Help with GSL-SE stereo retrofit into FB - no sound
08-21-13, 02:45 PM
#1
Help with GSL-SE stereo retrofit into FB - no sound
So, I got this GSL-SE stereo setup to put into my FB. My understanding is that the wiring is the same as the wiring in my stock base model, so I didn't bother to swap harnesses (I do have the harness that came with the SE stereo, just in case).
I'm getting power to the head unit and EQ, and I can hear the amps click on. The tuner LED display works, and I can even tune channels (I can see the STEREO light turn on as it hits a station). But I'm getting NO SOUND whatsoever. Not even hiss. It's as if the speakers aren't connected at all. My old stock radio at least hissed and made a real racket when turning the volume **** (dirty pot), but wouldn't tune any stations.
Here's how I set it up:
- passenger side amp into white 5-pin DIN plug, the white 4-pin molex connector, and a single pin molex on a blue wire.
- driver side amp into black 5-pin DIN plug, the blue 4-pin molex connector, and a single pin molex on a blue wire.
- the joystick balancer is connected to the two DIN plugs (white female DIN into white male DIN, black female DIN into black male DIN). This originally had the jumper/short cable, which I removed.
- wiring harness inside the dash has a single black 8-pin DIN plug. Originally had what appears to be a y-splitter with a black and white DIN 5-pin plug. I left this in place. The setup I got in the mail came with a single 8-pin DIN to 5-pin DIN adapter...I used the splitter I had in favor of this single adapter. Maybe this is a problem?
- facing the back of the head unit, the white 5-pin DIN from the splitter is plugged into the right DIN (closest to the driver). The middle DIN goes to the EQ. The left DIN is occupied by the black 5-pin DIN from the splitter. There is a white dot on the right DIN port, so I naturally assumed that's where the white one plugs in. Of course the antenna is plugged in. The 3-pin molex is also plugged in. I did NOT plug in the single-pin connector as the FSM warns you NOT to ever plug that in.
The FSM diagram shows a mirror image of the head unit I have, which I find odd. It's as if they depict a j-spec head unit, which might have these ports reversed since the driver would be on the right-hand side. This is what it looks like from the manual:
And this is what the back of my head looks like:
The cassette deck DIN is plugged into the EQ. The big 6-pin molex (only 3 are used) is plugged into my dash harness (which was originally jumpered with a short connector). The EQ DIN, as stated before, is plugged into the head unit. Note that the pic below shows must of the plugs unplugged...I couldn't get a good pic of the back without unplugging them.
Anybody have any insights on what I may be doing wrong? I'm told this was a working setup pulled from a low-mileage (around 30K car). It just seems like I should get *some* kind of sound and I feel like I must be missing something simple.
fm
I'm getting power to the head unit and EQ, and I can hear the amps click on. The tuner LED display works, and I can even tune channels (I can see the STEREO light turn on as it hits a station). But I'm getting NO SOUND whatsoever. Not even hiss. It's as if the speakers aren't connected at all. My old stock radio at least hissed and made a real racket when turning the volume **** (dirty pot), but wouldn't tune any stations.
Here's how I set it up:
- passenger side amp into white 5-pin DIN plug, the white 4-pin molex connector, and a single pin molex on a blue wire.
- driver side amp into black 5-pin DIN plug, the blue 4-pin molex connector, and a single pin molex on a blue wire.
- the joystick balancer is connected to the two DIN plugs (white female DIN into white male DIN, black female DIN into black male DIN). This originally had the jumper/short cable, which I removed.
- wiring harness inside the dash has a single black 8-pin DIN plug. Originally had what appears to be a y-splitter with a black and white DIN 5-pin plug. I left this in place. The setup I got in the mail came with a single 8-pin DIN to 5-pin DIN adapter...I used the splitter I had in favor of this single adapter. Maybe this is a problem?
- facing the back of the head unit, the white 5-pin DIN from the splitter is plugged into the right DIN (closest to the driver). The middle DIN goes to the EQ. The left DIN is occupied by the black 5-pin DIN from the splitter. There is a white dot on the right DIN port, so I naturally assumed that's where the white one plugs in. Of course the antenna is plugged in. The 3-pin molex is also plugged in. I did NOT plug in the single-pin connector as the FSM warns you NOT to ever plug that in.
