head unit problem

[99civicVTEC]

get a quick question for somebody that knows about stereos. My neighbor gave me his old pioneer avic-n2 head unit. is there anyway i can test to see if it works before i have to buy a new power harness for it and have to take my car all apart. if anybody knows a way to test my stereo please let me know, thanks..

 

[lethal6]

You have a car battery sitting around somewhere that works?

If not you can connect it to the one under your hood. Take the yellow (constant power) and red (memory/acc) wires coming out of the back of the head unit, twist them together and touch those to the positive side of the battery. Then take the black wire and touch it to the negative side. That will allow the radio to come on if it is working.

If you need to test the speaker out puts, just get an old speaker (one out of the house would work in a pinch) and touch the green/green black, purple/purple black, grey/grey black, white/white black to the pos and neg of the speaker. Not all at once. The solid is positive and the black stripe is neg and each one goes to a different speaker (front right and left, rear right and left). I just don't remember off the top of my head which ones go where. I know the grey and white ones are front and the green and purple ones are rear but I can't remember which side.

 

[99civicVTEC]

thanks a bunch man ill give it a try and see what happens..

 

[99civicVTEC]

i went out there to do that and the face didnt turn on or nothing. I dont really understand what went wrong i had it in my car and it was working and everything, and in like 10 mintues it just quit and never did turn on again.

 

[lethal6]

There should be a fuse on the back of the head unit or in a little box connected to the yellow wire. Check to see if it blew as it is very possible if it sparked when hooked up to the battery.

 

[99civicVTEC]

i think i need to order a new wire harness because when being removed from previous car the box connecting the yellow wire was cut off, and i cant find it, could that possibly be why it isnt turning on, does it need that box to be able to turn on.

 

[jsmithe2010]

U asking some very basic questions man. If u can't even find the power wires, I dunno. Do u really want to do this yourself?

 

[Indy_Civic]

You need yellow red and black to run. If you need a new harness, go get one. I think you can do it man.

 

[99civicVTEC]

i know where the power wires are a*****e, i know what im doin this is my third head unit, the problem is idk if the head unit works or not and i dont want to take my dash apart or spend $50 on a power harness and it not even work

 

[99civicVTEC]

nevermind if the thing wasnt fried before now it is, stupid thing started smoking o well good excuse to buy a new one..

 

[lethal6]

Yes, it needs the box or at least some version of an inline fuse on the main power wire. The reason you smoked it is because you probably overloaded the circuit and it didn't have a fuse to blow and cut that circuit.

I wouldn't pay $50 for a new harness. You can get a decent cheap deck for that much. Hell put $100 to it and you get a good lower end model.

If you go used you can get even better. I scored my Kenwood Excelon flip out screen dvd head unit for just under $200 off eBay. Thing was damn near brand new; sold by a guy that runs a stereo shop and the new units came in. This was the one out of his car and he wanted to keep it up to date for showing customers.

 

[99civicVTEC]

alright man i'll check ebay out, thanks for all the help.

 

[lethal6]

No problem.

Good luck. eBay can be an excellent source to find those hidden jems, but it can also be a place to get very burnt. It also has a ton of cheap crap to weed through. You just have to know where and what to look for.