Stereo problems

So I went to install my Alpine CDA-9826 this afternoon... Well it appears the car ('91 Laser base model btw) has had it's stereo stolen sometime in the past. So the wiring was all cut short and a pain to work with... Anyway I was getting off and on power (deck would power on then go off if I moved it... Was fine if I kept it still) which I figured was because I just had the wires twisted together. Well I got done installing speakers and all that and went to put the deck into the dash finally and low and behold. No power. The deck absolutely won't power on now. All the fuses are fine... But no matter what I do I'm not getting power; which is strange because other than putting the deck in I didn't do anything to the wiring (and all of my twists had been covered with tape so they wern't shorting out on anything).

Anyway I'm at a loss... I'd rather not have to bring this thing to a shop to have it installed. I've done this before on other cars and had it go off without a hitch. This car is being a bitch though.

Any help is appreciated.

look at the ground for the deck could be very likely. if the isnt a black wire there should be something in the back of the deck to run off of.

look at the ground for the deck could be very likely. if the isnt a black wire there should be something in the back of the deck to run off of.

try that. also try grounding the black wire (ground) to a bare metal spot in the car.

And also. the stereo prolly wasn't stolen. They just don't make many clips for the eclipse/talon/laser cars. I couldn't find one anywhere reasonable. So i ended up cutting mine also. It works fine.

you might try getting wire nuts and stripping them back a bit further...

If it was going on and off It sounds like you have a bad ground... The wire may be connected but where it is connected to the frame may suck. It was like this in my friends jeep when ever he would hit a bump the stereo would shut off and then with the next bump come back on. Sometimes it just did it upon starting the car.

Perhaps I'll go take the ground off and attach it to something I know is grounded... Post back later.

Thanks guys.

So much for that. Moved the ground around and still I get no signs of life from the deck.

Possible I fried the damn thing somehow?

IF you checked the fuse in the back and it's fine still then maybe ya fried the deck or it's simply defective which could be. I have seen decks that have that problem almost exactly as you described.

If you purchased it from a best buy they can check it for you at the geek squad desk when you go in. They will just plug in power and tell you if it's the deck or not... This usually costs you the best way to go about it is get in the returns line tell them you want to return it it's not working could they test it though. If it is you will keep it and just fix the problem with the car...

Or if you can get the right amount of voltage hook it up yourself and see if it comes to life.


I'd first check the fuse right on the head unit. (it's on the backside..) if thats not it and you checked your conenctions again take it back see if they can check it for you.... Circuit city might do it too.. I'm not sure...

Got it at an A&B Sound (western Canada chain) on clearance... Guess I'll be taking a trip up there tomorrow. I don't really see what I could have done to the deck to cause it to die but w/e, strange things happen.

And for the fuses; I've already checked all of them (all of them actually... Fixed a few other problems while I was in there).

It's odd. I had the deck just sitting on the center console playing some music for a minute before I finished throwing in one of my speakers. I turn the ignition off, finish with the speaker, then slide the deck into the dash and that's when everything went wrong.

Perhaps I'll rig up a test light and see if I'm even getting power to the deck.

i would rewire your harness/deck with male and female connectors insted of splicing/twisting/and tapeing. crimp male connectors to the factrory wires and females to the alpine wire harness.

if you have a bad ground you need to run a 12 gauge wire as short as possable to the floor board. just use an O ring connector on a screw to ground to the floor. if that still dosn't work run an a ground & constent power with an inline fuse from your battery to your deck (pull the deck and do it in the engine bay to save time) if that dosn't work your have a bad deck. if it does then it means your have a short/ground/blown fuse or somthing messed up somewhere.