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Car stereo works but has no sound?

No sound coming from car stereo deck I installed, but old deck works fine!?

  • I installed my brother's old Car stereo into my '89 Dodge (Okay, Chrysler, whatever!) Daytona. Bought the Best Buy Harness, install kit, the whole package. Twisted my wires together, ALL proper colors and everything's matched up. Two blown fuses, impatience, some sparks, and a week later, I've managed to get it to cut in and out for all of thirty seconds, with both FM radio AND a CD. But if I put my old Factory deck in, it works fine! (Mind you, there's only radio on the deck and the knobs are missing...) Here's the breakdown- The factory stereo has a grounding wire with a ring terminal (Which I originally thought was the problem... though I managed to get some sound once without the grounding connected at all!, so I shuffled that to the side as not the problem), and I took off the tape and kept testing the wires on a speaker I KNOW to be working, but that connection (Harness to deck) wasn't the problem either. Is it the plug? Do I just need to get a new CD deck? ANY Ideas?

  • Answer:

    Lack of information and an insufficient ability to examine the vehicle makes this a difficult issue to troubleshoot. Forgive me if I am presumptive or totally incorrect. - What are you using to hold your splices together? > It would be wise to use heat shrink or another type of splice-kit. If you have already, good for you! ** If you have used a splice kit to put the OEM wires and the new wiring harness together, then make sure the harness is plugged 100% firmly into the back of the head unit. Make sure the female power "plug" is inserted as fully as it can be into the new head unit. AS FOR THE GROUND : - You MUST ground the stereo to prevent system overload and signal crossing. > Crimp a male spade-type connector (or the male opposite of whatever connector the OEM wire is) on the new wiring harnesses' ground wire. I have a '99 Neon that has the same type of ground-connector on the factory wire. Chrysler recommends just doing what I've mentioned above. + The fuses may be a sign of electrical issues, but you didn't specify which fuses or anything else. + As for the SPARKS that shouldn't happen. To protect yourself disconnect the negative terminal of the car's battery before you work on the electrical system. If you saw sparks, it is possible that the cause of the sparks subsequently blew a fuse. Not to mention, fuses are only good for one overload, then they're blown. So if you continued to send too much power through a blown-fuse you might have fried a circuit so... Hope not! ** IT ALL MEANS? ** - All the evidence leads to installer error. If your OEM stereo works without any issues and your new deck has such consistent problems I would believe you have a defective unit or an incorrect installation. - Start your installation over, or check everything again (and again). Make sure NO fuses are blown (both the in the deck and in the car) and the ground is connected SOLIDLY. If your installation is 100% correct and the unit doesn't work, then the head unit you just purchased is defective. The OEM wiring can't be defective or it wouldn't work on the stock stereo. ~ As an aside, there is a blue cable in your new wiring harness, the "turn on lead" meant for amplifiers. If for some reason your car has an amplifier (even stock), be sure that blue 'turn-on-lead' is connected. My bet? Take care of that ground, recheck all your splices and connections, and you'll be golden. Good luck.

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It's the subwoofers.

mel

It sounds to me like you may have already damaged the radio beyond use. If you are using the aftermarket wire harness, the color codes on it should match the color codes on the aftermarket radio. Most aftermarket radios use the international wire codes which are what the aftermarket wire harness manufactures also use. The "braided strap" that has the ring terminal on it is the ground for the radio. This is the ONLY ground for the radio. There is no ground in the factory wire harness. If you have used any of those wires as a ground, you probably have mistakenly used the illumination wire which will work until you turn on your lights then "Poof", there goes the radio. This sounds like what you may have already done. You said you ran the radio without the ground even connected. This tells me that the radio was receiving it's ground through a manner in which it was not suppose to. Therefore, destroying the radio. Verify your connections. Use proper connections. Either use crimp connections or solder your connections and tape off. Never just twist and tape. This is unreliable. Use the ground strap as a proper ground. If this does not solve your problem, then yes, you've toasted the radio. Try again, take your time, verify all connections and you will be successful. T.G.P.

Texas Ground Pounder

I have heard of wires being in the wrong place in the wiring harness before. So you might want to get a wiring diagram of your vehicle and verify your new wiring harness is connecting all the wires to right spot.

Ricky

is it well earthed , best place probaly bolted straigth to the chassie

n01n0s

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