The FSM diagram shows a mirror image of the head unit I have, which I find odd. It's as if they depict a j-spec head unit, which might have these ports reversed since the driver would be on the right-hand side. This is what it looks like from the manual:
And this is what the back of my head looks like:
The cassette deck DIN is plugged into the EQ. The big 6-pin molex (only 3 are used) is plugged into my dash harness (which was originally jumpered with a short connector). The EQ DIN, as stated before, is plugged into the head unit. Note that the pic below shows must of the plugs unplugged...I couldn't get a good pic of the back without unplugging them.
Anybody have any insights on what I may be doing wrong? I'm told this was a working setup pulled from a low-mileage (around 30K car). It just seems like I should get *some* kind of sound and I feel like I must be missing something simple.
fm
Last edited by Fungus Mungus; 08-21-13 at 02:48 PM.
08-21-13, 05:51 PM
#2
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You should not have the "splitter" hooked up like that, try the cable that convert6 pin to 8 pin. The 3 part premium package radio outputs only thru the front amp port(the one closest the 3 wire connector), as far as I know it doesn't output anything thru the rear amp port(with the white dot). The 6 pin din cable plugs into the front amp port, and the other end goes into the converter to make it 8 pin so that it then will plug into the JOYstick. The JOYstick then splits it to go to the rear amp and front amp. So ONLY the JOYstick will do the fading, the fader **** on the radio won't do anything except silence the output if it is turned to fade all the way to the rear. Hope this does it for you.
08-21-13, 06:01 PM
#3
You should not have the "splitter" hooked up like that, try the cable that convert6 pin to 8 pin. The 3 part premium package radio outputs only thru the front amp port(the one closest the 3 wire connector), as far as I know it doesn't output anything thru the rear amp port(with the white dot). The 6 pin din cable plugs into the front amp port, and the other end goes into the converter to make it 8 pin so that it then will plug into the JOYstick. The JOYstick then splits it to go to the rear amp and front amp. So ONLY the JOYstick will do the fading, the fader **** on the radio won't do anything except silence the output if it is turned to fade all the way to the rear. Hope this does it for you.
fm
08-21-13, 08:30 PM
#4
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Please report back with results,and if you could, I'd REALLY appreciate if you could test with the 6 pin din connected to rear (with fader **** positioned to full rear) AND with the 6 pin din connected to front (with fader **** positioned to full front) just to see if the assumption that the rear amp port outputs nothing IS correct or knot...
08-21-13, 09:17 PM
#5
Will do. I did quick test and didn't get sound, but upon closer inspection, it appears that there's a connector that goes between the dash harness and the rear harness where the joystick is and it's shorted at the dash harness on the base model. On the GSL-SE, it's connected. I didn't connect these, so I'll be pulling the seats and carpet and I'll figure out exactly where I went wrong.
Well, I know where I went wrong...I got lazy and thought I could just figure it out without the hassle of seat removal. That was my first mistake.
Anyway, once I get sound, I'll switch ports and report back on whether the rear port is dead on the head or if it both front and rear ports work.
fm
Well, I know where I went wrong...I got lazy and thought I could just figure it out without the hassle of seat removal. That was my first mistake.
Anyway, once I get sound, I'll switch ports and report back on whether the rear port is dead on the head or if it both front and rear ports work.
fm
08-22-13, 11:13 AM
#6
Well, so far, no joy. I removed the y-splitter and replaced it with the single 6-pin to 8-pin adapter. I noticed that the 4-pin molex in the dash wasn't connected to the companion connector on the harness with the DIN plug that goes into the back of the head unit, so I plugged that in. Still no sound.
This morning, I checked the inline fuses on both amps, both are good. Checked the fuse under the dash for the radio. Good (which is no surprise as I wouldn't expect to get any power to the head at all if it was blown).
I haven't checked the fuses in the actual stereo, EQ and cassette yet. I'll do that when I get a free moment today, but again, I wouldn't expect to get any power at all if the fuses in the units were blown.
There was a piece I got with the stereo that, upon first glance, I didn't think belonged. It was a flat metal box...I didn't see anything like that in my car so I didn't use it. I'll go have another look at it tonight....maybe it needs to go somewhere.
fm
This morning, I checked the inline fuses on both amps, both are good. Checked the fuse under the dash for the radio. Good (which is no surprise as I wouldn't expect to get any power to the head at all if it was blown).
