stereo died, fuses?

[rebel65]

hey,

so i was driving down the freeway listening to some tunes, and all of the sudden my stereo turned off, then back on, then off and so on. i hit a bump it happened again, i accelerated sharply and it died for the final time.

i'm not too sure what could have caused this i checked the fuse in the stereo unit, not broken, and one i have straight from the battery for the stereo and that one is good too. where do you think i should look and what for? i would think that if the connection to the battery to the stereo is working it should turn on, is it possible the stereo kicked the electronic bucket? or is something else more likely. anyway thanks for any input.

 

[Tim65GT]

If the battery power is good, check the Accessory power to make sure it is getting there too. And also check the ground.

 

[iskwezm]

start wiggling wires and see whats loose.

 

[suki243]

I'm interested in this, i have a similar problem, every once in a while it turns off then on again, then plays for a while and then acts crazy again. It doesn't turn off totally though as in your case.

Which head unit do you have? I have a JVC;
At first I thought it was a faulty ground but i disconnected the ground totally just to test it; and it worked fine without the ground connected.
I did clean it again and put it back , it hasn't happened again since; but we'll see what happens and if that helped it work. I;ve heard that sometimes it uses the antenna as a ground so that may explain why it worked without the designated ground connected.
I also thought that maybe the crimp on the power was no good so i soldered it but the craziness still happened. I'll let you know if i figure something else out.

 

[rebel65]

so i got up to my parents house to check this out. I took everything out of the glove box, grabbed a voltmeter my dad apparently got a new snazzy one, anyway

Looks like the ground for the stereo wiggled out of a crimped wire, reconnected it didn't work still, think some other wires up under the dash wiggled lose.

but some good did come of my exploring found the fuse for acc and connected a amplifier remote turn on to it so i can plug into my ipod and still listen to music till i figure it out.

i think i need to take a day and just trace wires and check em. : ) heck could be fun

 

[BlownFiveLiter]

I'm interested in this, i have a similar problem, every once in a while it turns off then on again, then plays for a while and then acts crazy again. It doesn't turn off totally though as in your case.

Which head unit do you have? I have a JVC;
At first I thought it was a faulty ground but i disconnected the ground totally just to test it; and it worked fine without the ground connected.
I did clean it again and put it back , it hasn't happened again since; but we'll see what happens and if that helped it work. I;ve heard that sometimes it uses the antenna as a ground so that may explain why it worked without the designated ground connected.
I also thought that maybe the crimp on the power was no good so i soldered it but the craziness still happened. I'll let you know if i figure something else out.

It still worked because of what's known as a floating ground. It found an alternate pathway for the power to go through (usually an RCA jack, or the antenna cable).