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No sound after installing aftermarket pioneer radio??
I installed a new radio from Pioneer to my 88 gxl, and wired everything correctly (at least I hope). The only wire I didn't splice to the harness that came with the kit, was the blue power antenna wire. Since I really don't listen to the radio, I figured I didn't need it.
The stock radio I had didn't have a CD tray. Only the cassette, and equalizer controls. This. The radio turns on normally to where I can mess with the settings, change the display, connect my Bluetooth, etc with no issue. Just no sound!
I've tried looking at the diagrams for my year, and i only seem to find the diagrams for Compact disc, and head rest speakers. Neither of which I have. Im kind of stumped. Prior to replacing the stock radio, the speakers worked, but the audio fuse kept blowing everytime I would try to turn on the radio. Hasn't blown since I placed in new radio.
Could the speakers have blown out along those times? Anything helps!
First things first, if you were popping fuses you had a short somewhere. Priority one would be finding where the short is, whether it is in a speaker wire, a power wire, or an internal short in the old head unit or its amps.
From the factory manuals, the Series 4 cars, which yours is, only had variations of tape decks, radios, radios + tape decks, and radios + tape decks + equalizers. I have one of the ones you pictured sitting here on my desk, with the slider equalizer. CD players didn't show up until the Series 5 cars, 89-91. Pretty sure you're looking at the wrong series manual.
The speakers could be blown out if they are the old originals. Replacement of speakers is easy to do if you match the size and resistance of the speaker to that of the original. That said, I don't think thats going to be your primary issue.
If you look in the Series 4 manual, under section 15, the Body Electrical section, you will find diagrams for the available audio systems for the S4 starting with a general layout on page 114. On page 114 you will see that the S4 cars have 3 amplifiers: one for the front two speakers, located with the RF speaker, and two rear amplifiers, one in each speaker tub. It is possible that the speakers are blown, it is also possible that the amplifiers could use some attention. I am a big proponent of having the electrolytic capacitors replaced in all our RX7 electronics because they are old enough to start corroding circuits. However, if you had the old unit playing music and it isn't playing now, I'm willing to bet you aren't controlling the amps correctly. There is an amp control line indicated in the manuals that you will need to make sure is hooked up correctly, and also make sure that your new head unit is set to control the amps with that line (default setting is usually off so you don't blow an amp or speaker on first start). I think this will be your main issue. Of course you could bypass these amplifiers and drive everything via your new head unit as it likely has an internal amplifier that can handle the loads of the 4 speakers.
Have a look at the correct manual, give it some thought, take some pictures and get back to us. These sound systems are tricky if you don't know what you're looking for. The S5 is a whole other rabbit-hole. Definitely make sure you have addressed the short circuit that was popping fuses though.
First, thanks a TON for the response and info you've given. I'll start by addressing somethings you've mentioned.
Originally Posted by professionalpyroman
Welp, you've got a few things going on here.
First things first, if you were popping fuses you had a short somewhere. Priority one would be finding where the short is, whether it is in a speaker wire, a power wire, or an internal short in the old head unit or its amps.[/QUOTE]
Yup, I believe it had to do with the old head unit internally. After installing the new radio, it hasn't shorted since. It would short nearly every time I'd press the button to turn on the old head unit.
[/QUOTE]Pretty sure you're looking at the wrong series manual[/QUOTE]
That would be correct...guess I wasn't paying attention to which one it was exactly lol
[/QUOTE]There is an amp control line indicated in the manuals that you will need to make sure is hooked up correctly, and also make sure that your new head unit is set to control the amps with that line[/QUOTE]
Are you referring to this? There's also a 2 pin connector with an orange and black cable tucked behind the cables. What is that for?
If so, I don't have that plugged in. The kit didn't come with a harness for that one. Here's my wiring job
Safe to say that's why I'm not getting any sound? The amps aren't turning on?
[/QUOTE]Of course you could bypass these amplifiers and drive everything via your new head unit[/QUOTE]
So I'm going to assume this would work? Hopefully, and If so, how do I go about doing that?
Again thankyou so much for helping! I couldn't really find a lot on this matter.
if you were popping fuses you had a short somewhere. Priority one would be finding where the short is, whether it is in a speaker wire, a power wire, or an internal short in the old head unit or its amps.
Yes, i believe it was an internal short inside of the old head unit. Reason being, every time i would replace the fuse, turn on the unit, it would blow immediately. after installing the new radio, it hasn't blown since.
Pretty sure you're looking at the wrong series manual.
