CD Players shuts off

[bh04]

I have an aftermarket cd player for my 2000 cavy. It's an Eclipse, and when I am listening to my subs fairly loud and all, my cd player shuts off, then after a few seconds it turns on again. I checked the wires and it all seems to be fine. I have a new battery (a few days old). What could the problem be.

[diddy0071]

Originally Posted by bh04

I have an aftermarket cd player for my 2000 cavy. It's an Eclipse, and when I am listening to my subs fairly loud and all, my cd player shuts off, then after a few seconds it turns on again. I checked the wires and it all seems to be fine. I have a new battery (a few days old). What could the problem be.

Sonofabitch, and I thought I was the only one with this problem. Unfortunately, Chevrolet decided that the wires it provides for it's harness are of good caliber and quality. THEY ARE NOT!!! over time, they just get crappier and crappier. So here is your solution, not a fun one, but I had to do it. Look at the wiring harness of the deck. (NOT THE MALE, the FEMALE THAT COMES ON THE CAR!!) Look for the orange wire. It is the memory cable. your going to have to cut off that wire, and tape it off. It's of NO USE TO YOU!!!! Run a new wire straight from the battery (WITH A FUSE ATTACHED MIND YOU!!) and run it back all the way to your deck. look on the harness of the stereo. Wherever that orange wire is supposed to connect to, connect the new wire running from the battery to that. That should fix your problem. It's not fun, but it works. I had the same problem. I fixed too much stupid shit. I changed battery, alternator, ground and power wires running from the battery.

[Mangoamerican]

it sounds to me that your cd player isnt getting enough power when your system bumps, replacing the wire will definatly give your system the power it craves

[S_chevy]

It could be a crossed wire to, It has never happened to me with a car but I had a crossed speaker wirer on my home system and when ever I would turn it up a load the whole system would shut down.

[izinka58]

Holy shit. My CD player was doing that same fucking thing.

[Admiral558]

ditto to all the above, but I found the problem with mine was it didn't have a good enough ground, so I fed a longer cable up near the passenger airbag, couple of bolts goto the frame there...

[diddy0071]

Originally Posted by S_chevy

It could be a crossed wire to, It has never happened to me with a car but I had a crossed speaker wirer on my home system and when ever I would turn it up a load the whole system would shut down.

A crossed wire will not cause the stereo to turn off on a car. For starters, there are 2 wires running to power that run the stereo, the Power wire, and the Memory wire. The memory wire keeps the stereo from forgetting things like your preset radio stations and the time display. A crossed wire will not turn off the stereo, but it might mess up your speaker. Also, if it was a crossed wire going to a speaker, you could tell because you wouldn't hear much music coming from your speakers because the sound waves would cancel each other out, because one of the signals is in phase, and the other is out of phase. YOU WOULD KNOW, it wouldn't sound right. So, the only explanation, would be the one I'm giving you, because it happened to me, it was installed by a professional installation service which I wouldn't think crossed the wires, plus I took it back to that installation service, and he ran a new wire straight from the battery for free, to fix the problem. Plus, if it was a crossed wire then why is the stereo working fine, until he turns up the volume, or VOLTAGE, on the wire? If it was crossed, then the stereo wouldn't function at all. mix up the power, ground or memory wires, and it's not working. You might even blow the deck's fuse.

So good guess, but it's not that. By the way, the stereo at home has a built in circuit that shuts it off, when it's not connected right. Most home recievers have that function.

[4dr92cavi4cyl]

Another Idea, run that wire from the battery into the snipped end on the harness, instead of your radios harness, this way when you change your deck or need to take it out, you won't have to cut that wire everytime. :·)

I know someone's gonna say "but that wire is crap, that just defeats the purpose of the new wire" well maybe you're right but you've just bypassed the other 6 feet of wire, the 1-2 inches used in the harness shouldn't cause the same problem, if it does use quick-disconnect ends and run it into the deck harness.

