Hey guys,

Recently i've had an issue with my Pioneer Double Din DVD head unit turning off under electrical load. It is gradually getting worse, to the point that I don't really have it on because of it.

An example would be today I hopped in my car, fired it up and went to use my windscreen washer function and it turned off, restarted and came back on. If i turn my head lights on it will turn off, indicator sometimes will set it off etc.

I have checked the footwell internal fuses but thought i'd check on here first before pulling it out as it's a heck of a job to check the back fuse. Is there a relay or any idea as to why this is playing up? My assumption that it only occurs during loading means it's not the headunit dying rather a little gremlin somewhere pissing me off. The headunit is maybe 3 years old at best.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Only guessing, but my first thought would be to check your battery voltage. The unit might have a built in cut off feature when the voltage drops below a set amount, to protect the battery if the unit is accidentally left on. If your voltage drops a bit on turning on lights, wipers etc. this could be triggering it.

I'd be checking the earth.

Voltage drop could be the cause, best get a multimeter on the battery check voltage when its idling and when its being revved, however normally it would not just be the headunit that suffers.

The earth is quite a common cause too, best bet, find another spot to earth the unit, sand back any paint to bare metal, clean it up with wax and grease remover and then attach the ground, use a quality ring terminal and make sure its not loose.

Is it earthed at all? You can install a radio without connecting up the black wire to earth, and it will work, it earths through the aerial earth shielding instead. But with such a long path, voltage drops are guaranteed if you switch on other loads on the same circuit. Worth checking all the wiring, for sure.

I've had it in for a while, I don't recall if it was earthed but I can check.

It couldn't be 'back feeding' from my Amp could it? Like the ground to the amp might not need to be redone and that is causing it to fire up the line to the head unit?
I am doing some wiring atm behind the head unit with the ecu so I will poke my hand around and see if it is secondary earthed, i'm sure if the cable is there it was done though.

I have inquired with a local auto elec to have the battery/altenator/voltage regulator checked, but I am sure that it's just the head unit that is suffering.