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  #1  
Old 03-17-2006, 05:37 PM
jedi105
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Default Stereo questions on 93 PF

Hello all. Once again, thanks to those who have responded on my other questions. I appreciate the help.

I have some more issues that I would like to get a handle on. As listed above, I have a 93 Pathfinder. I bought it used a few days ago. The stereo was ripped out by the previous owner.

I bought a new chaep stereo at BB. Simple little CD and radio. Nothing fancy. I bought a wiring harness adapter. I cut the adapter from the stereo and hooked up the new harness. All wires were mated to their counterparts on the radio except 3. 2 Had to do with the dynamic illumination which I did not want anyway, and the 3rd was for the Amp turn on (which did not have a sister wire on the wires on the radio). Long story short, this produced power to the radio and it was clear that the radio was receiving a signal. Unfortunately, there was no sound.

After some research, I found the installdr.com and found a link that indicated that this Amp turn on wire was indeed needed and should have been connected to the power antenna wire of the radio. Apparently, my PF has a factory installed amplifier which needed to be juiced.

Ok, so I hooked this wire to the power antenna wire of the stereo. I had to splice it in with the "power antenna" wire from the other harness. I dont like doing things like that but I did. Lo and behold, when next I turned the ignition to on, the radio produced some exceptionally clear and crisp music. I was happy as a clam but still worried about having 2 wires from the aftermarket harness adapter being spliced into one receiving wire on the factory original wiring harness. As I was getting ready to put the console back together, I started the truck and bam....there was this horrid humming sound coming from the speakers that was in time to the engine whine. Ok, my guess is a bad or poorly connected ground. What do you think? My truck is old enough to have some surface rust on the metal brackets and frame pieces under the dash so it's possible. My thought is to cut the ground and splice a longer wire so i can feed it to another part of the chasis that has a better surface.

Sorry this was so verbose. I would appreciate any and all feed back.

Thanks
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  #2  
Old 03-17-2006, 06:07 PM
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What you have is commonly refered to as "road noise". Look it up at Crutchfield.com or other sources. It is common to produce things like this in various audio systems. Is there an easy cure? No unfortunately.

My advice would be to check and see if the radio is grounded through the same source or wire as the factory wiring harness, try grouning it to another solid ground source with a longer wire (somewhere that already has a ground connected under the dash) and if all else fails, try running a wire straight to the negative post on the battery. The last is never really practical or desireable but usually works as a fail safe.

If you still have problems with this, post up more questions and what you did and we'll work it out. Sorry for the slow response time. NissanTech has been having internet problems and I'm on vacation right now. By the way, working at poolside and connected wireless is the only way to go!
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  #3  
Old 03-18-2006, 01:16 PM
jedi105
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No luck. I tried everything. I even grounded it to the negative terminal of battery. No matter what I did. The sound was great whan it was just the ignition in the on position. If I started the engine, there would be a low whine or humming sound coming from all the speakers. If I turned the radio louder it would drown out the hum so the hum was a constant volume.

I'm at a loss.
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  #4  
Old 03-18-2006, 03:12 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jedi105
If I turned the radio louder it would drown out the hum so the hum was a constant volume.
Constant volume? Does the tone change as the motor rpms change? In other words, does it go from a low tone to a high tone after tapping the gas?

If you used a decent sized wire and ran it straight to the battery, there must be another ground loop somewhere in the wiring harness. You might try double checking the new harness and the factory harness. Try splicing the new ground from the new harness, the ground from the radio, and splice it into the factory ground wire from the factory harness. Try that. I have never had one I could not eliminate the noise on.

If it stays at a constant volume, you might try another head unit. That one may have a problem. That of course would be my last resort.
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Old 03-18-2006, 04:31 PM
jedi105
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The tone is the same. It does not fluctuate with the gas pedal.

The new wiring harness does not have a ground wire connector. The radio is ground directly to the chasis.

And my stupid question is.....what do you mean by saying I may need a new head unit? Do you mean that the radio may be faulty?
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  #6  
Old 03-18-2006, 06:49 PM
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What brand is your new audio unit? and How many speakers are in your pathfinder? 2, 4, 6 or 8?

