Audio assistance needed..

Digitalchaos

Registered User
Earlier today I completed the installation of an aftermarket car stereo via a Scosche wiring adapter harness which plugged into the factory unit. While listening to the new installation, the reciever lost all power after about 6 minutes of playtime when I increased the volume. I unplugged the aftermarket unit and reinstalled the basic factory tape deck. This was also non functional except for the illumination with the headlights. Before this the stock unit worked as normal.

The package which came with my car was the standard non-JBL basic sound. I checked the ACC and Radio fuse by looking and switching them with known good fuses to no avail.

Are there other fuses inline with the radio circuit? The only other scenario I can invision is a piece of wire overheating melting the insulation and grounding against a piece of metal.

Any assistance you can provide me with is appreciated!

Thanks for reading;
Kevin
 
Digitalchaos said:
Earlier today I completed the installation of an aftermarket car stereo via a Scosche wiring adapter harness which plugged into the factory unit. While listening to the new installation, the reciever lost all power after about 6 minutes of playtime when I increased the volume. I unplugged the aftermarket unit and reinstalled the basic factory tape deck. This was also non functional except for the illumination with the headlights. Before this the stock unit worked as normal.

The package which came with my car was the standard non-JBL basic sound. I checked the ACC and Radio fuse by looking and switching them with known good fuses to no avail.

Are there other fuses inline with the radio circuit? The only other scenario I can invision is a piece of wire overheating melting the insulation and grounding against a piece of metal.

Any assistance you can provide me with is appreciated!

Thanks for reading;
Kevin


Does your car have the premium stereo (not jbl) it will consist of a big plug and a little plug for wiring, or if you have the standard stereo it will have a big grey and big black plug.

Let me know which one you have so I can better diagnose your system

Thanks
Garett
 
Thanks for responding Garett. I have the bottom option radio which was available at the time, non JBL and non amplified. The tapedeck reciever drives four stock speakers with its internal amp.
 
Is everything else in your car still working? If your power windows work, then the 80 amp ignition switch fuse and the ignition switch itself are okay.
 
I would check all fuses in the fuse panel with a test light to make sure they are all ok, you will need the headlights on when testing so you can check all fuses, one will be a ground fuse with no power at all make sure it is ok by pulling out and looking at it.

Let me know if that works

Thanks
Garett
 
Theres also a fuse in the fuse box under the hood which, aux or acc. i think, which will kill the deck if you blow it.
However, if the deck does light up its getting power so I dont think that a blown fuse is the source of your problems
 
Replace MEMORY fuse in underhood block

If you look at the underhood fuse box, there is a five amp fuse labeled memory. I can guarantee you that it is blown. Replace it with a ten amp fuse and you should be good to go. Let us know how it turns out.
 
where are those of you that have jbl premium getting harnesses to run an aftermartket deck? I have the tape and receiver torward the top of the dash with a factory cd player (not working) down by the ash tray. Plus a trunk amp. I would like to install a cd deck but Have never messed with anything that has split units like this...
 
Hey man, I had the same problem and I know how to fix it!

I did the same thing in my 1989, I put in a Pioneer MP3 deck and one day leaving the store, I had the radio turned up all the way when it came on, there was a weird noise and then no more stereo! All the fuses were fine, so I got to looking around with a multimeter. I used the same brand radio wiring harness adapter and all, turns out what happened is I fried the constant 12V wire in the harness, I know the face still glows on the stock unit, mine did too, but it didn't work again until i ran a new 12V wire from the engine compartment to the stock harness (I cut the original 12V wire and spliced it in). You will need a multimeter to determine which one to replace, if you can't figure it out and let me know soon enough I can look at mine for you and tell you which one it was. It fixed my problem!!
 
just an idea for you out there, why dont you just run the 12v wire from your radio into the fuse box, if something ever goes wrong it just blows out the fuse. thats how i did it to mine, just figure out which fuse produces power constantly(internal lamps). late
 
Not a bad idea, but make note

895speed said:
just an idea for you out there, why dont you just run the 12v wire from your radio into the fuse box, if something ever goes wrong it just blows out the fuse. thats how i did it to mine, just figure out which fuse produces power constantly(internal lamps). late



At first glance that seems like a harmless proposition, just be aware that you may are combining two things that use power on one fuse, you can easily install an in-line fuse in the new power wire and provide it it's own safeguard. I would also reccomend rerunning it becauseyou can step up the size of the power wire for better flow for todays late model stereo decks.
 
Was this ever solved? One of the answers above was the right one. The stock constant power circuit is fused under the hood and labelled "memory". It is only a 5a fuse from the factory because the factory uses the accessory (labelled "Radio" in the fuse box inside the car) for the main power supply in the radio. All aftermarket radios use the constant power feed for their amplifiers meaning that the draw of an aftermarket radio is much higher on the "memory" circuit. Herein lies the problem.

You can upgrade the fuse in the underhood fuse box to match the fuse in the radio itself (or it's harness). This is usually a 10 or 15a fuse. There is a drawback to this though, and that is that the circuit really isn't designed for 15a currentflow. This still isn't a problem in most cases because for all but the highest volumes most radio's don't use more than 7-9a of current anyhow which is not significantly higher than the stock 5a circuit rating. I have never had a problem with upgrading that fuse to a 10a in all my years of installing stereos (quite a few).

However, the ultimate solution is to do as was also suggested above. Simply do not use that circuit to power the radio as it is marginal in the first place. Running a seperate 12ga wire with 15a fuse from the main power terminal on the starter solenoid through the "A" piller rubber gromet up to the radio will provide you with more current and better performance from your radio.

:)
 
I just cut all the wires for the speakers and spliced them into my alpine speaker lines, then cut and used the existing ignition power line and then ran a new constant power line and it works great. The ignition line uses the existing fuse in the main box under the dash, and the constant has its own fuse that the alpine came with so i never get blown fuses. Its a 60w by 4, I crank it way up and never get major power draw. I hooked up a JL 500/1 mono amp to a 12' alpine type s and works perfect.
 
Thanks for all the excellent information everyone; this forum is a great resource.

Salty and XR7 Dave had the exact problem. I also recieved an answer here: http://www.caraudioforum.com/vbb3/showthread.php?t=216156 which detailed the same cause.

As I could not readily find an access point through the firewall, I temporarily rerouted power to the cigarette lighter circuit at the fuse box, and it is working well. The difference in power this circuit provided over the stock circuit (before the memory fuse blew) was noticeable immediately.

Being a significantly newer JVC, the new CD reciever sounds much louder and recieves well.. a nice improvement.

Thanks again for contributing!
 
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