[diddy0071]

Originally Posted by 4dr92cavi4cyl

Another Idea, run that wire from the battery into the snipped end on the harness, instead of your radios harness, this way when you change your deck or need to take it out, you won't have to cut that wire everytime. :·)

I know someone's gonna say "but that wire is crap, that just defeats the purpose of the new wire" well maybe you're right but you've just bypassed the other 6 feet of wire, the 1-2 inches used in the harness shouldn't cause the same problem, if it does use quick-disconnect ends and run it into the deck harness.

I don't know if you have ever installed car stereo equipment before, but the one thing that is very important is not to do things like that, and I'll tell you why.

If you install an amp kit, the first thing they tell you, is to use equal gauge wire for both the negative and the positive. why you may ask? if your power cable, is thicker than your ground cable, then you are at risk of causing a fire in your car, because the wire will simply short out, melt the plastic, causing live wires to hit, and kablooey! there goes your fuse, or your car if you have sufficient enough current. most fuses are 60-80AMPS, which is more than enough to start a fire.

same principle here. if the wire starts taking in more current, and you still have a smaller, POS end, that end isn't going to support all that current, it's going to melt, and touch bare metal, and pop your battery, or cause a fire. It's a nice idea, just not a safe one. Do what I did, go to radio shack, and buy pins that you can replace on the wiring harness. that works as well, and you don't have to cut out that one wire all the time from the stereo.

[S_chevy]

Look I do not claim to know a lot about car audio but like I said I had a crossed wire on my home system and it worked fine at low volumes but when I turned it up it would shut down,

but thanks for explaining it a little better

[bh04]

I had everything in ym car related to audio (speakers, subs, deck) professionslly installed. And I took it to the place the other day, and they checked all the wires and everything was fine. I took it to an auto shop, and my alternator is bad.

[Mangoamerican]

thats cool, i had first thought that it was the alternator or the battery, but i was hooked on what diddy said because he had the same problem. but anyways, the whole power wire/ground wire being the same size, its true, you wont get enough current going back if its not the same gauge, and will probually heat up if you have it pounding, or you will get clipping, which would make your deck turn off, (clipping is a sign of the component not getting enough power) which can be because of wire gauge, connection or a bad source

[bh04]

I have 4 gauge wiring (power, ground). That is all hooked up correctly, as well as the speaker and amp and sub wires. I'm thinking my alternator is bad because when i have my headlights on at night, and i push the brakes to slow down the lights (inside and out) dim and/or flicker. also when my heater is on, and i push the brake to slow down or stop, my heater cuts out and slows down and dont push out much air. finally when im driving at lets say 35mph, and i push the brake to slow down, my speedometer needle stays at that speed until i let off the brake.

[diddy0071]

if it was the alternator, then the battery wouldn't charge, and the whole car wouldn't start. if you think about it through an electrician's point of view you will understand.

1. lets say the car stereo needs a good 12 volts to run. that's fine and all, but how much current is it needing? Most stereos rarely need more than 5 amperes going to it. Headlights, need about 10 since they are needing to be nice and bright and all. Well, 10 plus 5 equals 15 amperes. A car, especially a cavalier needs a good 450-500 amperes just to get it started. look at your battery. it should say 650 cold cranking amps. this is the normal battery size for your cavalier. IF IT WAS REALLY THE ALTERNATOR, THAT WASN'T CHARGING THE BATTERY RIGHT, do you think your car would start? I THINK NOT!

bottom line, if your car starts, and runs good, then it isn't your alternator. don't believe me? give it a try.

1. turn off your car, and run the headlights and stereo for 5-10 minutes. if your car turns on fine, then it's neither the battery or the alternator's fault.

if, by chance the car doesn't turn on, I would THEN blame it on the battery or alternator. first choice would be alternator, because the battery wasn't fully charged. it the alternator is good, then it's the battery's fault for not charging right.

I hope this shines a light on your mystery. I don't mean to sound like an asshole, but I went to college a few years ago for basic electronics, and my theory is hard to throw away, or maybe i'm hard headed. Not trying to make enemies though, just trying to help out someone.

[Mangoamerican]

i just thought maybe when your system is hitting, you are grounding something out with the vibration, check your wires to make sure thats not happening. it doesnt make sense that any of the wires have gone bad, because if they went bad, they would BE bad, and your radio wouldnt turn on at all