tape just to be sure.

The tiny speakers up in the corner were both messed up. The passenger side was just missing completely, while the drivers side had the wires pulled out. I just disconnected that cable completely to be safe (since it obviously wasn't doing any good).

But, the problem is still happening. Goes into protect mode as soon as I turn on the car.

Any other ideas? Is it possible the head unit itself could be defective?

 

[Talyn]

Pull the head unit out of the dash and disconnect everything but the power and ground wires. if it still does it the HU is bad. If it works start reconnecting wires one at a time until it goes back into protection mode. The wire you connected last is most likely the cause.

 

[GrimmJeeper]

Pull the head unit out of the dash and disconnect everything but the power and ground wires. if it still does it the HU is bad. If it works start reconnecting wires one at a time until it goes back into protection mode. The wire you connected last is most likely the cause.

^this.

 

[zerogspacecow]

Pull the head unit out of the dash and disconnect everything but the power and ground wires. if it still does it the HU is bad. If it works start reconnecting wires one at a time until it goes back into protection mode. The wire you connected last is most likely the cause.

Thanks for the tip! This is a stupid question, but how do I know which wires are the power? The back of the head unit basically has a ground wire, an antenna wire, and then two plugs that each have 7-8 wires attached. I don't have the manual for the thing. Is there a certain color that is commonly used for power in stereos?

 

[Talyn]

I would bet Kenwood has a manual online. If not for that particular unit maybe another kenwood would have common colors. Also, the 12volt.com may have a wiring color chart for the Jeep itself.

 

[zerogspacecow]

I would bet Kenwood has a manual online. If not for that particular unit maybe another kenwood would have common colors. Also, the 12volt.com may have a wiring color chart for the Jeep itself.

Thanks for the link, I'll check that out.

 

[GrimmJeeper]

for the radio, all aftermarket radios use a common color coding, I wish the OEM manufacturers would use it too.


The radio side standard color coding is here: http://www.the12volt.com/request/request2.asp

hope this helps

 

[Bryan C.]

98's are also known for having broken wires in the door jumper harness. Try moving the harness around and try it with the door open and closed.

 

[zerogspacecow]

Okay, so I used the method suggested by Talyn: I disconnected all of the speakers, and just left the power. Then, I connected each speaker one at a time, connecting the battery and checking the stereo each time.

Doing this, I determined that the back right speaker is the problem. I'll pull the speaker out this weekend and check the wiring, but for now I just have that speaker disconnected so the stereo will work (three speakers is better then silence...).

Thanks for your help, guys, I really appreciate it!

 

[ColoradoDave]

Alright, here's what's up..when a deck is in protect it means that either the ohm load to one or more of the speaker wires is too low or one or more of the speaker wires are grounding out. The easiest way to test this is with a test light or a meter and a 9V battery. pull your stereo and test each speaker wire for ground. if you find a ground on one of the wires you've found your problem. check the corresponding speaker first to make sure that terminals and exposed wire are not touching metal in the car. it's probabily going to be one of the fronts because the rear deck on pre 97's a fiberglass and post 97 used sound bars..anyway, if there's no ground you may also have a blown speaker. the easiest way (not the best way) to test this is a 9v battery put power and ground from the battery on the speaker leads and listen for a pop if it pops the speaker is most likely good as the voice coil is in tact. if this doesn't solve your problem look under the back seat and see if you have a factory infinity amplifier if you do it may need to be bypassed