A friend of mine said her after market CD player wasn't working in her car, since it's the same make and body style of mine and I have some experience I thought I'd try to take a look and see if I could isolate the problem.
The Head Unit failed to turn on at all, and after I took off enough of the dash to remove it and view the wiring harness, I quickly realized that everything appeared to be ok. I checked the fuse on it; 15A fuse was not blown, powercable seemed to be solid, intact and with a good connection, same with the ground. I removed the Head unit from her car and put it into my car and it worked like a charm, I took mine out and put it in hers and it failed to power up; deriving the problem must've been with the ground or the power wire.
My attempts to solve the problem (Viewer discretion is advised, these ideas were pretty crazy but seemed like good ideas at the time)
I ran an 8 gauge wire directly from the Battery into the back of the Head Unit, and figured the fuse would blow if the 8 gauge was providing too much power. Turned the car on and the Head Unit failed to operate, though it is worthy to mention the door chimes that had failed to work previously worked, which continued to work as long as the 8 gauge wire was connected to any metal within the car.
I ran a 24 gauge wire from the battery to the Head Unit to see if perhaps a smaller wire would fix the problem, nothing here except a few sparks and a rapidly heating wire which nearly burned us alive. ;D
I checked the ground under the hood and made sure it had good contact with the chasis.
I did my best at cleaning the battery diode connection as it was full of nasty battery acid powder stuff.
Nothing worked, any ideas? Swez, I'm looking at you. ;D
Replies (9)
newB on 06/5/2007 18:55:09
check the fuse panel on the drivers side up by the pedals.
check for ANY blown fuses and report back.
;D
-Drew
swez on 06/5/2007 19:03:15
So what else is new Ender? LOL (I should be asking for "Consulting Fees" by now) COFFEE
It seems that the HU she has in her vehicle may be mis-wired or have a few oddities compared to your rig. (Chimes and perhaps steering wheel controls?)
Since her HU worked in your car and yours did not work in hers, I'd have to consider her wiring harness and such are different. (Something is not right here) It may be the Chime circuit, (And other features that are integrated into her factory HU are not the same as your vehicle.
Do you have a DMM on hand to troubleshoot the harness in her car? That would be most helpful as would the make/model of her HU. (A GM car I take it?... yes, a Camero too, but a few years newer?)
FYI: Some of the newer GM cars need integration circuits to allow aftermarket HU's to work properly. Some of the add on kits are expensive and some even require mounting the OEM HU in the trunk to keep other functions in tact. It depends on the model year and audio package used.
Does her car have a GM/Bose package in it?
Say more as I think her package is very different from hers. Who installed her HU and did it ever work properly after the install?
Swez
PS Please tell me this was not Tiffer's ride... LOL
PSS The fact her chimes worked w/ the #8 gage line, but the HU did not is interesting. You must be kidding on the #24 gage wire. That is a very low power gage and not to be used in most automotive apps. There is something to that aspect, but am not sure exactly what it is at the moment. Grin
Ender2 on 06/6/2007 12:55:21
Hrm, when did I tell you about Tiffers? :P Either way, no it wasn't Tiffany's ride. Her name is Christina.
Ended up being a combination of the wiring harness + a couple fuses.
As far as why the Chimes worked, perhaps the current went through the metal to the chasis and didn't have to pass through one of the fuses that was blown. How's that sound?
Big shouts out to Swez and Drew, wouldn't have been able to help if you guys hadn't helped me. Thanks again guys.
jamesp on 06/6/2007 13:18:16
Funny that the chimes worked only with the 8ga. wire dead shorted from battery+ to any metal in the car....
swez on 06/6/2007 16:31:28
Yeah, it is a good puzzler here. My guess, the chime circuit along with associated circuits in this install are missing a key device. It could be a convertor box is needed for OEM/Aftermarket HU on this vehicle or some primary wiring was done wrong when they installed her HU.
Since her HU worked in your car, but not hers and visa-versa, a wiring harness problem seems to be the likely culprit.
Swez
newB on 06/7/2007 03:05:40
that and always remember
E-MC^2
-Drew
swez on 06/7/2007 06:31:42
Good work on your side ol boy. Bet ya had to dig deep on this one to find it all out...
Quote: "Hrm, when did I tell you about Tiffers?"
You never did, but she contacted me by e-mail a few times b/c you used her computer and my e-mail addy and YIM were on her computer. The comments she made were very confusing at first, but then I made the connection and asked her to delete me from her addy's. I guess she is now engaged to some guy... good luck to that fella. He'll have his hands full with this gal. (Gut impressions) SMILE
Swez
Ender2 on 06/8/2007 02:05:14
About how long ago was all this, Swez?
swez on 06/8/2007 12:04:57
Her first contact with me was late last year. We figured out you were the common denominator here.
