Printer Friendly Forum Posts - 1997 eclipse radio problem

I am trying to install a JVC receiver into my 97' eclipse. The eclipse wiring harness was cut out before I go the car. I had to attach the wires from my JVC directly to the cars wiring without any harnesses. It took me some time and a little research to get it right but I believe I got it. The problem is that the JVC receiver overheats. It will work fine for about 2 songs then the back of the unit gets extremely hot and cuts out.

Ground wire is grounded very well and all fuses are fine. Any one know what this could be or is my JVC shot? Please help.

The output chip is the only thing that will make the back of the deck heat up as you are describing. How many speakers are connected to the speaker wires of the deck? Have you checked for shorted speakers or grounded speaker wires? Try balancing to left side only, play it a minute or 2 check temp. Balance right, play, check temp. This will help you identify the problem speaker.

I have 4 speakers hooked up. 1 speaker per set of wires. They all play sound but sometimes some seem a bit scratchy. There is no visible grounding of a speaker wire but a shorted speaker might be a possibility. Will a shorted speaker play sound?

Depending on the severity of the short, they may play but usually do not sound good. Try the balance and then the same with the fader to see if only one speaker makes it heat up.

Ill try that. I can fade and balance to just one speaker so in just a little bit of time I should be able to figure it out. If any are shorted (I kinda hope some are)then I guess new speakers would be in order. Any suggestions on what and where?

So what if none of the speakers work properly? I am sure that both the front speakers are out and the back right is out. The back left seemed to work fine but the back of the sterio still seemed to heat up.

There are 2 12v wires that run from the car to the radio. Is this to much power? would that make the system overheat?

Nope, it's not too much power for your deck. The deck actually needs to see two 12V wires and a good ground to even turn on. One 12V wire is constant and the other is the switch power(turns on and off with the car). Are you still running factory speakers? I know that some factory speakers have an impedance of 2 ohms and would in turn pull more power from your deck, leading it to get hot and eventualy shut off. That might be your problem as well. If they are the factory speakers you're better off changing them....number one they suck....number 2, they're eleven years old. Do you have a DMM?

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...half of the truth can be worse than a lie. <----Roger Russell said that..

I believe they are stock speakers. I got the car about 6 months ago and I am pretty sure no upgrades were made. And the deck heats up but it doesn't turn off. All the speakers just cut out. Is this the same problem?

I am not sure what DMM is. Sorry

A DMM is a digital multi meter....u need it to test your wires and make sure your hooking into the right ones. If your speakers are shutting off then one(or more) of your speakers is more than likely grounding out. Try disconnecting them all and connecting them one at a time and see what the deck does...the sound should shut off when you hook up the speaker thats shorting out.

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...half of the truth can be worse than a lie. <----Roger Russell said that..

I do have a multi meter. Never heard it called a DMM but thats a good thing to know. I have never used it but Im sure I can figure it out. Ill check it out tomorrow and post back after. Thanks.

Heat is also a byproduct of sound. If it is heating up and not shutting off, you may not even have a problem. Still, replace your speakers, since you say they sound bad.

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all bad things come in moderation. do not shop at fry's. Get your own log in Omar.

Any advice on speakers? Like where to buy and what brand to buy?

So I now have removed all speakers. The front door speakers are shot for sure. The rear speakers may still work but I haven't found a way to test them.
After I took out all speakers I dis-connected all speaker wires from the unit. The unit did not heat up after I did that but as soon as i connected the wires for the front left it started to heat up again. And this is with no speaker. It also did the same for the rear left. Im not sure what to do about any of this.

When I turn the head lights on I loose power to the unit for just a second and the unit comes back on. It looks like the head lights take power away from the unit or something.

This is a car audio problem from hell. I tried hooking up what i think is a good speaker to the front left wires and no sound plays at all and of course the unit heats up. What is going on? Im so lost.

If the unit heated up when you connected the front left speaker wires to the unit, and there was no speaker connected to the other end of the wire, you have a grounded speaker wire or the positive and the negative wires are shorted together.

How do I go about finding the grounded wire or the wires shorted together.

