Help!! Lights Stereo Antenna Mixed Up Failure!!

[ESPER]

My car: 1995 S14

so here's the story:

i am stripping the interior of my car to give it a much needed cleaning.anyways, it gets late and i am lazy to put everything back right away, so instead of putting back in the center console, dash board, etc. i just plug back everything (the gauges, air con, Radio, etc.) Now, i need to go out and run some errands. i am listening to my radio/cd player (OEM) and after a couple of turns, it just DIES?!?!? and the funny thing is, the power antenna is acting stuck and i hear the motor continously running tryna get it up. and this only occurs WHEN I TURN ON MY FRONT LIGHTS?!!? and the funnier part is that i can get the power antenna to stop if i turn the dim control to MAX.

so how do i get my radio to work and fix the light/power antenna problem?

ALL HELP IS GOD BLESSEDLY APPRECIATED!!

[Dragon240]

Did you leave the car open and it rained?

[ESPER]

nope, it happened while i was driving, maybe its a short, if its a short, how do i fix it??

[Dragon240]

first you have to find it.. and that my friend can be a big pain in the a**

[ESPER]

and how do i find it???

[GodDrivesA240sx]

start diconnecting **** until it stops trying to force your ant up. That's odd that it happens when you turn your lights on, I wasn't aware any wire related to the headlights ran behind the cd player/ac controls.

[ESPER]

well if i disconnect the 2 pronged black wire to the OEM stereo, then the antenna stops all together, also, when i turn the dim controller really low and play with it (turn it up then down) there is a buzz sound that occurs!

[Silvia2b]

Most pre-S14 Nissan radios are common ground (chassis) ground your radio may be trying to ground through your illumination circuit. You should check to see that the chassis of the cd player is securely grounded to the vehicle or is screwed in to the dash subframe with the factory ISO brackets.This should be done immediately! if fuses haven't blown or you replaced them with larger amperage ones switch back.

[ESPER]

thanks for all the help guys, i will cehck ASAP tomorow. another thing, i think it might have shorted, since now the seatbelt light and my clock light dont work!!! it must be from the the back of my gauge pod touching the metal frame of the car!! what do i do now?

[Chaotic1]

did you mess with your antenna at all? i know that when i installed my replacement antenna and didn't properly ground it, my car would die after a few minutes. i have an S13 though, so the wiring might be different. but my first guess would definitely be a grounding issue (open circuit?), so check them black wires, and make sure they tie down to the chassis at some point.

[Chaotic1]

if something shorted, you need to fix that first, then check your fuses. gauge lights may not necessarily mean there's a problem with the gauge pod, since the front wiring harness is all tied together, i.e. gauge lights are tied to the radio, etc... so a problem with your antenna could mess up the radio and gauges for instance... just go back and start inspecting all the wires, especially the black ones! then check your fuses with a fuse tester (learned from personal experience that visual inspection doesn't always work), and replace any bad fuses.

[Silvia2b]

Hey be very careful, Ground wires are not always black, especially when using factory Headunits w/ factory wiring harness. Aftermarkets; Alpine, Sony, Pioneer, Kenwood, etc.. do use black for their ground colors. Just check anything that has a metal bracket to secure it to the vehicle, because that could be the way that various components ground to loop back to the Neg terminal of your electrical system. good luck!

[KarmaPolice]

Dude check the fuse that says room light or something like that. I had the same problem.

[Silvia2b]

Yeah check that fuse and also the ones that say Audio if it is the SE model, also under the hood near your battery under the balck cover.

[ESPER]

ok, i am gonna check the fuses under the hood since i forgot about those! what about the the 4 aquare things down by the fuses under the steering wheel? are there fuses under those things and if so,, how do i remove them?? also, what do u guys mean about checking the wires?? what would i look for when checking the wires??

[Queamore]

Any wire showing that might be touching something it shouldn't. Fuses are a good start but I would check about grounding the raido properly first like silvia2b said. I installed a radio one time and didn't ground it right and the whole car acted like it was possesd (did I spell that right?) and chek the fuses in the engine especially the 75 amp one that one was stolen out of my car and the windshield wipercame on lights wouldn't come up unless I reved it up radio said snap crackle pop. and other things that were kinda freaky when I tried to start it.