I haven't checked the fuses in the actual stereo, EQ and cassette yet. I'll do that when I get a free moment today, but again, I wouldn't expect to get any power at all if the fuses in the units were blown.
There was a piece I got with the stereo that, upon first glance, I didn't think belonged. It was a flat metal box...I didn't see anything like that in my car so I didn't use it. I'll go have another look at it tonight....maybe it needs to go somewhere.
fm
08-22-13, 02:08 PM
#7
Just verified that the fuses in the tuner and the cassette deck are fine. There was no fuse in the EQ at all. I know the tuner and both EQ power on, and I'm assuming the cassette deck does as well, but don't have any cassettes to operate it.
So, no sound whatsoever. All fuses (main radio fuse, fuses in tuner and cassette, and the two power amps) are all fine.
Still wondering about that mystery piece that came with the setup. I'll look at it tonight.
fm
So, no sound whatsoever. All fuses (main radio fuse, fuses in tuner and cassette, and the two power amps) are all fine.
Still wondering about that mystery piece that came with the setup. I'll look at it tonight.
fm
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08-22-13, 04:05 PM
#9
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parts fische isn't very helpful, you have the ETR, upper right.
08-22-13, 06:29 PM
#10
j9fds3, found that in the parts catalog PDF file...the part I'm talking about isn't shown, so I think it may be a red herring.
fm
08-22-13, 09:57 PM
#14
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This is how it is mounted in my SE...Semi vertical, behind the driver's seat, under the rubber matting, under the bin...I don't know what it is, but it IS in close proximity to the amps(the only other things under there)...
08-22-13, 11:33 PM
#15
Yeah, I suspect this is a the cruise control brain. The guy that sold the setup to me saw it in the car he was parting out and probably assumed it was part of the audio gear. But no, I don't think this even has a place to plug in on my car as I don't have a big molex connector that it would plug into in my driver's side storage bin.
Doing more troubleshooting. Put the old stereo back in (which wouldn't tune a station, but did make crackly noises over the speakers) with the new amps, plugged in both with the single DIN adapter into the head unit and with the Y-splitter hooked up (with front amp disconnected). Nothing. I unplugged the new 25w amp and plugged in the old 5w amp. It made the crackling noises again. So, I'm reasonably certain it has to do with those two 25w amps. I'm going back out there in a little while and am going to try hooking the new head unit up the same way as my old head unit (with the Y splitter, bypassing the joystick, and using the 5W amp).
fm
Doing more troubleshooting. Put the old stereo back in (which wouldn't tune a station, but did make crackly noises over the speakers) with the new amps, plugged in both with the single DIN adapter into the head unit and with the Y-splitter hooked up (with front amp disconnected). Nothing. I unplugged the new 25w amp and plugged in the old 5w amp. It made the crackling noises again. So, I'm reasonably certain it has to do with those two 25w amps. I'm going back out there in a little while and am going to try hooking the new head unit up the same way as my old head unit (with the Y splitter, bypassing the joystick, and using the 5W amp).
fm
08-23-13, 03:17 AM
#16
OK, after a frustrating evening of troubleshooting, I figured this out. I had to swap out the amps for the old 5W amp before I isolated the problem to the power amps. The head unit worked fine with the 5W amp (although I only had rear speakers). I figured I wasn't getting power to the amps, so I was going to check the little single power lead coming off the back of the head unit.
Before I did that, I checked the FSM, figuring that it would be odd to have a 12V power wire come off the back of the head unit and not be protected by a fuse somewhere. The wiring diagrams bore this out...there are actually 2 fuses for the stereo setup for the SE stereo. One is the stereo fuse (a 20 amp fuse which, on my car for some reason is a 15 amp fuse). This fuse was fine, as I stated before. But there is another fuse, the 10amp cigarette lighter fuse, which was blown. I figured that was likely the culprit, so I grabbed a spare 10amp fuse and put it in.
All kinds of things started working that didn't before...my cig lighter, my hazards, and an annoying beeping when I turn the car to ACC (the "you left your key in the ignition idiot" sound, I guess). I hooked up one of the other 25W power amps and voila! I had sound on both front and back speakers. The fader/joystick thingy worked perfectly.
