Stupid stereo wiring problem.

[yoesh1]

Hey guys, I've never wired up a stereo before and I'm having problems. I'm sure I'll sound like an idiot but I don't know what to do...

So I bought a cheap stereo, plus a wiring harness adapter and mounting kit for it. Matched all the wires up the way I'm supposed to, as far as I can tell. Reconnected my battery, turned the car on and saw that the stereo was getting power because the power button was glowing. I turned the stereo on, and it acted like it was supposed to, defaulting to the radio. I didn't connect the antenna, and didn't hear anything out of the speakers while it was on those few seconds. It cut itself off after a few seconds as I was adjusting the stereo (making the wires move). I checked the audio fuse under on the driver's side, and it looked fine. There is another in-line fuse on the stereo wiring harness, that looks good too but I'm guessing it may be blown.

My connections are all taped off and seem solid. Should I start by replacing fuses and disconnect/reconnect all my wiring?

Here are some pictures:

2 connectors to the factory stereo



Which obviously plug into two of these connectors:



What is not obvious to me, is why there are 2 more connectors? They don't connect to anything that I can see. When everything is hooked up, there are 2 unconnected plugs hanging there. What could they be used for? The manuals for this stuff is... not good. (or maybe I'm just a dumbass)

This is the smaller adapter and my connections:



And this is the bigger adapter's mess of wires:



Please let me know if you need any more information. I am stumped.

Thanks, you guys have always been great.

Mike

[breadbox]

so it turns on but you haven't made it play anything so it makes no noise?

The purple, green(rears), grey, white(fronts) should be speakers. IIRC

Everything else is power, ant, ground, illumination(orange),remote etc.

There are two connectors one is audio line to speakers and the other is the headunit power and signals.

Its should be easy to get going. make sure antenne is in to pick up a signal. make sure speakers are plugged in and there. Should work.

[breadbox]

extra wires could be for power antenna or something like that.

[yoesh1]

It was only on for a few seconds, and now I cant get it to come on at all... like it's not getting power, which makes me think blown fuse.

[breadbox]

yeah check them. On my unit I have a fuse on the back next to my harness. but yours might not.

[yoesh1]

Mine does have a fuse, it's located on the yellow wire, it's inside that plastic cylinder attached to the wire. It looks unbroken to me...

I noticed that when I first turn the accessories on by turning the key, I get a very very short flash of the power button, so it's like it's getting power for a split second.

[Rickard]

Verify both the red switched, and the yellow contant 12V. power is present. Verify the ground is connected, and good using a DMM right at the deck.

If I had to Guess..... I would say the black ground wire is at blame here. If possible try grounding the black wire right to the chassis of the car using a ring terminal and a good existing bolt

If that all checks out it is a short in the speaker, or speaker wires, verify by powering speakers individually.

All else fails..... the deck itself is faulty.

[yoesh1]

Thanks for your help. I found out that I wasn't getting a ground through the wiring harness or something, and made a ground wire which I screwed into the shift boot area. Now I have power, and the deck is reading MP3s like it should, but I'm getting no sound at all, hahah.

So I'm going to recheck the wiring again later. I don't think I blew any fuses since everything but the sound works.

I have an SE model with the "active speaker system" or whatever, so there are amps on each speaker, I guess? I didn't hook up power to the amp wires, I don't think. Could that be the problem?

[breadbox]

Good you got it going.

Yeah I have Active speakers too.

So that means they have an amp? you know where it supposed to be?

I need to buy some new rear speakers from Broadfield soon, to bump a bit before I install my sub.

[yoesh1]

http://74.125.93.132/search?q=...fox-a

There's a thread on the subject. I don't know much about it really... Still trying to get the speakers to make some kinda noise :/

[breadbox]

zerothread?id=52883

Posting that here in case some one searches this. For Active Speaker System Bypass

[maj Andres]

Check this out http://www.installdr.com/Harne...g.pdf

[zerepdivad]

The factory radio harness doesn't have a ground, and you didn't hook up factory amp turn on.

[P_856]

i think you have to bypass the factory amps? all the cars i had with active speakers already had aftermarket speakers that there bypassed already and everything worked fine

[zerepdivad]

You don't have to bypass the amp everytime. Just when they go bad. *which is often* But not EVERYTIME. Otherwise they wouldn't offer just the regular harness they'd have a bypass harness out for it specifically.

[yoesh1]

"The factory radio harness doesn't have a ground, and you didn't hook up factory amp turn on."

Aha! I think you're right. I hooked the +12 from the unit to the power antenna, instead of the factory amp power. There is a note about it in the PDF for 240sx stereo wiring by Ivan that is floating around the net. Looks like it can be either or, depending on whether or not you have the active speaker thing going on.

I'm going to try it without trying to bypass the amps first, obviously. If it works but things sound muddy or just crappy in general, I'll probably try bypassing the amps. Many people say that with an aftermarket deck it makes a positive difference.

Thanks again everyone! You guys are the best Will let everyone know what works.

Mike

[yoesh1]

YIPPEE!@!!!

It worked! I had to connect the blue and white amp power to the solid blue coming from the unit. My front speakers are rattly and buzzy, like they were with the factory head unit. My back ones sound great though! So I just turned my fader all the way to the rear for now. I'm hoping it has something to do with the active speaker system amps in the front and that bypassing them will help... Seems like other people have fixed similar issues that way. I'll work on that later on though. At least I have some music to listen to on the way to work this morning!

Thanks Nico brothers!

Jah bless!

[yoesh1]

Oh yeah, and in case anyone was wondering, the extra white plugs/adapters are for the s14 240sx.

I might do a writeup for the other idiots like myself who have never messed with anything electrical before.