electrical issue, hu power cuts out

I have an 2006 Nissan Altima. My head unit is a Kenwood x890. For the past couple months, my HU has been cutting out on me and reseting. Sometimes it is brief and other times it has been out for a whole day. Even though the HU won't work, everything else in my car works fine (dash, lights, windows, sunroof, etc.) Well I sent my HU in to a shop to get fixed, and the guy said he benched it and didn't find anything wrong with it. He said it is probably an electrical issue with my car. Before I sent the HU out, I checked all my wire connections behind the deck and my fuses, nothing was wrong. I just recently changed out my amp thinking my old one was drawing too much power. Power is still out. I even put back the factory OEM stereo and it also didn't power up. I also redid my connections on the back of my Kenwood, still nothing. I notice the power is still cutting in and out sometimes. I went to pickup some breakfast this morning and the HU worked for about 10 minutes and went out again. I have also had some problems with my car starting. Sometimes it has to crank a little bit before it will start. I'm guessing the problems might be connected. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Do you have a volt meter?   When the radio comes back on, did it lose all of the radio presets?

When I had problems with my hu, I checked the fuse boxes under the dash and hood. I found the cigarette fuse and dome  fuse were blown.2001 Corolla S and 2005 Neon SRT 4 ACR.

i am an idiot wrote: Do you have a volt meter?   When the radio comes back on, did it lose all of the radio presets?

No, I don't have a volt meter. And yes, once the power comes back, all of my settings are erased. Everything is reset.

That tells me that the battery lead is intermittant. You need to get an el cheapo battery meter (ten bux at Radio Shack), connect it to the yellow wire on the deck, and confirm whether the wire remains on when the deck goes off. If this is the case, then there is an issue in the deck, almost for sure.It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

haemphyst wrote: That tells me that the battery lead is intermittant. You need to get an el cheapo battery meter (ten bux at Radio Shack), connect it to the yellow wire on the deck, and confirm whether the wire remains on when the deck goes off. If this is the case, then there is an issue in the deck, almost for sure.

I'll go and pick up one of those meters and try it. But I really doubt it is the deck. I put back my original OEM stereo and it didn't power up either.

i am an idiot wrote: Since your factory deck will not come on when this happens, there is an issue with the constant power wire from your vehicle.  It is the wire that is connected to the Yellow wire of your aftermarket deck.  Since you have no meter for troubleshooting, it will probably be easier to get a 14 Ga. wire and an In-line fuse holder with a 10 amp fuse.  First run the wire from the deck to the battery, connect it to the Yellow wire of the deck.  Under the hood, connect the fuse holder to the other end of the wire and then connect the other end of the fuse holder to the battery.  Insert the fuse and you should be good to go.

I was thinking of maybe taping into to another source, but your idea of just running a new wire to the battery is probably easier. I will try this out tomorrow. Thanks.

I just noticed it was in a Nissan, when you checked it with your factory radio, did you mount the radio or just have it connected to the harness?   Nissan does not have a ground wire in their harness, it depends on the mounting hardware for grounding. It may be a ground issue. If you did not mount the factory radio, it would be depending on the antenna for ground. If the ground wire of the aftermarket radio came loose, it too would be dependent on the antenna for ground. Check the ground before you run a wire.

i am an idiot wrote: I just noticed it was in a Nissan, when you checked it with your factory radio, did you mount the radio or just have it connected to the harness?   Nissan does not have a ground wire in their harness, it depends on the mounting hardware for grounding. It may be a ground issue. If you did not mount the factory radio, it would be depending on the antenna for ground. If the ground wire of the aftermarket radio came loose, it too would be dependent on the antenna for ground. Check the ground before you run a wire.

When I hooked up the factory stereo, I connected everything except the antenna. So maybe I will try that first. Another thing, when I connected my factory stereo, my steering wheel controls wouldn't work. Obviously the stereo controls won't work if it doesn't have power, but I have another button that lets me change the display on my dash (trip meter, temp, DTE) and it wouldn't work either. I don't know if it is all dependent on power to the stereo since the plug for the steering controls goes into it.