I'd pulled the seats and carpets out of the car in anticipation of having to replace the harness, but now that's not necessary. The car still looks like a theft recovery, but it's late and I'm hitting the sack.
Thanks all for your help.
OH, and sevens4me, I tested both the front and rear amp DIN ports, and found that they BOTH will work.
fm
Before I did that, I checked the FSM, figuring that it would be odd to have a 12V power wire come off the back of the head unit and not be protected by a fuse somewhere. The wiring diagrams bore this out...there are actually 2 fuses for the stereo setup for the SE stereo. One is the stereo fuse (a 20 amp fuse which, on my car for some reason is a 15 amp fuse). This fuse was fine, as I stated before. But there is another fuse, the 10amp cigarette lighter fuse, which was blown. I figured that was likely the culprit, so I grabbed a spare 10amp fuse and put it in.
All kinds of things started working that didn't before...my cig lighter, my hazards, and an annoying beeping when I turn the car to ACC (the "you left your key in the ignition idiot" sound, I guess). I hooked up one of the other 25W power amps and voila! I had sound on both front and back speakers. The fader/joystick thingy worked perfectly.
I'd pulled the seats and carpets out of the car in anticipation of having to replace the harness, but now that's not necessary. The car still looks like a theft recovery, but it's late and I'm hitting the sack.
Thanks all for your help.
OH, and sevens4me, I tested both the front and rear amp DIN ports, and found that they BOTH will work.
fm
08-23-13, 10:48 AM
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. I figured that was likely the culprit, so I grabbed a spare 10amp fuse and put it in.
All kinds of things started working that didn't before...my cig lighter, my hazards, and an annoying beeping when I turn the car to ACC (the "you left your key in the ignition idiot" sound, I guess). I hooked up one of the other 25W power amps and voila! I had sound on both front and back speakers. The fader/joystick thingy worked perfectly.
fm
All kinds of things started working that didn't before...my cig lighter, my hazards, and an annoying beeping when I turn the car to ACC (the "you left your key in the ignition idiot" sound, I guess). I hooked up one of the other 25W power amps and voila! I had sound on both front and back speakers. The fader/joystick thingy worked perfectly.
fm
the Rx8's have a similar fuse, and it just happens that the ECU and the sunvisors are on it too, and so if you totally mangle the sunvisors (they all break), and short it out, the car doesn't run!
08-23-13, 12:34 PM
#19
LOL! Yeah, it would be nice if the FSM was more specific in the wiring diagrams. They show a fuse for for that power lead, but don't indicate what position it is in on the fuse box. The diagrams show a fuse, but since there are a limited number of fuses in the box, and they apparently control multiple systems, there's no way of knowing just by reading the diagram which fuse controls what. Very irritating. To make matters worse, the fuses in my fuse box don't even match those in the FSM...the amperages are all wrong. My radio is 15 amp when it should be 20 amp. Seems to me a 10amp fuse for the power amps isn't sufficient. Some DFO must have done electrical work on the car in the past.
I remember the Honda Helms manual is a lot better about documenting this sort of thing.
fm
I remember the Honda Helms manual is a lot better about documenting this sort of thing.
fm
Last edited by Fungus Mungus; 08-23-13 at 12:39 PM.
08-23-13, 04:57 PM
#20
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Good to hear you got it werking. And GOOD to hear that the rear amp port IS active...Now if I ever get time in the remaining summer to do some non-essential upgrades, I've got big plans for that rear port...But now I need to get 2, 6 pin din's long enough to go from head unit to amps. 'Cause I wanna remove the joystick and power window buttons...Thanks for testing!
08-25-13, 03:23 AM
#21
OK, so now I'm frustrated beyond belief. The stereo has been working. I'm getting the car back together. I figured, hey, why not try adding an aux in jack. So I read up on a few threads and found that you can apparently wire up an 8-pin DIN cable to an aux jack and plug that DIN cable into the EQ where the tape deck normally plugs in. You power the tape deck and put a tape in it to trick the head into thinking it's in tape mode and you play your tunes through your iPod. You loose the tape deck, but who cares?
So I make the cable, pull out the stereo (unplugging everything), disconnect the tape deck from the EQ, plug in my new aux in jack, plug everything back into the stereo and now the unit won't power on. So I figured i wired something wrong, so I pulled the stereo off the harness again, opened it up to be sure I didn't blow a fuse (the fuse was fine). The EQ doesn't have a fuse, so I didn't bother opening it up. The tape deck has one, but it wasn't plugged in at the time.
