# 93 Maxima audio/electrical problems - driving me crazy as usual



## ichpen (Dec 19, 2004)

Hi there,

Bit of a long shot posting here, but you never know where a mechanic may be lurking.

OK, bit of a problem with my recently acquired 93 Maxima GXE. Have this issue with the HU unit/speakers. Not a Bose system.

Replaced a broken factory HU (head unit) with a Kenwood X659 (cheap and cheerful). HU unit works perfectly as far as I can tell.

Here's the problem:
With key in ignition car not running, new HU unit works just fine (rear speakers work, front right speaker is out - probably blown, front left is very hissy with little loudness, probably gone bad also). Don't mind replacing speakers eventually.

Turning on headlights causes all speakers to cutout. Speakers do not come back on until I've turned off ignition and lights, after a short wait usually around a minute or so.

Starting car (not lights) will cut speakers out but turning hu on and off repeatedly will usually make them come back to life.

Another funny thing is that with headlights on (and hu still on albeit without sound) I can hear hissing until I play with the dimmer switch and set it to max.

This is obviously an electrical problem of sorts, just wondering if anyone's experienced it before.

Don't think anything is fusing, but maybe a switch/overload circuit's gone bad. As instructed I didn't hook up the ground wires for the new HU unit as it supposedly grounds itself if using the standard metal bracket.


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## Matt93SE (Sep 17, 2003)

the only place you're getting grounding right now is through the shielding wire in your antenna. sometimes the head units don't internally ground the chassis to the circuitry inside, so it's always a good idea to ground the head unit anyway...

best way to figure that one out is to unplug the antenna and see if the head unit dies completely. most likely it will.

either way, reground the head unit and check all your wiring. sounds to me like you have have a dimmer or illumination wire crossed with a power wire somewhere.


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## ichpen (Dec 19, 2004)

Matt93SE said:


> the only place you're getting grounding right now is through the shielding wire in your antenna. sometimes the head units don't internally ground the chassis to the circuitry inside, so it's always a good idea to ground the head unit anyway...
> 
> best way to figure that one out is to unplug the antenna and see if the head unit dies completely. most likely it will.
> 
> either way, reground the head unit and check all your wiring. sounds to me like you have have a dimmer or illumination wire crossed with a power wire somewhere.


Thanks, will try the antenna trick. Though it doesn't sound like a grounding problem come to think of it. Probably heavy interference of some sort.

Though the old factory unit I replaced was exhibitting the same issues i.e. headlights come on and the speakers would die.

Dimmer and illumination wires were not wired to the harness as the new HU unit didn't have the wiring for them.

Another thing, the wire harness I bought had 2 ground wires one for the 10 pin and one for the 6 pin adapter. I assume I only need wire one of those to the ground on the HU??


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