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Radio doesnt work when its cold out


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The radio in my brat doesnt turn on when its cold outside. It turns on after a few minutes, 3-5mins, sometime longer or shorter and seems as though it would turn on in the time it would take for the choke to open, i dont know now because i have a cable choke. It is an after market clarion. The pioneer in it when i bought it did the same thing. Is this a normal thing or is there something wrong?

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I know the newer ones have suggested temp ranges (that no one cares about) that they should work in. Now granted a new one you won't have problems except for maybe the tape or cd player...But an old radio i could see having those problems...I can't really see it being anything else. I guess get a new radio if its confirmed nothing else is at fault.

 

Hope that helps!!!

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subaru used a common ground system for the speakers, new radios dont like that. search on the site, since I dont know if brats used it since they would only have 2 speakers.

 

either way i would check the wireing on your stereo, or voltage output of your alternator. if its cold and you start turning on accessories like the heater, wipers, lights, then it might be drawing too much and the stereo cant get enough.

 

if both stereos did it I would suspect the cars wireing or electrical system.

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would it do that if its going through an amp? I have my speakers coming directly from my amp, its 800 watts though, and its tied directly to the battery. The radio how ever is running off what was in there. The kid we bought it from completely screwed everything up in and on it. My dad helped me wire my radio in but could it be from the crap wiring job from the other kid too?

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could be an inbuilt circuitry device stopping the radio from being damaged eg. a bi metal switch.

 

If you have concerns about the wiring that the PO has done start from scratch and either wire it with your dads help or get an auto electrician to do the job.

 

TOONGA

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Id just try bypassing the amp and see if it works. ive never really ran amps except for subs or in real elaborate systems with cross overs and the full works put into them.

 

an amp will draw quite a bit of power as such things go, id also look into removing the amp from the power drain and see if it improves.

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I've owned 5 BRAT's with aftermarket systems installed (by me), and never had issues with "cold temps" affecting them.

 

Check the wire you are using for "key on power" for actuall power when everything is cold.

Especially if you used the previous installers wiring methods.

 

If that all proves out, use a jumper wire from battery to power system, see if that gets it going.

 

I've ran a fused power feed to a few systems directly from the battery.

No issues doing that other than you have to manually turn them off/on.

 

One could use a "key on" hot wire to turn on a relay, switching battery power to the unit. Just be sure to install fuses where needed.

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As was mentioned earlier, the earlier model cars used chassis ground for one of the speaker connections. That needs to be changed for the newer amp operation and have two wires run to each speaker and also isolated from ground. Do you know if that is the case with your speakers?

 

It was also mentioned that the turn on control for the amp needs to be checked. Voltage should be on the control lead when the amp is turned on.

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I added the amp with my new radio and it was doing the same thing with the old radio which was a cheap pioneer from walmart that was wired like crap. i did how ever find my choke cable was cut. it seems that it start to work at about the time the choke would open, however i remove the electric choke, but the wire for it are still there. Could it be connected to the choke?

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for an actual plan of attack I would start with the basics.

 

check your ignition wire and direct battery wire. run a new ground wire to the chassis somewhere so you know for sure your not trying to ground on a speaker wire or something (this alone has been the problem with many cars). theres 2 ground wires in a common ground system, one for the speakers and one for the stereo. running a new one will keep you from hooking to a weak speaker setup or running circular if you install new speaker grounds.

 

check the amps power and ground to make sure the inline fuse is in good shape, ground is good, etc.

 

then check your speakers. i dont know what you have hooked to the stereo and what is hooked to the amp, but make sure none are running on common ground. I would just bypass all the stock speaker wires and run new ones.

 

if all of this checks out start on the electrical system. it could jsut be weak battery or alternator and once the high idle shuts off its not outputting enough. also could be bad grounds in the engine bay.

 

My bet is that its either a common ground issue, faulty ground or power wire, or generaly weak electrical system.

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for an actual plan of attack I would start with the basics.

 

check your ignition wire and direct battery wire. run a new ground wire to the chassis somewhere so you know for sure your not trying to ground on a speaker wire or something (this alone has been the problem with many cars). theres 2 ground wires in a common ground system, one for the speakers and one for the stereo. running a new one will keep you from hooking to a weak speaker setup or running circular if you install new speaker grounds.

 

check the amps power and ground to make sure the inline fuse is in good shape, ground is good, etc.

 

then check your speakers. i dont know what you have hooked to the stereo and what is hooked to the amp, but make sure none are running on common ground. I would just bypass all the stock speaker wires and run new ones.

 

if all of this checks out start on the electrical system. it could jsut be weak battery or alternator and once the high idle shuts off its not outputting enough. also could be bad grounds in the engine bay.

 

My bet is that its either a common ground issue, faulty ground or power wire, or generaly weak electrical system.

 

ill check the power wire. i replaced everything when i put the new stereo in. the only thing i didnt change was how the wires were for the power and illumination for the actual deck. i replace the speaker wires with new ones and ran the wires from the crossovers to the amps, both positive and negative in there correct spots. the whole set is less than a year old. also i just replaced the alternator a little over a month ago(original alternator) and the battery two weeks ago. also i forgot to mention this earlier but i added an alarm to it. the power for that is attached to the 12v always power. i added that in march and the radio was installed in january and i think (not 100% sure) that it worked just fine then, in feburary we had a big snow storm and covered all the cars and i remember trying to use the sub to shake the snow off. Could the alarm be effecting it?

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