Headunit not producing sound

[RoYALbLUE08 10+ year member]

hey guys I have an issue with my headunit.

I was driving and hit a pothole going 80mph on the freeway and I was listening to music, after I hit the pothole my sound went out completely. my rear speakers are connected to the headunit via OEM harness and my front stage is on it's own amp. I disconnected everything completely and there's just no sound at all even from my OEM rear speakers that's connected directly to the headunit. I tried reading up and some ppl hinted that maybe it went into protect mode so I tried doing a hard reset on the headunit pushing the reset button and also unplugging my battery for half hour. I checked all of my wires from front to back and everything is fine, nothing touching any metal and everything is all taped up securely. is there a way to take the headunit out of protect mode?

it's a pioneer x8500 double din I just got it 3 weeks ago

Click to read more...

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

you mention "taped securely". did you use insulated crimp connectors and the tape is just holding the bundle? or did you twist and tape the wires? if the latter, that's not the correct method.

sometimes, when you cram wires back into the dash, they can short out, even slightly. it only takes one wire strand shorting out. for the unused front wires, are they separately capped? i've seen where people just tape the group of wires together and they short out, taking both speaker outputs and RCA outputs down.

 

[RoYALbLUE08 10+ year member]

you mention "taped securely". did you use insulated crimp connectors and the tape is just holding the bundle? or did you twist and tape the wires? if the latter, that's not the correct method.
sometimes, when you cram wires back into the dash, they can short out, even slightly. it only takes one wire strand shorting out. for the unused front wires, are they separately capped? i've seen where people just tape the group of wires together and they short out, taking both speaker outputs and RCA outputs down.

well they are triple twisted and taped I didn't use the butt connectors because I ran out. I'm gonna run to auto zone now and buy a kit and use butt connectors on all of the wires and wire caps at the ends. but I mean they are really taped up good. and then I taped the bunch together so it doesn't move. but I still don't know how when I hit the pothole it just caused the sound to completely go out. the unt didn't shut off the sound just shut off and made a hissing sound

 

[RoYALbLUE08 10+ year member]

you mention "taped securely". did you use insulated crimp connectors and the tape is just holding the bundle? or did you twist and tape the wires? if the latter, that's not the correct method.
sometimes, when you cram wires back into the dash, they can short out, even slightly. it only takes one wire strand shorting out. for the unused front wires, are they separately capped? i've seen where people just tape the group of wires together and they short out, taking both speaker outputs and RCA outputs down.

actually I just checked all the wires in the harness, remember I said they were triple twisted, well I forgot to say that I soldered all the wires (yellow, red, ground, and the 4 speaker wires for the rear

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

Gotcha. I prefer heat shrink over tape. If I tape I use 3M Super 33+.

If you taped each front speaker wire separately then it shouldn't shut off.

Rear speaker connections are factory or soldered?

Could have jarred the head unit internals.

 

[CrossoverOre 10+ year member]

leave it unplugged over night and see if that gets you anything. but it does sound like you ef'ed up your deck.

 

[RoYALbLUE08 10+ year member]

Gotcha. I prefer heat shrink over tape. If I tape I use 3M Super 33+.
If you taped each front speaker wire separately then it shouldn't shut off.

Rear speaker connections are factory or soldered?

Could have jarred the head unit internals.

rear speaker connections are soldered at the headunit harness wrapped over tape ( I use a lot of tape along the wire to make sure it's secure and no strands are visible)

as for front speakers, that's connected to my amp( completely independent of the headunit minus the RCA wires from the amp and I cut each of those wires from the headunit harness and then taped them.

like it seriously doesn't make sense to fry the sound board over a pothole, the installation is in a professional manor like I can remove my headunit and show you, everything is soldered, taped and double taped then all zip tied nice and tight, the connections at the amp are all nice and secure and the power, ground and remote leads are all taped up too and the RCA cables are taped at the amp ( can't tape them at headunit it's too close. looks like another warranty issue. god these pioneer head units are terrible with this issue. this is like my 3rd headunit

 

[RoYALbLUE08 10+ year member]

I've done over 10 installs before this is the first time this is happening and I have OCD when it comes to things like this I have to perfect it

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

sounds like you have your wiring handled. good job.

unplug the RCA's from the deck and see if that regains rear speakers.

then the only other option is to remove the deck and bench test it.

or send it back.

FWIW i don't buy Pioneer.

 

[RoYALbLUE08 10+ year member]

sounds like you have your wiring handled. good job.
unplug the RCA's from the deck and see if that regains rear speakers.

then the only other option is to remove the deck and bench test it.

or send it back.

FWIW i don't buy Pioneer.

yeah i unplugged the RCAS from the headunit to see if the rear would produce sound andd no, its the same throughout the RCA outputs and the stock rear speakers. so looks like the sound board is fried again... what headunit would you recommend thats better quality than the pioneer? nothing more than like 5-600

i really liked the clarion nx702 but i hear bad reviews that it slows down and gets laggy

 

[Side Show 10+ year member]

check fade lol

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

I run the Alpine CDE-HD149BT and am happy. enough processing and I use my amp crossovers (which are proving to be better than HU crossovers anyway).

 

[Side Show 10+ year member]

bench test it.

 

[RoYALbLUE08 10+ year member]

I run the Alpine CDE-HD149BT and am happy. enough processing and I use my amp crossovers (which are proving to be better than HU crossovers anyway).

ehh... i need a double din unit. cant use single dins i dont like them and i need a 7 inch screen

bench test it.

how do i do that?

 

[CrossoverOre 10+ year member]

Alpine Electronics of America, Inc.

I'd go with this one on that budget. You dont get a full 7" but 6.1 is close. plus no motorization means less stuff to fail.