Wellllll.... was driving into town this morning to get some gear to finish off my install... and i didnt get too far at all. Another burst cooling system hose (4th one in 3 months):cry: . Patched it up, filled up the cooling system a bit and headed back for home.

On the way, my stereo **** itself... :doubt: Now, its not the headunit thats ****ed coz it works when its directly wired to a power source. I've checked all fuses and wiring to the HU. Upon further inspection i found that i have no interior lights either!

Has anybody else experieced this before? Or is there a common known cause/fix with this problem? Cant' afford to get it diagnosed by an auto elec atm, so any help at all is very much appreciated...

Thanks in advance.

sounds odd, u sure u checked all fuses? the ones in the engine bay to

Yeh mate, checked the lot!

try replacing the fuses anyway, if the interior lights aren't working it's either a power/ground wire touching where it shouldn't be or a fuse is gone.

try replacing the fuses anyway, if the interior lights aren't working it's either a power/ground wire touching where it shouldn't be or a fuse is gone.

Replaced all related fuses and re-earthed a couple of points. I'm beginning to think that it might be my main fuse box thats faulty. Damn... if only i had a multimeter.

Hey man, i have as spare diamante fuse box at home if you need it.......
(only thing is its written in japenese lol)

']Hey man, i have as spare diamante fuse box at home if you need it.......
(only thing is its written in japenese lol)

You have the under-hood one mate... i needed the main one (under-dash).

Well i got hold of a MM and turns out the fusebox has carked it... so i got one from the wreckers (lucky the money-hungry bastards are open weekends) and everythings working again; which is good... but now i need to find the source of the problem... what caused it to cook itself in the first place. :confused:

You talking about the one under the bonnet or the one inside the car?

My best guess is when the hose burst coolant got where it shouldn't and shorted something, causing the fuse box to crap itself!

I take it if you haven't got a standard head unit (that is the one that came with the car) you wired it directly to the battery and only using the switched 12V line (the red one) from the car itself? The power for the headunit runs off the constant line (yellow) and the switched line is only for turning the radio on with ignition switch.

The constant 12V line under the dash isn't meant to provide the power for a higher powered headunit, it simply can't provide the power!

You talking about the one under the bonnet or the one inside the car?

My best guess is when the hose burst coolant got where it shouldn't and shorted something, causing the fuse box to crap itself!

I take it if you haven't got a standard head unit (that is the one that came with the car) you wired it directly to the battery and only using the switched 12V line (the red one) from the car itself? The power for the headunit runs off the constant line (yellow) and the switched line is only for turning the radio on with ignition switch.

The constant 12V line under the dash isn't meant to provide the power for a higher powered headunit, it simply can't provide the power!

1: If you read my previous post.... i needed the under-dash (interior) one... the coolant didnt spray ontot the engine bay fusebox anyway.

And 2: My headunit is wired through the original loom, and earthed directly to a plate on the body of the car. Its been like this for the past 3 years or so and i've had no dramas until now. And afaik, other members that are running aftermarket HU's this way have had no dramas either... correct? :confused:

That may be correct! lol, but yeah, with my pioneer DEH-3850MPH (the silver front one with backlight) I initially had it connected to the yellow wire and it distorted slightly at high volume, one I connected it directly to the battery problem solved! Being a uni student I got cheap but good bassy 6x9's for the back and used the function thats only accessible with the unit off (through the clock settings pages) and set the rear speakers to subwoofer instead of full. This is different to FIE etc etc etc. It channels the subwoofer output through the amplifier to the normal speakers (so you have to have speakers that can handle it) and ONLY bass comes out of the speakers.

This draws more power than normal, even with the back speakers set to full range as there's much louder deeper bass directed to the back speakers, and the yellow wire couldn't handle it. I earthed the headunit to the car body with it wired directly to the battery and now the only problem was a slight dimming of the backlight with it turned up. I then ran an extra earth wire from the HU to the battery and that was fixed too! just thought it would help, or help other people :) but yeah if you're not using the whole 4x50W (I know thats not RMS) then it may be ok.

The radiator hose spurting may have sprayed water onto something else that caused a temporary short that the fuse box inside the car didn't like, thats only a guess or you could just be unlucky that it happened at the same time!

I didn't mean to make it sound like you don't know what you're doing! :) just speaking from what i've read, and from other people's experience and my own about the wiring!