I put the stereo back on the harness again, plugging everything in (the DIN cable, the 3-pin molex, and the single-pin backup power. I left the tape deck unplugged. Still no power. I tried plugging in the tape deck (both the DIN into the EQ and the big molex plug. Still no power.
I then checked the fuse in the fuse box. In fact, I checked each and every one of them. They were all good. Nothing I did this evening would coax this thing to power on again.
I even went as far as installing the old radio w/old amp in it. STILL no power. I'm thinking there must be something going on in the dash. I tested the 3-pin molex plug (the top pin had 12V coming to it when I turned the ignition to ACC). The single-pin backup plug also got 12V to it.
When I attempt to turn on the power to the unit, I don't hear anything, but when I hit the button again (to turn it "off", even though it's not on), I hear a click in the dash, which I assume is the power antenna relay. I don't have a power antenna hooked up so the plug in the back is unplugged.
Could a flaky relay be causing this no-power condition?
fm
So I make the cable, pull out the stereo (unplugging everything), disconnect the tape deck from the EQ, plug in my new aux in jack, plug everything back into the stereo and now the unit won't power on. So I figured i wired something wrong, so I pulled the stereo off the harness again, opened it up to be sure I didn't blow a fuse (the fuse was fine). The EQ doesn't have a fuse, so I didn't bother opening it up. The tape deck has one, but it wasn't plugged in at the time.
I put the stereo back on the harness again, plugging everything in (the DIN cable, the 3-pin molex, and the single-pin backup power. I left the tape deck unplugged. Still no power. I tried plugging in the tape deck (both the DIN into the EQ and the big molex plug. Still no power.
I then checked the fuse in the fuse box. In fact, I checked each and every one of them. They were all good. Nothing I did this evening would coax this thing to power on again.
I even went as far as installing the old radio w/old amp in it. STILL no power. I'm thinking there must be something going on in the dash. I tested the 3-pin molex plug (the top pin had 12V coming to it when I turned the ignition to ACC). The single-pin backup plug also got 12V to it.
When I attempt to turn on the power to the unit, I don't hear anything, but when I hit the button again (to turn it "off", even though it's not on), I hear a click in the dash, which I assume is the power antenna relay. I don't have a power antenna hooked up so the plug in the back is unplugged.
Could a flaky relay be causing this no-power condition?
fm
Last edited by Fungus Mungus; 08-25-13 at 03:26 AM.
08-25-13, 10:42 PM
#22
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Man, you sound like me, can't leave well enough alone...I really don't have any suggestions due to the fact that even yer old stuff wouldn't werk anymore. But as far as your plan, did you just plug your own cable into the tape port, and leave the original unplugged? I'm not positive this would work, 'cause wouldn't it need to "communicate" you put a tape in to rest of stereo?
08-26-13, 01:34 AM
#23
Man, you sound like me, can't leave well enough alone...I really don't have any suggestions due to the fact that even yer old stuff wouldn't werk anymore. But as far as your plan, did you just plug your own cable into the tape port, and leave the original unplugged? I'm not positive this would work, 'cause wouldn't it need to "communicate" you put a tape in to rest of stereo?
Given that my old unit wouldn't work anymore, I'm thinking that all the plugging and unplugging has taken its toll on the dash harness. Also, I stupidly left the stereo plugged into the dash harness overnight, but hadn't pushed it all the way into it's spot, so it was putting a fair amount of tension on the cables plugged into it. I can see a few of the red wires that are crimped in with the others are a little loose. I get 12V when I flip the ignition on while it's unplugged, but when I plug the stereo in, there's a fair amount of tension on that wire, and I'm wondering if that tension is enough to break contact with the power wire. I can't think of any other plausible explanation.
I'm going to have someone that knows what they're doing check it out and re-crimp what I've must've worked loose.
fm
08-26-13, 01:50 PM
#24
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What I meant was...IF you have your own plug plugged into the tape desk port on EQ and NOT the original at all...How will the tape deck communicate to the rest of the radio that you put a tape in? I think it needs to "communicate" this event through the DIN cable...If that DIN cable is no longer plugged in, no communication, right?