I need that information to look at the wire diagram.
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  #7  
Old 03-19-2006, 05:58 AM
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Sorry for the delay in responding. I appreciate the hekp. The PF has 8 speakers but the stereo only has outputs for 4. The new stereo is a "Insignia". And the car does have the factory installed amplifier. I found it the other day under the dash behind a part of the chasis behind the black tray at the bottom of the console.
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  #8  
Old 03-19-2006, 06:37 AM
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you sure the amp isn't in the rear pass. fender?
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  #9  
Old 03-19-2006, 09:42 AM
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Hello again.

Just to clarify, if your pathfinder has 8 speakers, it must have 2 amps that are located behind the right rear fender cover, like momud suggested.

Now about the noise. I check the wire diagram and it looks very straight forward. And if the black wire from your new audio unit is connected to good ground it should not have any problems.

What is possible is that your new audio unit is not compatible for your car audio system. If the radio already had a built in amp, then the output signal to the amps will be to high. I tried to find more information for that brand, but I could not find any. Ask the shop where you bought the unit if is compatible for your pathfinder.
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  #10  
Old 03-19-2006, 11:48 AM
jedi105
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I'm pretty sure that the amp is up in the front behind the console. Its possible that there is another amp in the back but I am hesitant to remove the rear inside panel as it looks like a big chore. There are 8 speakers that i can see (2 in front on the windshield frame, 2 in the front doors, 2 in the rear compartment above the back seats and 2 tiny ones a little forward of the main ones in the back. The only ones working that I can tell are the 2 in the front door, the 2 on the windshield (I think they are) and the 2 tiny ones in the back). It is entirely possible that the system was modified. When I got the truck, the stereo was missing. I am sure at least one amp is up front. It looks like a small aluminum half circle and it is mounted on the chasis under the console. I checked with Best Buy, where I bought the radio and they said it was compatible for the PF. They had many more models that were more expensive so I would have thought that if it wasn't they would have tried harder to get me to buy a more expensive model. But they could also have been satisfied to just sell me something and get me out of the store. Who knows with today's kids.

There were 2 other connectors that did not connect to anything on the radio. One was a black wire that had what looked to me like an "S-Video" connector end which was just sitting in the console. The other connector was a 4 pin connector that was part of the Nissan wiring. It looked to me like it was a connector for perhaps the other 4 speakers for a radio that could support that many. Obviously, I just removed the black cable and tucked back this "extra" connector so I could place the radio in its mount.
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  #11  
Old 03-23-2006, 09:44 AM
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Here's a bit of an update. I'm at wits end. I was fooling around the other day and I realized that I was wrong when I said that the whining sound was a constant pitch. I do hear it change as the engine pitch changes. I can't tell if it changes when the turn signal is used or when the windshield wipers are used. And I noticed another problem. The CD player has a popping or crackling sound when it plays a CD.

Any ideas?
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  #12  
Old 03-24-2006, 03:00 PM
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maybe you need better plugs? ones that will not interfere..

grounding could still be a problem.
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  #13  
Old 03-31-2006, 12:16 PM
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Simply put, incompatible aftermarket product and or improper install. No offense but there might be something you missed without you realizing it. The signal strength going from the head unit to the factory amp may be too much.

After recently having some experience helping a friend install an additional amplifier downwind of the factory amp, the signal was not strong enough even though we used a signal converter. The subs played but had very little volume and power. That told me that the converter was not sending enough signal to the amplifier or the ohm load signal was not correct.

Sometimes, aftermarket stuff is not very compatible due to the signal being sent to the equipment. Since you're replacing your head unit and you have two factory amps, I bet the signal being sent to the amps are at a higher ohm load vs. what the factory amp sent. As far as the noise, that's a ground loop issue.

My scencere recommendation is to take this to a local audio dealer and see if they could possible fix the problem. Things of this nature and level of complexity is best handled with an experienced and trained technician before the factory amps burn up or the new head unit itself.

Be sure and repost the outcome if you get it fixed. I'd love to hear the results for future reference.
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  #14  
Old 03-31-2006, 05:56 PM
jedi105
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We are looking at the same possibility. It is thought that the head unit is pumpung too much signal and the factory amps are being juiced too much. Our thought are to get an unamplified head unit or bypassing the factory amp. Right now, with needing a wheel alignment and new tires, its a back burner issue as the feedback is not really audible at normal volumns. I'm just really crazy about things like this but I can live with it for now.
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  #15  
Old 04-01-2006, 12:10 PM
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bypassing the amps shouldn't cost you hardly anything. just a little sweat and a few feet of wire. 8)
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