Anyone Good At Fixing Car Stereos?

[sotal]

My fairly new car stereo seems to have f :censor: up :(

It was working fine, then suddenly after taking the fascia off it failed to work when I put it back on :(

If I turn the car on, it does nothing and the electric arial doesn't move, and there is no way to switch it on. If you press the eject button the front folds forwards (spring only not electrical) but there is two lights behind the fascia, one is the eject button for the CD and the other one is a long flashing light so you can see where to put the CD. These lights both work and you can eject the CD and put a new CD in etc.

When I got to this stage I figured the Front must have bust, as I wasn't getting any lights on etc.

But, then I noticed if I unplug the ISO connector from the back and plug it back in, then all the lights come on, on the fascia, for about 1 second and the arial starts to rise, then it all cuts off. So that makes it look like the fascia is connecting and working OK

I've tried it in two cars and have checked all the wiring with a multimeter and I have checked the fuse etc

Any ideas

[Moffmo]

if its a flippy over one it could be that the ribbon is worn out, this is what happened to my kenwood

[sotal]

It hasn't got a ribbon.

When the front folds down it just disconnects form the main stereo, then when you click it up it makes the connection just like a normal fascia would when you remove/reconnect it.

[Jinxed]

maybe its a safety cut off. could it have detected a fault with itself or its wiring? if anythings been disturbed recently maybe that might be a good place to start looking, though id tend to say if its always like this then what your looking for should be ffairly easy to find with multimeter competence. maybe the fuse in the unit has blown? you dont happen to have amps installed also do you? if the unit is functioning in all senses bar putting sound out and staying switched on maybe its detecting something from your setup. Beyond this id say check your ground, might be worth a look(but if your problem isnt intermittent then id say ground issue is unlikely if rest of stuff is functioning).... maybe a mismatch between Speakers, amps, headunit. if you eliminate all of these id say its a fair bet its the headunit... if under warranty take it back and see whether a replacement sorts it out. gl with prob.... post anythin u find up an i for one will turn my brain to it :)

[sotal]

There is no amps installed - just the basic Speakers but I even unplugged them to make sure it wasn't them.

I thought about Ground but having tried it in two cars it was a last desperate attempt. I connected a seperate wire from a good ground to the unit and it did exactly the same thing :(

It does seem to be some sort of safety cut out, as it will come on for a second, not even time to start playing or anything then cut out. I checked the fuse on the back of the unit which is fine.

The main radio unit itself is getting power and staying on as you can eject and reinsert CD's and the red lights behind the fascia flash, but the electric arial isn't rising and the front looks like it's going to work for about a second (It lights all the led's in the front panel as an initilization thing normally) then instead of doing anything it just goes black.

I bought the unit of eBay at Christmas with a *12 month warranty* The eBay user hasn't got back in touch with me :( and contacting the manufacturer they have said they can't do anything unless I have a receipt from a shop (not ebay) :(

[YarisT]

I connected a seperate wire from a good ground to the unit and it did exactly the same thing :(

Did you try connecting the ground to the chassis of the HU instead of the ground connector on the rear plug?

Just asking because I had a Stereo years back which had a dodgy earth track that showed symptons similiar to yours but when I earthed directly to the chassis of the stereo it worked fine -never did get it fixed properly but using that as a work around I got another couple of years use and never had any other problems with it!

[sotal]

Yep tried the chassis of the HU exactly the same :(

[Jinxed]

how do you transport ur fascia ? is there any possibility its been shorted on summat? or have the contacts got messed up on it or the HU? have u tried cleaning them with a proper electrical cleaning solution(a thin film thats invisible can form on them and interfere with contact). bit of a puzzler.... have you got another stereo you can wire into the car? now if you have and you do and its fine..... its the headunit.

[sotal]

The wife took the front off, and just stuck it in her handbag :(

They could have shorted but I can't see that being a problem as the fascia has no power going to it when it seperate. The contacts look perfect and are working for a seocnd as it does the initialization bit when all the lights come on.

Also it *seems* to be a problem with the head unit itself as even without the fascia on it acts wierd :( I suppose the fascia could have caused that though?

The car has got another stereo in right now so the wiring is fine

[Karma Supra]

What make is it???? Soem brands rely on an earth from the antenna to work properly, It catches out a few people when "testing them" as usually the arial is not connected in!!! Does you car have an iso connector running stright into the cars loom, or are you having to use an auto leads style adapter???

Headunits have different power feeds as I am sure you know, an always on feed to keep settings, clock time etc, and the ACC on that comes on when you turn the key, Maybe just one of them is getting power??

Is there a master reset anywhere on the headunit itself??? Sometimes the softeare gets scrambled and they act odd, reset them and all is well!!

How much power is going to the posetive feed??? I have had cars "run out of electricity" dodgey altenators, batterys etc, and the headunit acts exactly as you have said, sometimes it powers on, sometimes it sits on standby, sometimes it flicks between the two, maybe there is a poor connection, its connect enough to get a continuity reading on the multi meter, but not enough to supply a decent current??? Maybe a resistance test on the iso loom??