PennSilverTaco's "Perfect 5-Lug Regular Cab" Build, Aspergers, and General BS MegaThread!

Over the last couple of weeks, my head unit has been having problems...

It is a Pioneer AVH-1330 NEX, installed in March 2018; It has been known to randomly reboot itself at times, but nothing like this!

The speakers are powered by an external amplifier, so if the amp cuts out there is no sound. It has been doing this a lot lately, but some days it won’t do it at all. The radio will still be on, and the subwoofer will still be thumping, but the sound will cut in and out or there will be no sound at all.

It seems to do this not when the iPod is playing, but it also does this when the radio is on.

The Bluetooth will not work at all; The radio recognizes my phone, but I can’t hear the person on the other and they can’t hear me.

My neighbor hooked up his voltmeter to the battery, the amp, and the back of the radio, as well as the alternator, and found no problems.

My radio was also having a weird problem where a little purple square with a volume symbol and a minus sign would appear in the upper left corner of the screen; The volume would inexplicably lower and controls like the EQ would be locked out, preventing me from using them.

My head unit (again, the Pioneer AVH-1330NEX) is no longer made, but I found a refurbished one on Amazon for $240. My dad told me that if my radio is failing, I shouldn’t buy the exact same model. A new Pioneer would be nice, but they cost a lot; I do not want to get a different brand because that would require changing out the wiring harness which is something I’m not that good at...

 

Radio is shot; Bluetooth does not work and as I stated before, something within the head unit is causing the amp to overload. Getting a Pioneer AVH-1550NEX, so it’ll be a drop-in replacement.

 

That’s not good news

 

Not the worst; $345 MSRP and I’m getting it for $280!

 

Nice. How many days wait? How’s your dog doing?

 

Next Wednesday; Porter’s doing great!

 

Runnin' home to mamma...

Verify the ground on your amplifier.

 

The amplifier has been tested...

 

Sucks that you are gonna need a replacement

 

I notice how you did not say something like:

"Yeah, I redid the ground and it's all clean and I sanded the grounding point and I'm like super positive it's totally killer."

Kinda hard to move on this being the case.

 

Which ground? The one on the amp the or where the system is tied into the battery...? I am 99.9% sure the head unit is the problem because I whacked the dash bezel a couple times when the radio cut out and it started working again...

 

I've disconnected and reconnected all connections...

Dialectric grease? Also, this still doesn't explain why the Bluetooth has inexplicably failed!

 

My phone was last updated several weeks ago; The head unit will recognize my phone but there's no sound, and this has only been in the last couple of weeks.

 

You’ve pulled the head unit from the dash? Did you connect a regular speaker straight to the HU? Did you connect a different head unit to the amp? Have you tried playing a CD?

Sounds like you haven’t done much troubleshooting.

 

How do I do that? I didn't know a radio needed an update unless it has GPS/navigation...

 

Read the owners manual to see why the purple square shows up?

 

If it does this with radio and iPod, I am 99% it'll do it with a CD. I was thinking of temporarily bypassing the amp and plugging directly to the speakers; The only head units I have lying around are my truck's factory radio (pretty sure it no longer works), a cassette deck from a 1990s Taco (don't know if it works, and an ancient Pioneer CD player from the early 2000s (new in the box and never used, but lacks many of the hookups my unit has), all of which would require extensive wiring to work with the amp.

 

I haven't seen the owner's manual in two years; Possible it's still in the glovebox, but gonna chat with Crutchfield tech support tomorrow.

 

None of it needs extensive wiring. You grab a few cables and start bench testing stuff. Get the cheapest crappiest speaker you can find of any type, get 3 feet of speaker wire and connect it to the speaker outs on the HU. See if you get sound. Plug anything with an RCA connection into the amp and see if you get sound. Even a DVD player with an extension cord. You have to narrow it down.

 

Can I wire the Pioneer HU to the speakers from my Panasonic shelf system, or one of the Bose speakers from the family room?