Car is a '92 Saturn SL1…pretty pimp car. Problem is is the aftermarket Pioneer cd/radio stopped working out of no where. When I bought the car it worked fine, however only one speaker worked. Upon further inspection I noticed the aftermarket rear speaker had missing in line fuses…so I put fuses in and turned the radio on. No sound from the back. Began to turn the volume up and bam, radio turns off.
I’ve checked all fuses and all is good…even checked power at the harness and that was good too. Is it possible that this thing just straight up died on me???
I realize they don’t need them…just stating that in this car someone installed rear speakers and put an inline fuse on each one. When I first picked up this car the rear speakers weren’t working, seeing that the fuse was missing there I figured that was why. When I put a fuse in it was minutes after this that the radio stopped working.
i think its a coincidence that the radio died after doing that…inline fuses really are worthless to speakers, but it wouldnt have caused your problems with the headunit itself.
i would say recheck every power wire and fuse to make sure all is well, including the fuses on the back side of the headunit, if your has any, and go from there. get at the wiring with a test light to make sure there is not problems with it.
Do you have another headunit that you could try and wire in there quickly? this could allow you to narrow it down to the unit for sure.
MOST radio’s have a protection circuit that senses a blown speaker and cuts power to the internal amp so that it doesn’t short itself out. disconnect those rear speakers and see what happens
The entire unit completely shut off and I cannot turn it on at all…it’s like it’s not even plugged in.
Can head units just die out of nowhere??? I put a test light on it last night at the harness that plugs into the head unit and it is getting power. The fuse on the head unit is not blown. I don’t have another head unit to wire up…my next thought was to grab a factory radio from the jy and sell the car.
hold old is the headunit? i havnt ever had a headunit just straight up die on me before, and i’m on my fourth. The only reasons i’ve had for changing them is their ability to play certain cds seemed to decrease after awhile. If the quality of the unit isnt too good and its got some years on it i would just assume that it just quit on you.
If it has power going to it then it should turn on. Did you check all three power wires? make sure your checking BOTH the constant AND the accessory power wires. also remember to check the ground with a meter. If all checks out okay…then i would assume its dead.
selling the car would certainly fix your problem haha
I have no idea how old it is…but it’s a Pioneer 50watt x 4 so I assume it’s not too old. The ‘stereo’ in this car is very basic, it is by how means a performace stereo so this head unit looks like one of those $200 Best Buy specials.
I’ll double check on the power…
I like the option of selling the car with a dead radio and just say “I have no idea why it doesn’t work???” It is the truth after all:biglaugh:
right, the radio will stay powered but there will be no sound. he wasn’t too clear on that in his original post lol
edit i see its a saturn, check the fuse panel on the pass side of the center console, that fuse pops alot on those cars w/ aftermarket radios ( i beleive its only a 5 amp fuse )
You guys are making this alot harder than what it really is.
Like I originally posted, make sure you have a good power, switched power, and ground behind the radio. If these are all good, then it wont be a fuse. Addicted is right though, Saturns blow fuses alot when you put an aftermarket radio in the car, along with Thunderbirds, and you do want the fusebox inside, not the one under the hood. I saw that problem all the time when I worked at CC. You have to check your power first.
After that, unhook all the speakers and make sure the radio is turning on and staying on. Test all the speakers to make sure their good, and if they are hook them back up. Theres a good chance theres a blown speaker, which is shorting out or putting a load on the radio, which causes a bigger current draw on the battery lead, and cooking the fuse. It sounds like the wiring is hacked up from the little you’ve said, so it could be something else also.
Fellas, as stated in the original post I have checked all the fuses and all are good…both under the hood and the center console as well as the fuse on the head unit.
I have also hooked the test light up and determined there is power to the head unit.
Also, the head unit will not power up…at all. That is my problem, therefore I can’t test any of the speakers. I’m beginning to think plugging those inline fuse at the rear speakers had something to do with this.
Looks like whoever buys this car will have to figure it out…
inline fuses on the speaker leads will have NOTHING to do with the radio dying. unless the installer had some crazy install and maybe had an amp hooked to the same speakers. also, did u check the fuse in the radio with it hooked up??? with a test light? I have seen where fuses are bad but look fine
Switched power is setting the test light off when key is on…key off, no light. Constant appears to not set the light off at all…assuming I’m testing properly. Is it the yellow wire labeled ‘memory’ that is constant??? That’s the one I’m testing…
Yes, I checked with the fuse in…and visibly it appeared to be good. Tomorrow I can make sure the fuse itself is good.
While searching the interweb for research I came accross this:
If the radio does not power up after installation, be sure to check the factory fuses
to see if they are blown. If the fuses seem to be okay, take the radio out to the
vehicle battery. Connect the red and yellow wires to the positive post and the black
ground to the negative post. Turn radio on to see if it works. if so, recheck the yellow
and black wires in the dash.
I tried this with the head unit and it would not turn on…took both the red and yellow and twisted these together for the positive terminal; black to negative terminal. When connecting the red/yellow to the term it was spark a bit. WTF…
well…it sparked because you touched the wires together…if the yellow “memory” wire did not set turn on the light, that may be your problem. I may be wrong, maybe the unit can run just off of the accessory. Either way you should have power to your yellow wire.