2006 2400SE Stereo Problem

[katana750_98]

Hello all. Over the weekend one of my JBL Speakers started thumping and got worse as you turned it up. We kept the volume down, and it just seemed like that speaker was dead. After about hour, the stereo it self just turned off. Once I got the boat home, I replaced both of the helm speakers with new JBL speakers and tried turning the radio back on. Nothing. Checked the fuses by the main batteries, and the fuses located on the radio. All fine. Initially I thought the head unit was bad, so I ordered another JBL unit and installed that. Still nothing. I don't have any external amps. I Checked for 12v on the red wire, at the radio, and I have it. The only thing I'm not sure about is the "yellow" wire. There is no power there. Isn't it supposed to be hot all the time? Anyone have any ideas? Thanks.

[seapuppy]

sounds like you fried the pre-amp......one thing to remember if it's a car type stereo in a marine environment....it won't last due to the humidity and or salt...



SP

[katana750_98]

It wasn't a car type of stereo. It was the stock marine radio that came with the boat. Same with the speakers.

[seapuppy]

but it still sounds like the amp or preamp fried...





SP

[katana750_98]

Understand, but why doesn't the new radio work either? Also any idea if there is supposed to be 12v on the yellow wire as well?

[ss3964spd]

Since the symptoms are the same between the old HU and the new HU, has to be something external - specially since you have no external amp.

You mentioned you see 12V on the red power wire but where did you check for ground? Did you check at the ground wire for the head unit or to some other ground?

From what I recall there should be a yellow wire and perhaps a blue wire. The yellow should have 12V for the HU's radio memory and the blue is the trigger for an external amp. I do not think you need 12V into the yellow for the head unit to turn on.

Dan

[GlennW]

Trace down your speaker wires, check for any cuts or knicks or crossing. If the + and - wires cross it will cause the thumping syndrome and eventually cause an amp or HU to get hot and shut down. Your are having the same problems with old and new equipment, has to be speaker wires.
Get a volt meter and check for power at HU, check continuity on speaker wires.
The yellow is for memory to save stations, worse case take it to your local stereo installer and have them look at it.

[shrew]

Theoretically, you could isolate the variables in the problem. (You could do this in your living room if you wanted to) Remove both stereos and the speakers. Hook the HU directly to a 12V battery (Don't forget to include an inlline fuse). New speaker wire from the HU to the speakers. Can you reproduce the issue? Now switch HU's and repeat? reproducable? This is essentially removing all existing boat 'infrastucture' from the equation. Particularly if you use a different 12v battery, +/- power leads, new speaker wire. Then try with a different set of speakers? Same Problem? You should be able to narrow it down to either HU or speakers. If both work it's either battery to HU on the boat, or HU to speakers. Move back to the boat. Use new speaker wire and bypass the existing wire? Same/Different? And so forth and so on.

It's laborious, but you should be able to systematically isolate each part of the equation.

[katana750_98]

Thanks for all of the info. I ended up pulling both stereos and hooking them up to a battery on my work bench. They both worked fine. I went back and checked all of the wires. It looks like the yellow 12V constant was the problem. I traced it out and reconnected it at the panel. It seemed to have fixed the problem since now I have 12v back, and the radio works again. Thanks for your help.

[GlennW]

Good for you on tracking it down, I would not have thought the yellow wire would have caused the problem. I just have always hooked it up because it was in the instructions....rock on!