Sony and Pioneer head unit woes
 

Hey guys, I am having issues w/ 2 headunits. I am not very familiar w/ car audio at all.
1st is a Sony CDX M800, it has a flip-down face. One day the display didn't work and the buttons didn't respond. It wouldn't give me my cd back til I unplugged the power then plugged it back in. I think it might be the ribbon that goes from the face to the rest of the unit. Any ideas? Is this hard to replace? It will still play the CD but I can't change volume, track, etc. It was like a $300 unit, er.

2nd is a Pioneer DEH-P7300. When the Sony unit had issues I took it out. I had this one lying around from my recently departed (moment of silence) 89 Mazda 929. It was working fine in there. I still have the Mazda harness on it and everything. When I plug in everything on the car side I still have extra wires. I get a display and responsive buttons, but no sound. Now that I think about it I didn't have the ground wire grounded at the time. It was all sorts of cables coming out of the unit-telephone, mic, front output (2, red/white), rear output (2, red/white), and like 10 colored wires that apparently go nowhere. I pulled it out of my 929 in Nov 07 or so. It was a really good system so I think that explains some of the extra wires. Any ideas? Thank you.

Ribbons on flip face stereos typically crack over time and lose their connections when you flip the face down. It happened to my old Pioneer. They flex and fold and when it's happened too many times they will give in. I'm not sure what the cost of a new would be but if you were to have it sent in and fixed you might as well just spring for a new deck since it was only $300. Can you put up good, in focus shots of the Pioneer wires and the Sony ribbon?

Sold car, thanks anyways.