stereo woes

[Ramsey]

my cd player keeps crapping out. my sub and the deck still work but the speakers run of of it will be silent. i popped it out and the ground(black wire coming of the harness on hte cd player, i assume its the ground) was loose. i hooked it back up to the wire that seemed it came unconnected from. nothing. so i took it back ot the place where it was put in and they "fixed" it. same two wires were hooked back up, i unhokked it before i took so they would not think i tampered with it, and it was working fine until about 2 days later it did it again. sometimes when i hit a bumjp it will come back on but it has not been working for about a day and a half and its driving me nuts. can someone help out. i dont even know where to look. i did try running a new ground and that didnt help. btw its a panasonic ghost.

 

[Gridikal]

Sounds like a loose connection somewhere. Did you recently install new speakers as well? Go through all the speaker wires and check connections- making sure nothing is loose, no frayed wires, no bare wires touching each other, no screws driven through the wires. When a speaker's wires get crossed (depending on the head unit brand) the head unit will go into a kind of "safe mode" -protecting it and the speaker from damage. After you checked those, pull out the head unit and check all the connections between the head unit harness and the oem wires. You say you took it somewhere to get it installed?- often times they do a crappy job. Make sure all the connections are strong, well covered, and bound together. Hopefully they are soldered and heat-shrinked. Next, check the connector itself for loose wires. I had a problem with my old Panasonic on this issue where the +12V lead poped out. If that doesn't work, well, you could always try a new harness- order one from Panasonic or you can find them on eBay for like $7.

 

[Ramsey]

thanks, i'll check the speaker connections. no new ones, but my doors are removable and i had originally cut the left front ones between the door and the body. on the other side i just unplugged em. i hooked them back up a few weeks ago so i'll check that. the connections were good that they used, guess i'll check out my speakers now.

 

[Ramsey]

connections seem fine. anyone know where the ground goes so i can check it. i followed it to under the steering wheel but cant see where it goes from there

 

[Gridikal]

Unplug the AM/FM antenna and see if the head unit turns on.
If it does, the ground is not the issue. Even it was part of the problem the whole deck wouldn't work without the ground- not just the speakers.

Still have the warrenty on the deck?

 

[Ramsey]

it still comes on without the antenna hooked up i think, will double check tomorrow. so if it still comes on, what else could it be? think my deck is trashed?

edit: ok just got back from checking and it will turn on with both disconnected and with just one or the other disconnected. is there a sure way to make sure each speaker is hooked up correctly. stock speakers. might it be my wiring harness is just no good and i need to pick up a new one? thanks for hte help so far btw

 

[Ramsey]

the place that put it in wants to charge a minimum of 35$ to look at it, i think thats not right since i paid to have it put in anyways. what do you think i should do. try a new harness or just let them look and see what is wrong.

 

[Gridikal]

Somthing sounds likes it's fubar'd.

Go back to the place that installed it insist they re-install it. if they still want to charge you- raise hell, you'll get what you need (and rightfully so) done.

 

[Ramsey]

guess tomorrow's gonna be a fun day, but hey there just might be some music too

 

[xjoe]

stereo woes, I just went through a simmilar situation. Bought a new deck about six months ago,worked fine till about two weeks ago. the deck started acting funny,kind of like yours,no sound out of main speakers but the deck & sub still functioned. I am sure if the symtoms are exactlly the same but My deck would also manage to function sometimes (when it sat for a while,low volume or hit a bump) So I made a appointment to get the deck looked at.So I get there and wait for my appointment(about 20-30 minutes) & for some reason they cannot duplicate the symtoms,the deck worked fine for them. So I drove away pretty unhappy. Well about 10min later deck started doing this again. made an apponintment, showed up, asked them to observe the problem when i arrived (parked right in front ) so they pulled the deck out & i geuss it was uncomfortably hot to the touch. so finally a diagnosis, the deck was protecting it self, it was overheating because I was asking it to put out more than It was capable of handling(the reason the sub was still woking is that it had its own dedicated amp)So they installed a 4channel amp and all is well. The deck only has limited cooling capacity look at the difference in the size of the heat sinks on the deck versus the amp. hope that helps.

 

[Ramsey]

i guess that is something to consider. i am just running the 4 factory door speakers off of it and it worked fine for about 7 months. thanks for the heads up though taht way if they try to sell me an amp i wont think there crazy, of course i wont buy it from them but still thanks for your input.

 

[RichP]

Just wanted to chime in here on heat, I have a 98 and my stock OEM am/fm/cass works fine. One thing I have noticed is that when I have the heat on, no matter whether the floor/dash/defroster vents that faceplate on the stock radio gets HOT. After seeing this happen I know I would find some way to block the heat rising, either thru small vents drilled in the face of the center bezel or some other areas if and when I put a replacement setup in.