Ground issue?

[thedrewster08]

Hi everyone, im new but I have had my system for a couple years now. I drive a '93 Shadow ES with a 12" Pioneer and a Sony GT120 head unit. Yea, I know, its all cheapodepot crap, but I got it dirt cheap when I worked at Circuit City, and it sounds decent in my small car.

Anyway, I am starting to have a problem with my system recently. When I first installed my head unit, I encountered a problem where my cars electrical setup was a "common ground" configuration, which made my head unit display "FAILURE" and the fade/balance could not be adjusted without the head unit crashing. I talked to a few people and they said to eliminate the head units ground through the wiring harness and to use the antenna input as a ground instead. It worked and everything was smooth sailing.

However, in the past 6 months or so, I am encountering an extremely angering problem and I dont know where to start troubleshooting. My head unit will turn itself off under different circumstances. It mostly occurs when I use my turn signals or apply my brakes. Sometimes it reacts to me playing with me heater/AC. Sometimes it gets into fits where it turns on and off rapidly for 30 seconds or so without me even doing anything. It almost sounds like something is loose, but I have inspected the harness and connections and everything is visually ok. These occurences get even worse when I drive on the freeway, which makes no sense.

So do I have a ground problem to my HU, or an electrical short somewhere in my electrical system? Any ideas are appreciated.

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[Boggess380 10+ year member]

im not exactly a pro so i could be wrong..but it almost sounds like a voltage problem..whether its voltage loss or just shorting out somewhere idk..it might also be the ground..if u can id try running a seperate ground wire for the in dash so u know its a solid ground and then try checking ur power wires to see if your getting the right voltage

 

[Bad4health 10+ year member]

take the headunit out an redo all the wire again. run the 12+ to the battery an not just the harness wire, but 2 me it sounds likr something is up with the red wire

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

using the antenna as a ground is why you're having an issue. that was a bandaid for a larger issue. your ground is floating at this point, voltage can go anywhere.

rewire the system. new speaker wires (one pair per speaker), new power and ground wires (ground to floor). use a relay to isolate the head unit from the car's electrical system.

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

refer to the diagram in this post

http://www.caraudio.com/forum/wiring-electrical-installation-help/465961-how-do-i-make-constant.html#post6989481