Nissan Altima installation problems

I bought a Jensen CM720K to replace the OEM radio in my daughter’s 95 Nissan Altima. I got the wiring adapter and antenna adapter at the same time. I wired it up and powered it up and everything works EXCEPT… no sound. The equalizer shows output signals, the power antenna works, it holds memory, etc..

I by-passed the harness and used my (6 ohm) stereo speakers to test the radio. I got good sound from my house speakers. I can’t get anything from my car speakers.

The car speakers are clarion (2 ohm) connected to clarion (model EN961I-63) amps in the rear deck. I didn’t take the doors apart, but assume a similar setup there, too. This is all OEM for this 95 Altima GLE.

My question is, is the stereo I bought incompatible with the OEM setup, or am I missing something? Is there a way to salvage this, or am I going to have to change out speakers and bypass the amps altogether? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Make sure the wiring harness adapter's blue/white wire is hooked up to either a blue wire of the jensen, or if present, a blue/white wire.  Also, there's a wire that's BLACK/ white in the wiring harness adapter and that must be hooked up to a grounding point somewhere behind the dash opening.

If you have a power antenna you'll want that hooked up to the blue wire of the jensen.  Depending on how the jensen is wired up--in particular whether or not it has separate remote turn-ons for the antenna and for amplifiers, or if it just uses a single remote wire--you might end up having both wiring harness adapter wires hooking up to a single jensen wire.   But there's nothing wrong with that and it will not hurt anything.

Just thought I'd expand a lil bit on some of your other questions.  as long as this is not a bose system, you should be just fine using all the factory equipment with an aftermarket head unit.  All you will need is what you've already purchased--the wiring harness and the antenna adapter.

The symptoms you are describing are usually indicative of a factory amplifier not turning on.  There are a few different possible reasons for that to happen, but usually it';s because it's not hooked up properly to a remote turn on wire.

Now that I think about it, your wiring harness might not have a BLACK/ white wire and if that's the case, it just makes everything easier.  If it is present, however, you should know that it's actually a factory amp grounding wire, and if it's not hooked up to a ground connection then that could also cause the factory amp to not turn on.

Finally, be sure to not get the WHITE/ black (front left negative speaker) wire confused with a BLACK/ white wire, as they may look similar but perform different functions.  Just FYI when I say "WHITE/ black" that usually means the wire is white with a black stripe.  "blue/white" is a blue wire with a white stripe, etc.

Thanks for the input. I have the harness in front of me, and I don't have a BLACK/ white wire in my harness (the WHITE/ black is connected to L.F./ neg). The only unused wire in the harness is the orange (labeled: dash light illumination). 

I do have two pair of RCA's that are unused (labeled:line out front, and L.O. rear). Each pair of RCA's terminates in the radio harness with three wires (black, white,and red). I had thought that these could go unused as they are for vehicles without an OEM amp. Do I need to use any/all of these wires to turn on the OEM amp? What about the orange wire?

By the way, my installation guide refers me to Amplifier instructions (which are nowhere to be found). The phone number for technical assistance that I called is "no longer in service". Same thing with the numbers I found on their web site. Doesn't speak well of Jensen, does it?

Thanks for your help.

The orange wire does not need to be hooked up for the head unit to function properly, and actually if it's hooked up to the wrong wire you can damage your vehicle's electronics, so just tape it off and leave it disconnected.

The preouts also do not have to be used for the deck to work properly.

The wiring harness you purchased...it has a solid blue wire as well as a blue/white wire, right?  If so, first off make sure you connect both these wires to the single blue wire of the jensen.  Then, when you plug the connectors in to the factoy plugs, look at the factory plugs and see if there is even a wire at the pin locations that correspond to the blue/white wire and the blue wire of the wiring harness you got.

They make the harnesses so that they can be used in many vehicles, and so not all of the wires are always used.  For example, if the vehicle did not have a power antenna, the spot on the factory harness that corresponds to the pin running to the harness adapter's blue wire, would be blank.