The radiator hose spurting may have sprayed water onto something else that caused a temporary short that the fuse box inside the car didn't like, thats only a guess or you could just be unlucky that it happened at the same time!

I didn't mean to make it sound like you don't know what you're doing! :) just speaking from what i've read, and from other people's experience and my own about the wiring!

Yeh i think it was more of a case of being unlucky... i dont think they incidents were directly related...

A while back i used to use my HU to run 4 speakers, then i ran 2 speakers and a sub (with the sub output & lowpass the pioneer HU's have, as u mentioned) and yeh i had a dimming problem with the backlight too. But nowadays i only run a pair of 60wrms 6"s off the HU... the amps handle the rest so i havent had any dramas since.

Sorry if i sounded arrogant or anything before lol. And cheers for the comments mate :) and i'm sure they'll help others also. Some good points raised there.

Hey thats ok! lol. What is the amperage of the fuse for the car radio anyway? isn't it like 10 or 15 amps!

the 4x50w headunits are usually only 4x22 RMS or something anyway, with 4x50W being PMPO (that is with base noises that aren't constant) from what I understand of it. Anyways I guess if you're drawing 4x50W you'd need at least 17 amps capacity as an absolute minimum through the electrics (I know it doesn't quite work like that but its close enough) With 2x50W yeah, the yellow wire should be able to handle that!

I've had this problem as well just recently!! No stereo or interior lights. I too traced it back to the fuse box. The issue is a dodgy connection with the plug on the top right of the fuse box (if your looking at it from the back) I tried cleaning it and it was no good. Eventually I took it out and bent the pins on the back of the fusebox slightly. The issue hasn't occurred since. :dancin:

I couldn't have work it out if I didn't have a multimeter. I recommend investing in one. They aren't expensive. There is no actual circuitry inside the fuse box therefore nothing can really go wrong with the fusebox itself. It's just a bunch of kris-crossed wires inside. Crack open your old one. Looks like something out of the matrix.

I've had this problem as well just recently!! No stereo or interior lights. I too traced it back to the fuse box. The issue is a dodgy connection with the plug on the top right of the fuse box (if your looking at it from the back) I tried cleaning it and it was no good. Eventually I took it out and bent the pins on the back of the fusebox slightly. The issue hasn't occurred since. :dancin:

I couldn't have work it out if I didn't have a multimeter. I recommend investing in one. They aren't expensive. There is no actual circuitry inside the fuse box therefore nothing can really go wrong with the fusebox itself. It's just a bunch of kris-crossed wires inside. Crack open your old one. Looks like something out of the matrix.

Cheers for the hint mate!!! Well.... its happened again, so i'll go outside in a few and try what you said. :doubt:

Hope thats all it is :) .

And yeh i half opened mine up and it smelt like melted plastic inside :confused:. so naturally i thought it was ****ed... lol

Someone correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't the interior light fuse in the engine bay?

Someone correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't the interior light fuse in the engine bay?

Nah i'm pretty sure theyre under the dash. Well i've checked and rechecked the terminal on the top right (rear) and still no progress. :doubt:

Well... another day and still no positive results... any other ideas on what it could be before i start chopping up wiring looms lol.

well my question is does the cigarete lighter in your car still work? if you don't use it you could disconnect the ligher and tap straight into that (as it can handle up to 10amps) and most HU's will never draw that much current (unless its something like my pioneer DEH-P1Y with 4 X 60watt and your powering all 4 channels and needs 15amp accessory, but who doesn't run amps for splits come on....)

anyways you can either do that or, run a dedicated line from the battery, set up a 12volt relay through the cigarette lighter, so that when you turn on ignition it switches the dedicated power cable on. if that doesn't make sense i can help a more.

What happens when you grab hold of the wires at the back of the fusebox and jiggle them around? Give them a trashing and see if you can reproduce the problem...

The wiring is quite confusing in the 2nd gens. From following the circuit diagrams in the workshop manual, I've discovered that the fusebox recieves more than one power source from the engine bay and there is even power fed back back to the engine bay from the fuse box!

Another suggestion I've got is to chek the fuse/relay box under the bonnet... At the front of it it a small yellow jumper block. Pop it out with a screw driver and check the contacts are clean. This block feeds power back into the fusebox to run less important things (ie - stereo, lights).