Then, she wrote back a few months ago saying she had too many Daves in her address book and wanted to prune a few. I said... "Prune away lady" LOL Count me out.
Swez
The Head Unit failed to turn on at all, and after I took off enough of the dash to remove it and view the wiring harness, I quickly realized that everything appeared to be ok. I checked the fuse on it; 15A fuse was not blown, powercable seemed to be solid, intact and with a good connection, same with the ground. I removed the Head unit from her car and put it into my car and it worked like a charm, I took mine out and put it in hers and it failed to power up; deriving the problem must've been with the ground or the power wire.
My attempts to solve the problem (Viewer discretion is advised, these ideas were pretty crazy but seemed like good ideas at the time)
I ran an 8 gauge wire directly from the Battery into the back of the Head Unit, and figured the fuse would blow if the 8 gauge was providing too much power. Turned the car on and the Head Unit failed to operate, though it is worthy to mention the door chimes that had failed to work previously worked, which continued to work as long as the 8 gauge wire was connected to any metal within the car.
I ran a 24 gauge wire from the battery to the Head Unit to see if perhaps a smaller wire would fix the problem, nothing here except a few sparks and a rapidly heating wire which nearly burned us alive. ;D
I checked the ground under the hood and made sure it had good contact with the chasis.
I did my best at cleaning the battery diode connection as it was full of nasty battery acid powder stuff.
Nothing worked, any ideas? Swez, I'm looking at you. ;D
Replies (9)
newB on 06/5/2007 18:55:09
check the fuse panel on the drivers side up by the pedals.
check for ANY blown fuses and report back.
;D
-Drew
swez on 06/5/2007 19:03:15
So what else is new Ender? LOL (I should be asking for "Consulting Fees" by now) COFFEE
It seems that the HU she has in her vehicle may be mis-wired or have a few oddities compared to your rig. (Chimes and perhaps steering wheel controls?)
Since her HU worked in your car and yours did not work in hers, I'd have to consider her wiring harness and such are different. (Something is not right here) It may be the Chime circuit, (And other features that are integrated into her factory HU are not the same as your vehicle.
Do you have a DMM on hand to troubleshoot the harness in her car? That would be most helpful as would the make/model of her HU. (A GM car I take it?... yes, a Camero too, but a few years newer?)
FYI: Some of the newer GM cars need integration circuits to allow aftermarket HU's to work properly. Some of the add on kits are expensive and some even require mounting the OEM HU in the trunk to keep other functions in tact. It depends on the model year and audio package used.
Does her car have a GM/Bose package in it?
Say more as I think her package is very different from hers. Who installed her HU and did it ever work properly after the install?
Swez
PS Please tell me this was not Tiffer's ride... LOL
PSS The fact her chimes worked w/ the #8 gage line, but the HU did not is interesting. You must be kidding on the #24 gage wire. That is a very low power gage and not to be used in most automotive apps. There is something to that aspect, but am not sure exactly what it is at the moment. Grin
Ender2 on 06/6/2007 12:55:21
Hrm, when did I tell you about Tiffers? :P Either way, no it wasn't Tiffany's ride. Her name is Christina.
Ended up being a combination of the wiring harness + a couple fuses.
As far as why the Chimes worked, perhaps the current went through the metal to the chasis and didn't have to pass through one of the fuses that was blown. How's that sound?
Big shouts out to Swez and Drew, wouldn't have been able to help if you guys hadn't helped me. Thanks again guys.
jamesp on 06/6/2007 13:18:16
Funny that the chimes worked only with the 8ga. wire dead shorted from battery+ to any metal in the car....
swez on 06/6/2007 16:31:28
Yeah, it is a good puzzler here. My guess, the chime circuit along with associated circuits in this install are missing a key device. It could be a convertor box is needed for OEM/Aftermarket HU on this vehicle or some primary wiring was done wrong when they installed her HU.
Since her HU worked in your car, but not hers and visa-versa, a wiring harness problem seems to be the likely culprit.
Swez
newB on 06/7/2007 03:05:40
that and always remember
E-MC^2
-Drew
swez on 06/7/2007 06:31:42
Good work on your side ol boy. Bet ya had to dig deep on this one to find it all out...
Quote: "Hrm, when did I tell you about Tiffers?"
You never did, but she contacted me by e-mail a few times b/c you used her computer and my e-mail addy and YIM were on her computer. The comments she made were very confusing at first, but then I made the connection and asked her to delete me from her addy's. I guess she is now engaged to some guy... good luck to that fella. He'll have his hands full with this gal. (Gut impressions) SMILE
Swez
Ender2 on 06/8/2007 02:05:14
About how long ago was all this, Swez?
swez on 06/8/2007 12:04:57
Her first contact with me was late last year. We figured out you were the common denominator here.
Then, she wrote back a few months ago saying she had too many Daves in her address book and wanted to prune a few. I said... "Prune away lady" LOL Count me out.
Swez
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