96 ford explorer audio problem

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Imza

Member - Posts: 4

Joined: September 09, 2004

Location: United States

Posted: September 09, 2004 at 11:34 PM / IP Logged

ah, how vague my topic is.

this is sort of a long story, bold = important parts

anyway, this is my first vehicle, and the dome light is sort of tricky...it's a dash dimmer/dome light wheel control. i had left my dome light on for 3ish days and killed the battery. after jumpstarting it (barely) i drove it near a friend's house about 25-30 minutes away so the alternator would recharge the battery. on the way there i attempted to turn on the radio and the digital display on my head unit just went black. while shopping for a short while at dierburgs i had left the headlights on, and killed the battery again. my friend's car (88 maza 323) battery was too weak to jumpstart mine, so i asked a nice man with a red integra. his car couldn't jumpstart it either. in fact, this time it would barely attempt to start. so i had to leave it there...the next day my best friend jay drove me to work, and i just gave him my wallet and keys because he offered to fix it. his 97 civic couldn't jumpstart it, so he just replaced the battery, and him and a friend of ours got it back to my work. the new battery works great. i replaced a couple fuses and the head unit was back on...but it created no audio. this is a stock head unit. i installed my sister's old head unit, and still no audio.

anyone know what's going on, or how to fix this? it's not a fuse, and the speaker wiring looks fine...i haven't checked the actual speakers themselves, but i'm sure they're not blown, since there was no pop when my head unit blew a fuse, and even blown speakers make some sound. i am getting absolutely zero audio from every speaker in my vehicle. having no radio is rather boring on long drives, so i take a friend with me...but yeah.

questions are welcome, if they are related to the solution to my problem.

mobile1

Silver - Posts: 479

Joined: February 23, 2004

Location: United States

Posted: September 10, 2004 at 12:06 AM / IP Logged

you probably have a factory amplified system in the vehicle. the amplifier probably fried out since you did blow some fuses, there was obvioulsy was a power surge in the system. the amp should be behind the pass. side pannel in the rear of the vehicle. on the amp you will see two plugs: one on either side. you need to find the speaker wires coming in to the amp, and the speakers going out of the amp, cut them and connect them to each other. (testing all wires first obviously) Some ford amplifiers have bypass plugs availible at you local car audio shop which would work as well, and means no cutting wires. hopefully this will help

12-volt_guy

Copper - Posts: 53

Joined: September 10, 2004

Location: United States

Posted: September 10, 2004 at 4:44 PM / IP Logged

You may want to try just disconnecting the negative battery post for 5 minutes and reconnecting. You might just need to reset the system.

Imza

Member - Posts: 4

Joined: September 09, 2004

Location: United States

Posted: September 17, 2004 at 12:52 PM / IP Logged

12-volt_guy wrote:

You may want to try just disconnecting the negative battery post for 5 minutes and reconnecting. You might just need to reset the system.

i changed the battery...wouldn't that count?

mobile1, thanks a lot. next time i have time i'm going to go to a car audio place and look for a transformer for the cables, since i don't particularly want to cut them, in case the amp isn't the problem.

bumpingjeep

Copper - Posts: 149

Joined: September 12, 2004

Location: United States

Posted: September 18, 2004 at 10:51 AM / IP Logged

i know this may seem like a dumb question since you said you checked all the fuses...but some of those have fuses for the fact system under the hood...some fords are big on that...if you haven't checked it yet you may want to try...if you have...sorry for the bother

mobile1

Silver - Posts: 479

Joined: February 23, 2004

Location: United States

Posted: September 18, 2004 at 9:15 PM / IP Logged

unless i'm having a huge brain fart, a blown fuse would not cause no audio. if the fuse was blown the radio would not come on at all.

jimmeezgolfvr6

Silver - Posts: 258

Joined: March 10, 2002

Location: Canada

Posted: September 19, 2004 at 5:56 AM / IP Logged

if indeed there is a factory amp for your explorer (some of them have it, some of them don't), then having a blown fuse that's leading to that factory amp could result in your present problem.

btw, bypassing that factory amp, as suggested above, may not solve your problem entirely. factory h/u's that were designed to be connected to factory amps usually don't produce a strong enough signal on their own (hence the need to use an amplifier). bypassing the factory amp may result in hearing some audio, but it will probably be so quiet that it's not worth the effort.

the most sure-fire way of resolving your problem would be to, of course, make sure all the fuses are intact, the wiring for the deck is in order and then install an aftermarket h/u. using another stock h/u may not necessarily work due to the unknown possibility of whether or not you have a factory amp. if it still doesn't work after you've hooked up the aftermarket h/u properly, then bypass the factory amp as suggested earlier and you can't go wrong.

all problems can be resolved with a hammer

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Imza

Member - Posts: 4

Joined: September 09, 2004

Location: United States

Posted: September 19, 2004 at 4:45 PM / IP Logged

alright...

fuses in the engine bay = all intact, but none of those would he leading to the radio anyway. there's cab fuses for that one.

head unit wires = all intact and connected correctly. i had an aftermarket head unit...but the cd player didn't work. i went and bought a wiring kit for it and connected it. the head unit worked fine (didn't bother trying cds because...) but there was still no audio. i found the amplifier after i read mobile1's post...it's on the passenger side in the very rear of the vehicle behind a pocket in the "wall" (opposite to the jack and rear washer fluid compartment). i haven't had much time to go to a car audio place to buy a transformer-connector-device, although i had time today but audio express was closed (?).

as previously mentioned, replacing the blown fuse allowed the head unit to come on, but there's no audio. no brain fart.

mobile1

Silver - Posts: 479

Joined: February 23, 2004

Location: United States

Posted: September 19, 2004 at 8:59 PM / IP Logged

I appologize, with an aftermarket radio bypassing the factory amp should work. With a stock one it wouldn't. thank you jimmeez.

Alpine Guy

Platinum - Posts: 2,478

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Joined: October 18, 2003

Location: Canada

Posted: September 19, 2004 at 9:36 PM / IP Logged

But you can add an aftermarket amp to a factory hu and use the line levels, the gain will have to be turned up alot more since the original signal will be of rca level. Its do able tho, , but its best to just put in an aftermarket HU, and re wire.

2003 Chevy Avalanche,Eclipse CD7000,Morel Elate 5,Adire Extremis,Alpine PDX-4.150, 15" TC-3000, 2 Alpine PDX-1.1000, 470Amp HO Alt.

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