What happens when you grab hold of the wires at the back of the fusebox and jiggle them around? Give them a trashing and see if you can reproduce the problem...

I cant recreate the problem, because its recreated itself... the problem is constantly there, no lights no stereo. Also, the ecu and tcu won't hold data, they keep resetting every time i turn the key off. Which is why i've gone through a quarter of a tank of fuel in a day (60kms).
I tried yanking them every way while the lights were switched on, but not even a flicker came from them. :cry: This *** sucks lol.

I'll check that jumper block tomorrow if i get some spare time.

Hmm okay... so i go to start the car this morning and everything was fine :confused: . Stereo worked, lights, everything...

10mins of driving on the way to work and everything dies again... so looks like somethings loose or earthing out somewhere, but what and where? i've done the 'wiggle test' lol on every part of wiring i could get to... but to no avail.

OK! it seems whenever the car is cold after sitting overnight, everything will work ok for about 5 minutes, then it all dies again.

Does anybody have any idea why it would work only after sitting overnight? :confused:

OK! it seems whenever the car is cold after sitting overnight, everything will work ok for about 5 minutes, then it all dies again.

Does anybody have any idea why it would work only after sitting overnight? :confused:

Mate .. electrical problems like this can be a ***** so don't expect a magic answer. You've got yourself a dodgy connector somewhere. Things naturally expand and contract as temperature changes hence why it's probably come on overnight. Go invest in a multimeter, print out the circuit diagrams from the workshop manual and just follow it through from battery to stereo. Or... you could take it to a auto'leckie to diagnose. (I'd still wager 5 cents that your problems gonna be with one of the plugs at the back of the fuse box by the way ;) )

Misterbishi, thanks heaps for your reply!

I'll get to rippin the car appart soon mate... will let ya know how it ends up.

Well i've wasted a whole can of contact cleaner, bent all the pins to make contact that i could... and wiggled the hell out of all the connectors and looms. :confused:

Still nothing:cry: :cry: :cry: ...

I'm gonna have to put up with this for a while by the looks of things... until i can get it to an auto elec. Just found another cooling system hose that looks like its about to go 'pop'. Its leakin all over the tranny.

Hopefully its just something simple that i've overlooked... :cry:

I'm gonna have to put up with this for a while by the looks of things... until i can get it to an auto elec. Just found another cooling system hose that looks like its about to go 'pop'. Its leakin all over the tranny.

Hopefully its just something simple that i've overlooked... :cry:

This year is just not our year with cars ey=\
Hope you find out what happened soon man

Well incase anybody's curious (which i highly doubt lol), had the car fixed today. One of the wires in the main loom was damaged, so instead of cutting open the loom and repairing/replacing the wire, a separate wire was relayed externally. So far no dramas, except i think my tps was damaged with the electrical short.

i'm interested! what a weird thing to just happen... :nuts:

Struggling to understand the link between the tps and stereo. Where abouts was it damaged and what makes you think it's also damaged your tps?

Also.. how much they charge u to fix??

Ok i have the same problem to but mine comes back on after a minute or too.
Things that cause mine too do i t is -
door opening
bass to high
putting on brakes

but it doesnt happen all the time only sometimes when it wants and it wont happen for months then all of a sudden it will do it six times a day for a few days then stop. i have pulled apart the fuse box in the engine bay and i cant see anything i have read the manual that just confuses me more so i would like to know how it was fixed to see if it will work for me too?
thx mick

Ok i have the same problem to but mine comes back on after a minute or too.
Things that cause mine too do i t is -
door opening
bass to high
putting on brakes

but it doesnt happen all the time only sometimes when it wants and it wont happen for months then all of a sudden it will do it six times a day for a few days then stop. i have pulled apart the fuse box in the engine bay and i cant see anything i have read the manual that just confuses me more so i would like to know how it was fixed to see if it will work for me too?
thx mick

Hey Mick, the engine bay fusebox is kinda unrelated to your problem. Start by checking out the fuse box under the dash (junction box). Check the box and all connectors... give the looms a jiggle and see what happens.

Misterbishi, i'm not 100% sure where it was mate, i havent had a chance to have a good look at the car yet... only got it back yesterday arvo. Cost me $120 all up for diagnosis and repair. Was much less than i expected.

I'm not saying that the TPS problem is 100% related, but it was fine before all the drama occurred.