I sent my Bose system to be repaired. I wanted a simple factory radio that looked and sounded good. After it was returned, I hooked it up and found it was not worth the price it cost to fix it. I put in a tape and found every button froze, only things that would work were Volume, Bass, and Treble(all sliders). I was removing it to send it in for warranty repair and noticed something odd (Curiosity was sparked after reading many posts about shorts...) Three wires came together and had a metal criming thing at the top. They were underneath some gray electrical tape. I unwrapped it to see what it was. When I hooked everything back up, the power antenna went nuts and the radio made strange noises. I have a feeling that this place that installed an aftermarket headunit a while ago messed it up like they did the rest of my car. To end the story I need to find a way to fix the wires or can I replace the harness itself, without replacing the entire ecu harness? I know I am asking a dumb question, but is there maybe an easy way to get a new harness? Anyone know how the power antenna should be wired to the connector?

 

that harness?

 

 

Well it is the reverse of that harness. The one that goes directly into the factory radio, the strange wiring invovles the black wire in the picture above. Two other wires are connected to it, then it goes to the harness

Turns out it is the ground wire. All I did was unwrap it, and now everything has gone nuts with it? Buttons don't work because of radio failure, but now everything is messed up. It makes random noises and such. Could the ground cause all of this ?

The power antenna goes up and down all the time now, when I turn the car on(radio comes on too) it goes up and when I turn it off it goes down. This is new...

So I clearly messed up the ground. I think it is the root of my mayhem, anything special to know about grounding? When I turn the radio on, it amplifies everything. I can hear it amplify the antenna and the fuel pump

 

nononononononono that's not the ECU harness buddy

 

This is only a guess, because I have some experience in DC circuits
The only way to turn the car on on not the radio, is that you should turn of the radio. The power button has a switch that "remembers" if it's on or off.
My guess is that some wires are exposed and touching. Possibly the Power and the ground. Time to grab a multimeter.

InternetAutoMar, do you have a 4-pin connector diagram for the radio harness? PM me.

 

what 4 pin?
there's only 2 harnesses. both are referenced above.
I can dig out the FSM if need be, but those pics are more accurate and easy to read.

 

I have a 90 SE (stock hopefully) CD player, unless it wasn't stock. Sorry to post-*****.
Slap me

 

are you referring to the round cable then?

 

That would be great too, but that cable comes from the CD player and plugs into my radio. This 4-pin cable goes into my CD player for power. It seems to have 2 grounds and 2 power. I forgot the measurements in Voltage. I'll check soon. I messed up, I have a 91 SE CD player.

 

So there wasn't a chance that the grey electrical tape was anything special? The harness worked fine until I unwrapped the ground bundle... In order to see further back on the wires I need to unwrap a lot of bunches of wires. No one has ever been back there so I can't think of what would have caused a problem there. How would I go about using a multimeter and what should I look for? Sorry I don't know. I am really tired of not having a radio and would like to fix it though.

 

open up your FSM and trace the wiring from the head unit connectors back to where you see the ball of crap. try to figure out what the wires go to and which side.. then we can help you.

 

so you installed an aftermarket head unit before, took it out, and are now reinstalling the bose unit? it's kind of hard to understand your post; pics might help.

anyways, you say it's the ground. the factory harness has no ground. the wire from the head unit is supposed to be grounded. just trace the wires that you messed up and make sure you didn't disconnect anything. as far as grounds go, you just need a solid piece of metal (preferably attached to the frame), sand the paint down and use a star washer and some loctite on the bolt and nut.

 

Brian, Here's a pic of my CD player through Ebay. I have a radio harness with 4 pins in the back. I was going to hook this up into a power supply to see if it I fixed a problem I had

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NISSA...spagenameZWDVW

 

I bumped the ground wire blob into something metal and it worked, can I just make a new ground and solve the problemt that way, or will that cause problems? What could I use to ground it?

 

I would just add a ground. find a metal part of the car that has a bolt/screw going into it. Test it for ground if it works, use it. Just ground it with another wire and a spade or ring connector.

 

I really am not all that sure about this, so I'll ask to be sure. Can I just attach the ground wire to the chassis in some manner, and it is a sufficient ground, or does it need to be done in a special way to make it work. I was curious because the factory ground has two wires going to the one that plugs into the radio.

 

as long as its a good ground, and the shorter the better(supposedly...). just make sure its a good ground.

 

the factory didn't ground the radio through the harness IIRC.

 

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