[UsedToOwn240SX]

Did you check the pins on your stereo? Unplug your stereo, look at the pins, maybe some of the pins got bent and shorted. Debug by disconnecting one item at a time, start with non-essential ones (stereo for example). Good luck.

[ESPER]

well all teh audio fuses and all the fuses under my hood are ok. again, tehre are like these blue box thingys, do i check those as well?? i am not sure what u guys mean by checking the ground wire from my stereo since i never touched that i only unplugged the three wires behind the stereo to take it out. ALSO, i forgt to mention that my clock light and setbelt light stopped wroking too!! i checked the bulbs and they worked cuz i switched them up. again, this was the result of the gauge pod touching the metal frame of the car, any suggestion what to do?? thanks for the help guys!

[ESPER]

and everything in the car is ok once i unplug the two pronged wire from behind the stereo?!?!

[Silvia2b]

the only two prong Wire I know of is for the diversity antenna. Is the what you are talking about? yYou may have a ground loop through it since the radio isn't properly grounded. check it out. o.k.

[ESPER]

thanks silvia2b, could u elaborate please, i dont understand what ppl what me to check when they mention ground, cuz i didnt touch the ground cable at all, and what i mean by two prong is that if you were to reomve the factory stereo, there would be two white wire clusters and 1 black wire, and when i remove the black wire, the power antenna stops acting wacky

[Silvia2b]

O.k. What I mean by grounding is slightly different for many pre 1994 Nissan radios. So here it goes, If your vehicle is an S-14 W/SE Model trim it is likely that there is a ground wire in the larger of the two white and black molex plastic plugs on the ends of the factory radio harness. These two plugs along with the antenna coaxial, are the only harness that plug in to the radio on the back (unless you have a disc changer in the trunk or an separate tape or external Cd mounted below the radio/cd unit.) Before the S-14, the S-13 radios often actually did not have a ground wire in the harness. These radios were grounded from physically being in contact with the chassis of the vehicle. This came by way of the ISO brakets that mount to the side of the radio and are then machine screwed in to the dash pieces which are connected to the chassis and conduct electricity so the complete the ground path for the radio. Does this makes any sense too you. In order for a car electrical component of any kind( stereo light bulbs, gauges, heater controls, etc...) to work electrically, it must have power (12volts) and also grounding so that the circuit isn't left open. Sometimes on the radios that do not have a physical ground wire (prior to the S-14 style) and if they aren't bolted in to the dash frame the radio can try to find a ground path in other ways when turned on with the key. One way is through the antennas (most nissan also have two antennas one in the rear glass, and another mast or motorized unit . ) The antenna is grounded to the Chassis, but generally this path is very long since it runs through the insulated coaxial cable from the radio to the actual antenna it self. One othe possible way is through an illumination or dimmer wire that grounds the display lights of your radio with various amounts of resistance to make the display brighter or dimmer. This way can cause much damage and should be examined very carefully to avoid. You mentioned that you had removed parts of the dash and left the cluster and the radio just sitting where they are normally mounted right? these should be mounted to something if they require a chassis ground connection through any of the mounts.If your gauge moved and touched something that was uninsulated and shorted it out or tore a small hole in the insulation of a wire you could also have a similiar problem. So maybe I'm missing the point but if this is helpful then I hope you can get your radio back working. Try putting your console and dash pieces back together then mounting the radio in the brakets and with the pocket back in to the dash and see if you still have the same problem. If still no luck take it to a stereo shop and ask them to do some trouble shooting to see if the equipment is bad or if you have a potential wiring problem or loose or missing connections. Offer to pay something like whatever their hourly rate is to spend some time investigating your problem. Good luck hope you have tunes again soon.

[Dragon240]

I forget the beginnings of this and im too lazy to read again.. But when I put in my aftermarket head unit in my 93 I had to (for some reason, that reason currently escapes me) but I ran a ground wire to the shifter dust boot screw/bolt

[Silvia2b]

Exactly, notice that Dragon said he had a 93 S-13, the radio harness had no ground so he had to ground it to the chassis. or in this case the shifter boot ring bolt.