Carnac the Magnificent!,you are to blame for this rant. Had you been listening you would have heard the sound of ultimate suffering wafting your way from accross the Rockies, through the Dalles and up and over Mt. Rainier…
See, I wanted to resist doing a Pit Rant about this…stereo…of which you speak. With part of the settlement from the Camry (yeah, the wife totalled it, which is why we have this Pathfinder) I got a nice little CD player to replace the wore out tape deck that came with the Nissan. I’ve swapped out a dozen stereos, even had to run the complete circuit–battery AND accessory–to replace the AM only radio in the 83 Corolla. So, while I AM a confirmed idiot in most respects, I can handle car stereo. So I thought.
I take the new player out of the box. VERY simple wiring–8 wires for speakers, clearly labelled as +/- for RF, RR, LF & LR; 1 always hot wire for connection to battery, another for connection to accessory, a big old hole, with a little hole inside for the antenna wire and a couple jacks to hook into an optional amp. Looks good.
Dash bezel came off with nary a lost screw or broken tab. Stereo is mounted in a sturdy rack which is easily removed. Stripped one of four screws holding the old unit in place–drilled it out slicker’n grass through a goose. New stereo fits perfectly in the old rack. Even comes with 4 new screws, as if they knew there might be trouble. Gotta hand it to the folks at Kraco (kidding! Sony)
Of course, if you’ve replaced an OEM car stereo before, you know why I’m saving this bit for last: Let’s talk about the factory stereo wiring. Shall we? Yes. We shall. See, I knew there was going to be trouble when I disconnected the big fat black wire (antenna, right?) and instead of the single hole-within-a-hole, there were TWO little holes in there. WTF? Whatever, the old antenna’s a bent no longer mobile power antenna anyway. $10 will get me “antenna” with a REAL plug that will fit the new unit. I sweat this not. OEM deck is connected by this and two other plug/sets of wires. A WHOLE BUNCH. Don’t panic, Inigo. One plug has 9 wires. You have 8 speakers (car came with tweeties). I hook up the old stereo and nip a wire. Big RR speaker cuts out–and it’s tweetie as well. Notes the color of the wire and the result. In this way I identify The Nine, as I’ve begun to call them, and what they seem to do: 8 for the speakers, and one for…what the fuck is THAT one for? And I have another bundle of 7 more wires.
Just for fun I ignore them, run a hot lead directly from the battery, another from a similarly amped acessory and power on the new (with the very handsomely arranged display–good work, Sony) stereo. Things begin to be wronger. I’ve got a CD spinning in the new unit because, natch, I’ll be getting no dependable radio signal–crack-smoker antenna lead if you’ll recall. Berlin’s Love Life is the CD if you must know. All about getting fucked over by those you love, in case you’ve been following another soap opera. Anyway. By wronger, I mean–the speakers are making noise, but not right. Too quiet and…not the correct speakers? Whatever is going on, these are NOT the +/- wires I thought they were. I cast an uneasy eye upon the as yet untested plug of 7 wires.
More science performed on these bad boys suggests they are, get this: 1 or two for the power antenna, maybe the other is the Acc lead? 5 run sound to the tweeties and their associated 3x5s. OK. More science confirms that, no: one plug is not loaded with the + and the other with the -. It ain’t set up that way.
I’ll just stop here. The solution is simple enough: run new wire from the speakers (I’ll tie the tweeties to the 3x5s, I don’t care) to the stereo, run a hot wire from the battery like my kin in Mississippi do, and jurry rig an acc wire from…I dunno, the cigar lighter which I never use anyway. And Yes, I know I’ll end up burning out every damned circuit in my car, and my speakers will more than likely begin to smoke. Fuckit. It’s my wife’s car anyway.
