need stereo help!
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Joined: Mar 2004
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From: georgia
need stereo help!
i just installed an older sony head unit in tha 7. i dont know too much about car audio...but i had someone who used to install car audio for best buy help me with installing it. everything was hooked up correctly but i still dont get any sound. i think its something to do with tha antenna because there is an antenna in and an antenna out for tha stock stereo, but i only have an antenna in on tha sony head unit. can someone tell me what i need to do to get some sound?
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Joined: Feb 2001
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From: south jersey
try playing a cd or cassette, also run a ground to the chassis cause some vehicles ground the radio through the antenna. if you have a spare speaker around connect it directly to the the radio harness.
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Joined: Mar 2004
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From: georgia
yep speakers are hooked up becuz i was playing stock stereo a couple of days ago and i already tried to play a cd and still no sound...thanx tho....but i will try to run a ground to tha chassis tomorrow. thanx for tha replies
Last edited by mazda-speed420; Mar 6, 2004 at 09:07 PM.
Former Moderator. RIP Icemark.
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From: Rohnert Park CA
probably you have stock amps and they were not wired to turn on, or bypassed.
You will need to bypass the stock amps if the head units output is more than 15 watts RMS, as the stock amps were designed for 7 watts RMS input.
Any first year installer should know this. Your buddy from best buy should have known at the very least about the amps when the sound did not come out of the radio. Perhaps he is not an installer but rather a sales person, which then would rate him as probably not a good source of info.
You will need to bypass the stock amps if the head units output is more than 15 watts RMS, as the stock amps were designed for 7 watts RMS input.
Any first year installer should know this. Your buddy from best buy should have known at the very least about the amps when the sound did not come out of the radio. Perhaps he is not an installer but rather a sales person, which then would rate him as probably not a good source of info.
Open up! Search Warrant!
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From: Kicking down doors in a neighborhood near you
Icemark is 110% correct about the amps. Why your friend skipped it is anyones guess. Maybe he didn't think an older car had factory amps. Who knows.
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Open up! Search Warrant!
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From: Kicking down doors in a neighborhood near you
I used a harness to adapt the wires from my stereo to the wire harness in my truck. All I remember doing was I that I had to unplug the factory amp.
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From: south jersey
well now that i think about it i highly doubt your radio is gonna put out more than 15 watts per channel. if he connected the harness correctly with the factory amp everything should work! make sure there are no blown fuses i have seen this be a cause of a factory amp not working. like i said in my prior post i use a spare speaker for checking problems like this, just connect the speaker to 2 speaker outputs from the main radio harness to verify sound coming out the radio! i have seen radios brand new out the box not play sound at all!
Wow, i guess I did that wrong. I ripped one of the stock amps out so i could fit a bigger speaker in under the glove bocks, then i ran all new speaker lines throughout the car. And I didnt run them tacky-like. I just hook up to the back of the head unit after that. In my opiniong, your best option is to just run new speker wire.
Buy about 100 ft of 2 wire speaker cable. Then buy a pair of cutters/crimpers/strippers(the all in one tool). After that buy some male and female connectors. Take the cdplayer outand start running cables. Its not taht ahrd.
can take from 1-3 hours depending on how slow/ how good of a job you're doing.
can take from 1-3 hours depending on how slow/ how good of a job you're doing.
Open up! Search Warrant!
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From: Kicking down doors in a neighborhood near you
Originally posted by Molotovman
Buy about 100 ft of 2 wire speaker cable. Then buy a pair of cutters/crimpers/strippers(the all in one tool). After that buy some male and female connectors. Take the cdplayer outand start running cables. Its not taht ahrd.
can take from 1-3 hours depending on how slow/ how good of a job you're doing.
Buy about 100 ft of 2 wire speaker cable. Then buy a pair of cutters/crimpers/strippers(the all in one tool). After that buy some male and female connectors. Take the cdplayer outand start running cables. Its not taht ahrd.
can take from 1-3 hours depending on how slow/ how good of a job you're doing.
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Joined: Feb 2004
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From: Cincinnati, OH
oh yeah let me tell you how reliable best buy people are at installing... they grounded my 1200 watt system INTO my gas tank on my old 98 civic.... and i made lots of money off of that mistake :-)
Former Moderator. RIP Icemark.
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From: Rohnert Park CA
Originally posted by turborotarypower
also if anyone needs wiring info/diagrams for car audio or remote start/alarm installs i have DEI techsoft.
also if anyone needs wiring info/diagrams for car audio or remote start/alarm installs i have DEI techsoft.
Joined: Oct 2003
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From: Burlington, NC
Something else you might try doing is if your head unit has RCA outputs for an amp, just plug that into something that can play it to make sure that the problem isn't in the stereo itself. It probably isn't, but check the easy stuff first.
After that, if he used a wiring harness adapter then make sure that the ground plug (black wire) isn't plugged in, as I believe someone above mentioned. You can ground it to the metal chassis, or if you can't find a good way of mounting it you CAN run the wire to a nearby screw.
As for the antenna, even if it's not in there correctly, cd or tape should work, what should happen if they didn't install a relay for the power antenna is that when you turn off the stereo the antenna should come up and when it comes on the antenna goes down. you should still hear static though...
Although, if you don't mind spending some money and you do have those RCA jacks in the head unit, you may consider just getting an amp instead. Even if you don't need deafeningly loud sound, the speaker wiring in our cars are oooold and crappy. If you ever try to cut/crimp the speaker wires, they will literally crumple in your hands sometimes. An easy way to get around this is to just use an amp. An RCA cable would run from the stereo to the amp, and the amp would go to the speakers, and you can use the good new cable of your choice without having to pull your interior inside out running new cable to the stereo.
Just a thought.
After that, if he used a wiring harness adapter then make sure that the ground plug (black wire) isn't plugged in, as I believe someone above mentioned. You can ground it to the metal chassis, or if you can't find a good way of mounting it you CAN run the wire to a nearby screw.
As for the antenna, even if it's not in there correctly, cd or tape should work, what should happen if they didn't install a relay for the power antenna is that when you turn off the stereo the antenna should come up and when it comes on the antenna goes down. you should still hear static though...
Although, if you don't mind spending some money and you do have those RCA jacks in the head unit, you may consider just getting an amp instead. Even if you don't need deafeningly loud sound, the speaker wiring in our cars are oooold and crappy. If you ever try to cut/crimp the speaker wires, they will literally crumple in your hands sometimes. An easy way to get around this is to just use an amp. An RCA cable would run from the stereo to the amp, and the amp would go to the speakers, and you can use the good new cable of your choice without having to pull your interior inside out running new cable to the stereo.
Just a thought.