Yup, i was lol
There is an amp control line indicated in the manuals that you will need to make sure is hooked up correctly
Would you be referring to this? there's also a two pin connector tucked in the back with orange and black wires. what does that do?
If so, no harness like that came with the kit i had bought on crutchfield. so nothing is plugged into it.
Of course you could bypass these amplifiers and drive everything via your new head unit as it likely has an internal amplifier that can handle the loads of the 4 speakers.
do think that would work if i were do that as is with my situation? how do i go about doing that? heres my wiring job to give some insight.
As you can see, i didnt wire the blue wires. Mostly because i wont be using them.
I'm glad you built an adapter harness instead of cutting up the existing one. That should make this a really easy fix. The two-pin connector you circled with the single wire should be the amp turn on. This would connect with the Pioneer Blue/White wire that is labeled System Remote Control. You should have sound after that. You could just put a spade connector on the blue wire, or those two wire connectors should be easy to find if you want to complete your harness. System Remote + Speaker Amp should fix your problem. If it's too quiet, check your head unit settings when it's powered on, and you may need to turn up the amp amount.
I'm not seeing the solid blue wire for you to use to control your power antenna on the head unit connector. You said you weren't going to use it, but if you do ever want to hook up the power antenna, note that the rx7 antennas work when the antenna wire is grounded. The modern Pioneer-style (its almost universal at this point) systems put power to the antenna wire when they want it to go up instead of grounding them. Not sure if you can switch this easily, or you would need a relay to ground it out. Either way, different problem.
Are you referring to this?
if you are, then I've got some of those on hand 🙋🏽♂️. The solid blue wire is in the last photo center left. It's part of the green connector plug. I'll try connecting them when I get home from work today and I'll report back. Didn't even think of that!
Yeah, just put one of those connectors on the blue/white remote line, and plug that into the speaker-amp 2-pin connector and you should be in business.
On the power antenna control, there's a solid blue on the rx7 harness side, but I'm not seeing one on the Pioneer side. If that's the case, just leave the blue wire on the rx7 side unconnected and capped. It will make the antenna go up if it grounds to the chassis. The stock radio simply grounds the wire via an internal transistor of some sort.
Make sure the head unit isn't faded all the way to the front would be the first thing I'd try. If the speakers were working before, that is going to probably take care of it.
If that doesn't work, you might try unplugging your rca cables and test it, although that shouldn't make any difference. Test continuity to the rear amps next.
Last resort, service or bypass the amps and replace the speakers.
Make sure the head unit isn't faded all the way to the front would be the first thing I'd try. If the speakers were working before, that is going to probably take care of it.
If that doesn't work, you might try unplugging your rca cables and test it, although that shouldn't make any difference. Test continuity to the rear amps next.
Last resort, service or bypass the amps and replace the speakers.
what's weird is that it doesn't have an option to fade sound to the rear. Maybe I'm missing something but I'll try again tomorrow. I'll try disconnecting the RCA cables too. Will report back 🫡
Welp, safe to say that everything is working normally now! I guess the rear speakers were under the "subwoofer" section on the head unit. Speakers started playing right when I turned it on!
Thanks for the help professionalpyroman 🫡🙏🏽 you helped a ton.
Jusr remembered. One more thing you should check in your settings, or in your new head unit manual. You should check to see if you can change the output level of your head unit. If you feed speakers directly, you use full/high level. If you feed the audio to amplifiers, as is your case, you should use line/low level output. The amplifiers are expecting lower voltage on the speaker input lines. It will keep you from running too much power and blowing out the amps. If you can post the model or manual, I might be able to help you find out
Jusr remembered. One more thing you should check in your settings, or in your new head unit manual. You should check to see if you can change the output level of your head unit. If you feed speakers directly, you use full/high level. If you feed the audio to amplifiers, as is your case, you should use line/low level output. The amplifiers are expecting lower voltage on the speaker input lines. It will keep you from running too much power and blowing out the amps. If you can post the model or manual, I might be able to help you find out
There isn't much detail, but check out page 29 - speaker level. You can adjust FR, FL, RR, RL speaker output level. Remember the default values because they put out sound and you can return to that, but I would drop these as low as they can go to start, and then bring them up incrementally. It doesnt specify, but I think the range is -24db to 10db. This will be where most of your audio adjustment. I'm just guessing using an internet calculator, but it should work fine at -21db to -22db. This would drop a 12v signal down to a 1v signal. 1v signals are common for feeding amps. Find a setting that sounds good for you though.
04-17-24, 06:40 PM