If there's no wire on the factory side for the blue/white wire then let me know and I'll try and figure something else out.

There is no Blue/White wire to hook up to anything.

I did a continuity check with my DMM through the entire harness to check the pinout against the instructions, it checks out.

Everybody seems to agree that there SHOULD be a Blue/White wire to turn the amp on, but there isn't one (see earlier posts, above).

Plug the OEM stereo back in to verify that the system in its stock state still works properly.  If it doesn't, then there may be a fuse blown.  Make sure to continuity check all fuses with a multimeter, including ones under the hood.  Also it's possible that a speaker wire is shorting out somewhere.  Check all the wiring behind the dash first before even considering to take off the door panels and stuff like that.

I'm pretty sure that the factory amplifiers use a high level input and therefore wouldn't need to be bypassed when installing an aftermarket head unit;  also, they shouldn't need any special integration adapter either.

I would tell you how to bypass the amp but not only do I think it's not going to be necessary, but if they really are 2 ohm factory speakers your Jensen head unit might not be able to handle powering them.  It's always possible that it might work, but I personally would not recommend such a setup.  However, if it comes to that point and we've exhausted all other possibilities, I'll give you some detailed instructions on how to go about doing it.

Just FYI, the amp on the driver's side under the rear deck is the amp for the front speakers, and the one on the passenger's side is for the rear speakers.  Here's a picture that tells you a lil more about the rear amps.

The OEM stereo no longer works. That’s why I got the Jensen as a replacement . The OEM unit had no display, or power. I gather from your web site that this does happen with the 94 Nissan Clarion OEM head units. Because the cup holder is so close to the stereo, I took it apart, expecting to find shorts in the various boards. I found no obvious damage to any of the components inside the radio. I didn’t take the faceplate apart, so I’m not sure about that.

After checking junkyards for a replacement, I discovered I could get the new (2.0 DIN) Jensen for about the same price. Seemed like a good idea at the time…………..

Getting a display in the new head unit is an improvement, but the no sound output part kinda stinks.

I continuity-checked all the fuses (under the dash, under the hood, the two 10-amp fuses in the amps), they all checked out. I also checked the harness for damage/potential shorts and found none. Do you think the problem could be in the amps? I did get the HU to push (6-ohm) speakers from a home stereo when I jumped them to the rear speaker harness of the wiring adapter (main harness connected to radio through vehicle, rear harness disconnected and jumped to speakers).

I pulled the dash apart looking for shorted wires. Also pulled the doors apart. No shorts.

Then, I plugged the OEM head unit back in, and the strangest thing happened. The HU came alive when I plugged the antenna in. Everything works as it should. When I shut it off (by power button or key) the head unit dies. It works again if I unplug the antenna, then plug it in again. Could a shorted antenna lead cause this ? Is the problem in the head unit?

Incidentally, I still can't get the new HU to work. At this point, I'll settle for the original, if I can get it working. Any suggestions?

The reason the OEM head unit worked when you plugged the antenna in is because a lot of times they can use the antenna cable to get a ground.  but it's not the most reliable way to go about it and I'd make sure that the aftermarket head unit's ground wire is run to a good grounding spot back there behind the dash.

Unlike the aftermarket head units, the oem one will not have a ground wire coming out the back of it.  If I had to guess I'd say that the OEM head unit's chassis has to be touching a grounding point for the vehicle (such as the metal mounting brackets) in order for it to get a proper ground.

As for getting the aftermarket one to give you sound...I thought of one more idea.  Plug it in to the factory wiring, and test for voltage on all of the wires in its harness.  In particular I'd focus on any extra wires that exist on the factory side, but not on the wiring harness adapter that you purchased.  Other than the switched 12 volt wire, there should also be one that would show 12 volts when the system is turned on, and 0 when it's turned off.  Once you find that and know it's not the switched wire for the radio, hook up the jensen's blue wire to this factory wire and test it out.

If you have any other questions about your altima go to Altimas.net

They have anything and everything about Altimas.