I’m installing the third car stereo that I’ve owned in my 3rd generation Maxima. Have any of you noticed any strange anomalies with the wiring harnesses that are generally found in stores like Circuit City, Best Buy, and OEM car stereo stores? I believe that every harness I’ve bought has had some kind of problem with it – either the grounding wire is in the wrong place, or the rear speakers don’t work. Now – I’m not an idiot – I know I’m wiring things correctly (according to the harness), and I normally have to do a lot of fiddling around with my voltage tester to find signals that will work and eventually get the stereo to work. Have you experienced the same thing with any of your installations? My latest head unit is a Pioneer DEH-840MP. The thing powers on, but the screen doesn’t light up. I’m just like… “ARRGH!” I have all the illumination hookups right, so I dunno. Time to whip out the voltage tester… Let me know if you have any advice or similar experiences.

 

I've had my stereo wired up to my 3rd Gen. for about a year now and I haven't had any problems what so ever? I'm actually very please w/ my upgraded stereo!

 

unless your getting the wrong year harness I am not sure why your having a problem.

I have gotten harnesses from wal mart, autozone, stereo shops, and other places and have not had one single problem out of any of them. There are a few harnesses that dont have the illumination wire on them because most of the time it isnt used or the aftermarket radio doesnt have a hookup for it.

not sure why your having a problem though

 

the ground is missing on the Metra kits, which is an easily fixable problem. just run another ground out of it.

reason many people don't ever notice it is that the head also gets a ground connection through the shield on the antenna. not exactly the best situation there, but it works most of the time.


the problem here is something internal to the head unit though. if it gets power, then the display should light up when the unit powers on. if it doesn't light up, then it's not a problem in the car or wiring.. it's in the head unit itself.

If I recall correctly, that's a fold-down face, right? try removing it a time or to and replacing it. it could be a dirty connection on the pads..

 

yeah, mainly I was having problems with the ground. I just attached it to a screw that I found in the chassis, which allowed the unit to power up. Apparently it had a failsafe or something along those lines. I haven't really toyed with the new unit very much - girlfriend needed the car (yeah, I'm whipped) but tomorrow I should have it in. Hopefully it was just some kind of weirdness like you mentioned Matt93SE. I've had the thing since last year, so I can't return it if it's f'ed up. Thanks for your input though everyone ... I think i'm just suffering from a case of thinking too much.