Head Unit heat

Post by **Greg-SiR** » Tue Jun 14, 2016 1:40 pm

So i got some nice Pioneers for the front and i never had any sound from the front of the car which never bothered me too much as well they ain't the biggest of cars and the rears well sufficed been big in output plus less damaging on the drums in the long run

So this car(Bb4) hads had some setup going on like my Bb2,both have been stripped back to just plain Jane front and back running from the headunit which i is all i need.

But on taking off the cars door cards i found some Fusion 200W Comp speakers there not doing anything so i didn't bother with messing with them just took them out and proceeded with the Pioneers.
Hooked them up and found no sound up front at all so i wasn't too surprised as seeing 2 non working speakers in place already but began with wires behind center console as i had previously noticed a joining box if you could call it that and experienced some shorting from loose wiring over ownership but generally the unit worked flawlessly.

I blew some 3 fuses at the wires trying multiple ways of trying to get the speakers working upfront and in the end i did get it well pretty close,both will work but seem to feed off the Right hand side so going balance Left full front fader it's not there but it's there from center to full right on both speakers up front but i still feel the sound is been hampered.
Sort of settled on it last night and was willing to let it be for the moment with some fading the rear and front played really well to QOTSA

but in the meantime i noticed the back of the headunit was nearly too hot to touch and this was worrying.

So Googled and was reading wrong speaker wiring can give of bad impedance resulting in unit over heating.
At the moment i am looking at bringing it to a car audio peep at the weekend,i'm just confused and am afraid of possible over heat or even fire

You cannot put your finger on the back of it for more than 2 seconds without it been too hot.
I know the amplifier is at the rear of the units but this is wrong.
I took apart all the speaker wires too tonight to just to use the back till i get it checked out but it still heats up,how hot do these go?

It could have been doing this all along and i never noticed...
Some pics of the speaker cable mess which i have tried every combination

The joiner box that i have done rid of

Post by **Gayno** » Wed Jun 15, 2016 8:12 pm

@greg-sir

The "joiner box" is called a crossover. It splits the sound and then feeds to the door speaker and the tweeter.

Head units will get warm at the back, as it's a heatsink for the amplifier, although can't say how warm this should be.

If you've got a friend who knows a bit more what they're looking at, then I'd definitely take it to them.

Post by **Greg-SiR** » Thu Jun 16, 2016 1:34 pm

Thanks gayno,the heat is a worry,i haven't driven with it on since.
It's not just the speaker wires that are a bit seperated there is what i can see 2 cables close to the plug harness at the back that have good power on them and spark when hitting the metal holding frame.

Trouble is the unit has been in and out a few times so it looks as some wires have left their connections and i'm amiss to which should go on where,i tried and guessed and got a half result but best get it checked.

I was going to power up lude two which also sports an early noughties Sony unit to see how that fairs heat wise but noticed a huge spider web had just formed down the passenger footwell since last time so i took an executive decision to hold out and let the insecticide work first

89 UKDM BA4 4WS (resto job!) · Post by **wurlycorner** » Sat Jun 18, 2016 1:20 pm

Guessing with car wiring is never a good idea, it's pretty high current stuff and with the chassis being ground, it's easy to make a bad mistake.

You can normally find the user manuals for car stereos as a free download from the manufacturers website (or elsewhere on the net) and the oem wiring diagrams are in the car service manual of course

Post by **Greg-SiR** » Sun Jun 19, 2016 12:56 pm

Lets be honest how much bother would you expect from popping 2 speakers in the doors but there you go.
If it was just a standard harness wiring plug running to where it should be i would pursue further but it is attached to another block twice the size at the rear of the unit and this is where the wiring has also come undone.
I've been over the workshop manual too

Will get it seen to.