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Head unit was working, now isn't

Discussion in 'General Car Audio Discussions' started by manik1770, Apr 14, 2010.

  1. manik1770

    manik1770 New Member

    Hey Guys.
    I'm jumping onto any forum possible to try and get some help here.

    A couple of months ago my stock HU went out, and I thought that it was just dead. I had a 100W 4 channel hooked up to it for well over 3-4 years with no issues = must be a dead head unit. Saved up some money and got an Eclipse AVN6610 from a friend w/ipod adapter and bluetooth calling adapter as well. Installed it all and everything was working and I was stoked that I had a radio again.
    3 weeks of driving, and earlier today was good, but when I just jumped back into my car >>>> IT'S NOT WORKING.... Just like the stock HU. Fuse that goes to the radio / clock still good. If anyone can help me out and give me any suggestions on what/where to check, please do. I just forked over too much money for this HU to be bunked out also. I'm not a pro installer, but I've installed amps / speakers in 3 of my cars in the past.
    I really hope the HU isn't another expensive paper.

    2002 Toyota Tacoma Prerunner extended cab, V6
     
    manik1770, Apr 14, 2010
    #1
  2. cccullen

    cccullen Full Member

    didn't notice this thread til now...

    so no power to the head unit now? hmm, you may want to try to test your power wire, maybe it's not giving enough juice or maybe your ground wire is no good.

    what i would do is rewire your power and ground wires to see if you can get power to the head unit. just run a wire straight to the pos battery terminal to determine if the power is a problem and then find another grounding point for your HU. try that first then get back and report. :)
     
    cccullen, Apr 16, 2010
    #2
  3. Khayman

    Khayman Full Member

    I would try and test the H/U externally, like what cccullen is suggesting. That way you take the car wiring out of the equation. The only difference is I would take it out and run power to battery and ground. If the unit works, its not the H/U, its your wiring in your car. If it doesn't work, bad H/U, which sucks. Then you should look for shorts somewhere that could be frying your H/U's.
     
    Khayman, Apr 17, 2010
    #3
  4. manik1770

    manik1770 New Member

    I tried what you guys suggested, it looks like the radio is dead and I probably have a short somewhere in the car.

    You guys think while I'm getting the HU fixed I should redo all the amp radio wiring or does this seem like it's a bigger electronic problem that I'm thinking it is = bring it to a professional to check the surge and a possible cause of a short?
     
    manik1770, Apr 18, 2010
    #4
  5. Khayman

    Khayman Full Member

    For as intermittent as problem is, its going to be kind of hard to find. This kind of problem is generally cause by power being connected directly to ground, so that it is drawing more energy then it should be. So a short between a power and ground wire where it isn't fused. Ground wires are generally not fused, because its dumping the energy to ground, the power wire would start pulling more and more energy until something broke. Usually a fuse, but if there isn't one, then the component. I would think the head unit would be fused internally, but I am not sure how they work. If your head unit is wired through a fuse, most likely it won't be this wire, because it should of popped the fuse first. Is the wire from your amp to your head unit fused? If you are getting it fixed, the place fixing it should be able to tell you what went wrong and that would give you an idea what to look for. Some indication of problems could be burnt or melted wiring, blown fuses, etc.
     
    Khayman, Apr 18, 2010
    #5
  6. manik1770

    manik1770 New Member

    Yeah it's really throwing me off, especially because the wiring is exactly as it's been for a good amount of time. Amp is fused to battery, but the hu is not, directly patched into the power of the stock wire harness (same plug for eclipse audio & toyotas)

    Sending the hu in today to get it fixed and the tech, from what I explained, thought that it probably wasn't wiring in the car = would have went out right away, not 3 weeks later. I'll try and get more info about the repair as to what I should be paying attention to. Thanks again for your opinion.
     
    manik1770, Apr 19, 2010
    #6
  7. Khayman

    Khayman Full Member

    Well it could be the car wiring if you got some wires that were rubbing and broke through, then they would have to be positioned just right for the wires to touch. This would explain why the first unit took so long to go out (finally rubbed through shielding then contacted) and the 2nd unit lasted 3 weeks (took that long for the 2 wires to randomly be in the right position to short).

    I would expect the h/u is fused, if its the same harness. I can't imagine the h/u is unprotected.

    Beyond that, I wouldn't know. The tech. should be able to tell you what happened. That will get your in the right directions instead of looking for a needle in a haystack. We do a lot of electronic component wiring at my work, and most of the time when a component goes out its because it got power to where it shouldn't of. Generally from welding on the machine without good grounding, or bad wiring.
     
    Khayman, Apr 19, 2010
    #7