Stereo Problems

Stereo Problems

I've been having problems with my stereo lately where it acts VERY wierdly...

I left my apartment the other morning and listened to the radio on my way to Mc Donald's for breakfast. When I got back in the car the radio was playing but there was no sound coming out of the speakers. I parked it and came back to it later that night and there was sound from the speakers like normal.

When I turned on the car today there was no sound again. I turned off the radio and then back on and there was sound so it was all good. After getting on the highway I went to turn the volume up but it would increase (the display showed the volume going up though). Again, I turned it off then immediately back on and everything was gravy.

What is going on? Is my headunit on it's last leg?

uh....loose wire? ..

is it a detachable faceplate? if it is try and clean the contacts with a Q-Tip. if that does not work check your harness and the harness to the car if its aftermarket. if that don't work you may have a faulty ground wireon one of your speakers, check your postive wires as well.

1. The faceplate hasn't been removed in about a year.
2. I could see a loose wire causing this if it randomly cut out while driving but not after being parked. Also, why would turning it off then on solve the problem if it was a loose wire?
3. The speakers are not in series so a faulty ground on one should only cause that single speaker to go out. The same with the lead wires.

Oh, I forgot to mention that this is with an aftermarket Sony HU (~5 years old)

well its probably on its last leg as you mentioned. if you turn it off and then it works your internal circuit board on the faceplate or the circuit board in the reciever itself may need some work if you want to fix it. But i think your better off just buying a new reciever.considering how old it is.

it does on have to be in a series in order turn off the sterero and mess it up. as long as anything touches something it does cause the system to go out.

that or a loose speaker in the doors

check all connections then i suggest.

before you go off and buy a new HU. take another HU (if possible) and try that just to see if it happens. If it continues to happen with a different HU, then the HU is not ur problem. I know alot of people don't have extra HU's laying around but its worth a shot and it'll be easier to diagnose the problem.

Thanks for all the help everyone.

I think a friend of mine has a spare HU that I can try out. I'll see if I can use hers.

I don't want to sound rude or anything but I still don't know how a loose speaker connection would cause ALL the speakers to not play. All four of the separate outputs would have to be loose since each speaker receives a unique signal from the HU. How could one poor connection cause the entire speaker system to go out (including the subwoofer which is on an external RCA feed)?

I do...the 5.25 component speakers in my car has a wire that has been torn out by accident....well, firstly, the wires when it touches the contact perfectly, then everything sounds perfectly....if i move the wire around even slightly or when im listening to a song that has alot of bass, it will jiggle the wire around and cause a big staticy splat noise that and at some point, all the speakers will cut completely out or they'll play the music at a barely audible volume even tho the volume on my head unit is turned up quite a ways....its almost equivalent to touching two speaker wires together, cuz doing that will cause a large static splat noise, and shortly thereafter, all the noise will cut out...but if u turn the unit off and on again, everything sounds normal....newayz, sometimes on my front component speakers, the wires would rattle enough to where after the static splat noise, i would only have high frequency noise (just like turning the treble all the way up and bass all the way down) out of that one particular speaker.....

I think whats happening with my system in particular (this could apply to urs as well)....i think the wire is barely touching the contact when the volume is turned up high....and every time it touches it at high volume, its also sending a signal to the speaker to make noise equally as high but since its barely touching the contact on the speaker, the signal isnt being sent to the speaker as efficiently (just like how u cant use 18 gauge wire on something that requires a 4 gauge or something)...and when it barely touches the contact, it starts reacting electrostatically and the head unit senses this (since your speaker is connected to the head unit that sends signals to all the speakers in your cars system).....the head unit senses it and it has a safety feature that shuts off the unit before it frys it or something.....so when u turn it back on, everything is normal with the unit.....

If you have a bare wire touching metal or any metal part of the car then you are shorting out the system. Most radios have a fail safe system that will turn off the speaker signals until the short is no longer there.

Also if a speaker is going out, it may happen only when the coil in the speaker has heated up from heavy use. At this point it will create a short as well and your radio will go into limp mode (shutting off audio). Most better brand radios have this function.

I would make sure that all your speakers are in good condition, and that no wire is touching bare metal. It happens with use and age. Don't forget that an audio signal is nothing more that electricity, so if there is a short circuit it will burn something.

GL

X

exaclty what the two people have said is true and may cause this. Plus i know how to diagnose the system . it has nothing to do with being certified in auto electronics, its just common sense.

ok, thanks guys. The fail safe mode makes sense. I'm quite familiar with electronics but that programmed mode didn't pop into my head.