Stereo Woes

[shigthenewt]

Hey folks, I got my 93 subaru sedan about two months ago and after about a week the stereo stopped working. I figured the stereo was just shot, but when I turn the headlights on the stereo lights up (it's a stock stereo and it has that "green glow"). The stereo seemed to not work when the parking lights were on, but now the stereo doesn't work at all.

 

I decided to take a look behind to see if a wire came loose or something and found that everything was connected except for a blue plug that had a single wire. couldn't find a mate for it so I left it. I also noticed that the main or large white plug was wrapped in electrical tape about 3 inches up. It was too far inside the console for me to reach so I didn't get a good look at it.

 

I assumed that the electrical tape was due to the original owner re-installing the stock radio by themselves and it wasn't anything to worry about. There was one other plug that had a mate (besides the antenna wire), and it was a white single wire plug similar to the blue one that was unhooked. It was this wire (if I remember correctly) that had a fuse wired into the length of wire a couple of inches past the plug. I opened up the plastic case and looked at the fuse and it appeared okay.

 

I decided that the stereo was to blame and went looking for a cheap stereo. I found a stock subaru am/fm radio (almost exactly like the existing one in the car) at the local goodwill for 6 bucks and snapped it up. Tonight I went back through the process of unhooking the battery and unscrewing all that mess and tried to just directly plug in the new (used) stereo but found that the plugs were quite different.

 

My question is (boy, it took me a while to get here didn't it?)... is there an easy way to adapt the existing wires to the other stereo? Should I go to Car Toys and just buy a CD player and have them install it? I'm good at soldering wires but I'm not comfortable with dismantling the dashboard to attempt to fix things.

 

Ideas?

[NewDriverOlderRide]

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?p=407112#post407112

 

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[soobmater]

Hrm, the large white wire you speak of i believe is the antenna wire, it could be rapped up because someone replaced the antenna. As far as the stereo wiring goes... Figure out which wires are you're speaker wires, and eliminate those(get out of way). Then take you're hot wire's get them together, put ur grounds together. When you start getting ur wires together, it looks like less of a mess. If i were you, i'd just go buy a cheaper cd play for like 80 bucks or what ever. eh hope this helps

[7point62fmj]

Start from scratch

 

Learn to use a multi meter. it is pretty easy

You need

 

the battery constant

the ground

the ignition

maybe the dimmer (optional)

 

You have to verify that all the leads are what they are supposed to be.

IF you dont you can either pay some one else to find out or buy a bottle of asprin.. do to the pain it will cause trying to guess what wire is which.

[76mgb88rx]

I worked at an electronics repair shop for about a year and saw a few older stock radios come through. Alot of times there are surface mount resistors on the top of the circuit board that break loose or cold solder joints. Use a test light to see if you have 12v from two of the wires on the plug for the stereo to make sure that you are getting one wire with constant power and one that is switched off of the ignition.