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1994 Nissan Pathfinder LE Serious Radio Issues


brc19761
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Hi, I know this question gets asked a bunch, but min is a little unique. I have a 1994 Nissan Pathfinder LE that came with a factory radio and cd player. The radio and cd player appear as one unit in the dash, but when you take them out they are actually separate units. When I got my pathy the radio worked but the display that shows the radio stations did not work and the cd player did not work. I ordered a one piece head unit from a 1998 Nissan Altima and installed it because it would fit and I wanted to maintain a stock look. Well I installed the new radio about four years ago. I remember it was heck putting it in back then and I had to get some advice from npora.

 

Well the radio started acting up a few months ago. Sometimes all the speakers would work. But most of the time only the back speakers would work and sometimes the front speakers would cut on. Well I thought it was maybe a loose connection. I took the radio out and really didn't see anything wrong. So I took the radio out and that was a BIG mistake. I could not get the radio working again. It would work sometimes, but not for long. I have been working on getting a radio back in for over a MONTH now. I even shorted out my dash lights and had to buy a new dimmer switch.

 

I tried to install the stock radio back in and could only get it to work for a few minutes. Now my set up is different than most Pathfinders. I have a eight speaker system. 4 speakers and 4 tweeters. The wiring colors b/c of the cd player are different. Now I know about the amps in the cargo area. I took them out and hooked the radio up and it still would not come on. All of schematics I have say for example right rear to amp. So, how would you hook up factory radios and not use the amps? I have also thought that maybe one of the amps is bad. I was also wondering if there was a ground wire I needed to attach b/c it does not say any thing about one in the paper work I have. I do not want to have to go buy a aftermarket radio when I already have two radios.

 

I just need some help or advice. Thanks in advance. This forum has been so good to me.

 

 

This is my wire color chart.

 

FUNCTION PIN WIRE COLOR
Accessory 12 Volt GN/WT
Constant 12 Volt RD/GN
Chassis Ground BODY
Power Antenna RD
Remote PK
Illumination PK/BK
Dimmer RD/BU

 

Left Front + To Amp OG/BU
Left Front - To Amp WT/BU
Right Front + To Amp WT
Right Front - To Amp OG
Left Rear + To Amp BU/GN
Left Rear - To Amp BU/YW
Right Rear + To Amp RD
Right Rear - To Amp GN

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Radio on and no sound does sound like an amp issue. Ground for both amps comes from being screwed to the body, there is no dedicated ground wire. Cleaning the points where they ground to the body might help if the wiring checks out. The remote wire supplies + to the amps when the radio's on, but both have a power feed from the accessory circuit as well. My diagram shows the front amp with a red wire for accessory power and a pink wire for remote, and the rear with green/white accessory and pink remote. I think both have to be hooked to + for the amp to work.

 

The radio won't really work without the amps. I tried running the stock radio out of my '95 as a workbench stereo, without amps, and while it did kind of work for a while, it was very quiet and IIRC one of the channels burned out. They're really not built to push speakers without help.

 

The amps, on the other hand... I kept mine after bypassing them and messed with them a bit. It's not difficult to make them work outside the vehicle. The rear amp, a 3.5mm audio jack and cord from the crappy earbuds my iPod came with, a computer power supply, and a couple eight-ohm speakers hot-glued into soup cans were my bench stereo for a couple of years, and that same amp ran the front speakers in my '93 for a while until I could be arsed to install a proper head unit.

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Thanks for the replies. So, where should a ground wire be grounded at? Ground where the radio is being installed.

 

I did not want to go and buy a new radio and still not know how to hook it up

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I'm not seeing a ground specified in the service manual, so I assume it grounds through the case and the mounting brackets. If you do find yourself staring at a ground wire, put a ring terminal on it and put it under one of the bolts that holds the dash brackets together.

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If you want to add a ground, just pick up a roll of whatever's cheap and black at the parts place. If it's good enough for hooking up aftermarket lights or whatever it'll be more than fine for this. There's probably a screw hole somewhere on the radio you can put a terminal on if you decide you need to.

Edited by Slartibartfast
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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi, I just wanted to update the progress I have made on the radio issue. I ordered two radio harnesses that plug into the back of the radios. One for the stock radio and another for the 1998 Nissan Altima head unit I had in the truck that would come on, but had no sound. I hooked up the 1998 Nissan Altima radio. It would come on, but still no sound. I hooked up the stock radio and it came on with sound only from the rear speakers.

 

I took the door panels off and ran speaker wire for each of the front speakers and tied the wire into the radio harness. The front speakers came on, but it barely put out any sound, but they did come on.

 

I concluded that the amp to the front speakers must have went out, and the 1998 Nissan Altima radio either messed up with me trying to re-install it so many times without a new radio harness.

 

What can I do to make the front speakers louder? The sound is basically coming from the rear speakers and the audio for the front speakers (which I ran speaker wire directly to the new stock radio harness) barely makes any sound at all.

 

Thanks,

 

brc

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If you want your front speakers louder you'd have to replace with an aftermarket, or try to find one that isnt for an amped up system. The other option would be to meter the ohm's to one of the speakers. Its probably running 8 ohms, so if you took an 8 ohm resistor and sautered it in positive to negative you can drop the ohm load to 4 ohms. So in a nutshell, the deck will put out just a little more power to the speakers because of the drop in resistance.

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Again, the HU does not have the power to run speakers, that's what the amps are for. What comes out of the HU is something like the power you can get from a cell phone or ipod audio jack. It'll do alright with earbuds, but it doesn't have the balls to move the door speakers. And again, trying to run my old HU like that on the bench eventually killed it.

 

Adding a resistor across the speaker wires would increase the load on the already-overloaded HU without adding any volume to the speakers.

 

Get an aftermarket HU or figure out why the front amp isn't working.

 

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Thanks for the info and thanks for the replies. Right now I am just satisfied with two speakers and two tweeters. It has been so long trying to get this done just being able to hear the radio works for now. When I can afford it I will get an aftermarket radio. I bought a bug shield, vent visors, new shock struts for the rear door lift gate, and had the front end aligned this month all on my Pathfinder. Have to stick with two speakers for a little longer.

 

Thanks,

 

brc

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You might consider pulling the stock amp, taking it apart and looking for bad solder joints on the boards. My rear speakers went out years ago, so I pulled the amp, touched each connection with a solder iron, added a couple drops of solder here and there, and things have been great for years. The stock radio, on the other hand, is a disaster. I have 4 units. The radio works on two but no lcd, the lcd works on one but the radio is full of static, and the lcd and radio are messed up on the fourth. I'm about to try an aftermarket double din unit but am having trouble fingering out what will fit.

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That is funny b/c the lcd does not light up on my stock radio either. My radio also came with a stock cd player. The cd player is a separate unit, but in the dash it all looks like one head unit. The cd player does not work either. So, with no lcd I have no idea what radio station I am on. I wanted to keep a stock look so that is why I ordered a newer Nissan radio that would fit in the dash, but it stopped working after four years. It will come on and all the functions work, but no sound. Thanks for the reply.

 

I have taken out both of the stock amps before and re-installed them. Does anyone know which amp works the front speakers?

 

Thanks,

 

brc

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