This is hard to explain but ill try. If say all my speaker wires are hanging out of the dash and I am hooking up only 1 speaker. If i hook up that 1 speaker but another speakers wires are left bare. could another speakers wire stop another speaker from working? like its grounded to the dash or something.

Sorry if that sounded dumb. It was hard for me to explain.

Are you using the factory wires? Do you have access to an Ohm meter? Is there a Harbor Freight store anywhere near you?

Yes, Yes and I think so. Harbor freight is like a tools store right? Kinda like an ace hardware?

Harbor Freight is a store that sells tools, they usually have a Digital Multimeter for like 3 dollars. Since you have access to a meter, there is no need to go to Harbor Freight. Set the meter to the lowest Ohm setting, or the Ohm setting if it has only one. Disconnect all speaker wires from your radio. Touch and hold the black meter lead to a known good ground. Now touch the red lead to each of your 8 speaker wires, one at a time. Write down the reading of each wire and post the results here.

If none of the wires are grounded, you then need to touch and hold the black lead to the left front negative, and red lead to left front positive, notice the reading, write it down and post here. Repeat for the 3 remaining speakers and post results here.

Sounds like a great plan. Ill work on that tomorrow while I am at work.

I know this is off topic but your probably watching the saints game aren't you? I am. Its a great game so far.

The Officials need White canes.

That was a crazy game on the refs side.
So today I was able to find a stock wiring harness for my car. I wired it up exactly as it is supposed to be. I then proceeded to wire up the head units wiring harness to the head unit. Then I connected them together. Turned the car on and it works. Plays sound wherever I put a speaker but it still heats up. Even when no speakers where hooked up it got too hot still.

I decided to check the ohm output on the wires that the speakers hook up to. I put the negative wire to the negative wire of the speaker and the positive to the speakers positive. Each set read about 6.5 ohms.

Does that mean anything?

More news. Now music will continue to play in spite of the heat on the back of the unit. Also turning the head light on will cut the unit off for a second and it will cut off anytime I hit the brights. Seems my headlights take to much power away from the radio. Enough to make it shut off. Could this problem be an alternator problem? Or spark plugs or something under the hood? Batter maybe? Its pretty new. Maybe 3 months. Let me know what yall think please.

Batter in that last post is supposed to say battery*

Another new discovery. While I am sitting in the car with it running the sound comes out of the speaker fine but as soon as I start driving around the sound starts to sound like there is static. This problem even occurs when a CD is playing and the antenna isn't plugged in. This car is a 97' eclipse RS. It came stock with an amp under the passenger seat and a CD changer in the back of the car. When I bought the car both of these things had been removed. Could the fact that the amp is missing have something to do with my problem?

Can anyone please help?

You will be better off just running new wires to the unit, new speaker wires, a new fused line from the battery to the radio and all that, if the factory amp is removed who knows how many wires are criss crossed.

Well nothing should be criss crossed. Im starting to think it might be the alternator. I will probably just run new wires. Im not sure how to run a wire from the battery tho... I need a constant and a switch wire dont I?

I really don't think you have a power problem. It is more than likely where whoever bypassed the amplifier. You need to look where the amp was and inspect the connections there.

I checked where the amp used to be and no one bypassed it. They just took the plugs out of the amp and the harness is just sitting there.

So i decided to just get an amp and wire it up with my speakers and head unit and skip the the cars stock wiring. I am tired of not being able to get this to work. I dont want to wire my amp directly up to the battery. Should I use this ( https://www.sonicelectrnix.com/item_5288_PAC+PAC-80.html ) to wire it up?

Why would you not want to wire the amp to the battery. If you use the Pac-80, it will have to be wired to the battery. If you are worried about your amplifier staying on and running your battery down, this will not be an issue as long as you connect the remote terminal of the amplifier to the remote wire of your radio, or to the switched wire that turns your radio on.

Its not that I am worried about the battery being drained I just have a battery problem where my the battery light on my dash comes on once in a while. I have not been able to figure it out. I think its the alternator but I can't be sure.

So would the pac-80 work?

The only thing the Pac 80 will do would allow you to shut power off to the amp in an emergency situation. It would actually pull an extra amp of current to keep the device energized. This will in no way help if you are already having charging issues.