Noticed that after an aftermarket gauge install in the vicinity of my aftermarket CD player, I’ve lost all sound from my speakers. Note: the gauges mount under the CD player, but were wired into the cig lighter 12v (on with key).
Someone was kind enough to hack the crap out of the stock wiring harness rather than put in a pigtail.
CD player lights up and loads the cd. Car has an aftermarket amp and the speakers are wired through the amp with aftermarket speaker wire. RCA cables to amp. Amp is getting power and is showing power thanks to green dummy light. Speaking of dummy, I’m car audio illiterate and wiring impaired as well.
What could the issue be? Nothing changed with the wiring. The only thing that changed is that I physically fiddled around with the CD player when I installed the gauges. See pictures below:
Mndsm
MegaDork
1/13/19 3:36 p.m.
Did you depower the car when you pulled the dash? Some stereos have a setting that indicates where they want the signal, to an amp or to the harness. If it's going to the harness, it won't send a signal to the amp=no sound. It would have reset if it lost power.
Amps do have a limited lifespan. Possibly fried? It would still light up since the LED for amp power is just wired to the supply.
It's most likely the amp remote at the headunut end of the car (blue or blue and white)
Your amp picture looks like there were 2 wires going to that rerminal.
Another possibility is the power wire it the amp. It looks bad. An amount can go into low voltage protection if the power and ground and badly connected. You would get lights, but then the amp would protect it self and keep doing that, never really turning on.
Fix the positive and ground at the amp. Looks sketchy
To see if it's the remote you could jump the remote and positive wire at the amp. If it helps fix the remote turn on wire probably at the headunut.
Any other failure mode would take out one channel then swapping signal cables around would move the problem. Or not. Allowo g you to isolate various places I. The chain.
In reply to Mndsm :
I’m guessing this is a setting “in the radio”?
In reply to scooterfrog :
Thanks for the in depth response; however you’re going to have to clarify about the amp input. What do you mean by “It’s most likely the amp remote”. Are you saying you think a wire could be bad or loose?
Funny thing about that amp remote wire. There are two. A black and blue braided wire twisted together. Only the blue one is wired to the amp. The black one is dangling. Guessing this is just a signal? Or does it need power and ground?
Most amps use a separate 12v power wire that is theb"remote" or "turn on" signal. They have the main, higher amp 12v power and the additional remote wire which is usually blue or blue and white. If they dont get that 12v signal they dont output music.
The remote line is often supplied by the head unit but can be connected to any key-on 12v source. Like your cigarette lighter. Some units have a fuse in the remote line too. Never seen one with a ground specifically for the remote line, but maybe?
Confirmed that the remote wire is getting +12v. I guess next step is to cleanup power and ground.
Mndsm said:
Did you depower the car when you pulled the dash? Some stereos have a setting that indicates where they want the signal, to an amp or to the harness. If it's going to the harness, it won't send a signal to the amp=no sound. It would have reset if it lost power.
I'm voting for this. Most decks need to be specifically told that there's an amplifier and what to output. You probably unplugged the deck during gauge install and it lost those settings? I'd ensure its set right before looking for a physical problem.
WonkoTheSane said:
I'm voting for this. Most decks need to be specifically told that there's an amplifier and what to output. You probably unplugged the deck during gauge install and it lost those settings? I'd ensure its set right before looking for a physical problem.
Really? I've never seen that before.
@Scottah: The crimp on the "battery" terminal on your amp looks terrible. I doubt it's causing your problem, but it should be redone for safety. That's +12v hanging out there with nothing protecting it. At least wrap some electrical tape around it to keep a short from happening. Hopefully it's fuse protected!
To the original question, check all your crimps on the head unit side of things. I wonder if you have a loose crimp or bad connection. Tug on the crimp connectors and wires going into them. Tug pretty hard. They should be very firmly held in there, and if they aren't, you want to re-do the loose ones. Maybe just jostling the wiring led to a loose connection breaking.
