Help with aftermarket head unit
 

Ill start out with saying I know how to install and work on stereo equipment but I am no expert, which is why I am looking for advice here.

2013 FRS
aftermarket head unit: JVC KW NSX-700

Problem:
in door speakers are not working at all.

The car is wired for a sub with no sub installed. Do you think that if the head unit has the sub output plugged in its cutting out the door speakers since they are the low freq / factory sub speakers? like using the built in crossover to bypass the cars 8" (I believe thats the size) speakers.

I know without looking at it you wouldn't know exactly. I was just wondering if anyone knew if that was a possibility.

Did you install it?

Has it ever worked?

Do the dash or rear speakers work, or do no speakers at all work?

Is there an aftermarket amp installed somewhere?

The door speakers are 6.5".

Have you checked the settings in the HU to see if there's perhaps a crossover setting or channels disabled?

EDIT: I just looked at the specs and I see the unit is dual-zone capable, might want to make sure that's turned off too.

I should have mentioned. I did not install it. I bought this car 4 days ago with it installed. They never worked since I bought it. I did not find an amplifier anywhere, just wires heading to the trunk and then them all unplugged and capped in there. The dash speakers work for sure, the rear I would have to check.

There's a crossover setting and its so you can adjust the freq and setting to the sub but not on and off.

I'd suggest you first try finding out if there's a way to just reset all HU settings to default and starting from there. Also see my edit above about dual zones. From there, it really is going to depend on how it was installed.

My Pioneer HU has a setting where I can turn rear speakers on/off, for example. Your door speakers should be wired to the front channels, but I have no idea how whoever installed it did it.

Maybe they had the door speakers wired off an amp that they removed before selling you the car and the dash speakers are powered off the HU.

Maybe they installed / wired it wrong.

It's not that hard to take the radio out of these cars. Like, 10 minutes worth of easy. Rather than waiting for a bunch of guesses here, why don't you go pop the radio out... the plastic dash trim comes off easily (search the forum) and there's 4 screws holding the radio in. Pull it out, check the back, look at how all the wiring is set up -- you said you know how to install and work on stereo equipment so you should be able to at least get an idea of what's going on back there. Take some clear pictures of wires, harnesses, adapters, etc., and post them here if you need help decoding what's going on. Take a good look at the wiring you found in the back of the car, maybe there's more going on than just a sub. Also check the factory amp, under the carpet on the left side of the trunk floor just behind the rear seat. That amp is what drives the door speakers in a factory configuration. Make sure it's plugged in and connected. Maybe the previous owner bypassed it, maybe they knocked a connection loose when removing the sub/amp.

Do some investigation and we can help you a lot better.

2nding check stock amp. And if it Checks out, check out the hu harness for the remote on. The amp needs to be told to turn on.

Ok. I did some digging. first of all, its all of like 1 minute to take the aftermarket stereo out, which is nice.

I started in the trunk. The sub wiring isn't enough to run to door speakers, its the standard set up for 1 sub. The factory amp in the trunk had everything plugged in and looked good, nothing out of the ordinary. I can take pictures of anything if needed.

Then I moved to the dash. The install doesn't look amazing but its not terrible. There's two pieces to the harness that are not plugged in so I am thinking those are the connectors to the factory amp in the trunk.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...654f2272b0.jpg

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...c230a0f339.jpg

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

EDIT: the rear speakers ARE working.

Check fuse #15 in your kick panel fuse box, it should be labeled AMP.

Ok. unplugged and plugged in the connections on the amp in the rear. I took out the fuse and checked it, looked good, plugged it back in. turned the car on and the front speakers work... but only when I listen to the radio and not iPod or bluetooth. any suggestions?

That's weird... That's really weird. You're certain that that's right? The amp and speakers work on radio mode but not Bluetooth mode?

Positive. I didn't try any other way but I will with a CD also. But radio works fine but switch to Bluetooth or iPod and the door speakers stop working. It's weird.

Edit: I emailed JVC support also to see what they say if they say anything since idk if they support it anymore.

I think I know exactly what is happening. The FRS requires the antenna adapter's blue wire to be connected and it is probably connected to the wiring for the remote turn on at the harness. Since they previously had an aftermarket amp connected, they probably do not have the remote wire that comes off the radio connected into the harness, to keep the factory amplifier on.

You switch to the radio, the factory amp turns on due to the lead coming from the adapter.

The easiest thing to do is find the remote coming from the back of the JVC and combine it into the harness wiring.

Refer to SVXdc's post for wiring guidance/recommendations and the wiring pins you need to be connected to:
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...8&postcount=20

Makes sense.. Probably would have thought about that in the morning.

Good call @Blackforge!

That hadn't occurred to me, but now the bell is going "ding ding ding!!"

Sounds like the factory amp turn on is wired to the antenna lead off the JVC.

If there's both a blue and a blue/white wire coming off the JVC, the blue/white is usually the antenna lead. The solid blue is the one you want going into the pin for the factory amp (pin 9 on the 10 pin plug).


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Ok! Sweet. I will try this tomorrow at some point, I hope.
So if I am reading this correctly the solid blue from the JVC I want going into pin 9, and it SHOULD work? and I SHOULDNT need to change anything else?
Will the speakers still work on for the radio (not that I ever use it, so if not no problem.)
Thanks a lot guys!

That is correct. Pin 9 is amp remote control and it sounds like antenna power is connected there (thus amp works when radio is on). You need to connect "amp" wire into pin 9 on 10 pin harness and antenna power lead to antenna connector (there should be one pin for power). That only applies to FRS (as far as I know), because BRZ has antenna power lead on pin 8 (10 pin connector).

Well.. I will have to come back to this at the beginning of next week. I took the car back to the dealer to have them fix something and they are keeping it over the weekend. So the head unit repair I will update on probably Tuesday. My loaner for the weekend, a Range Rover Evoque!

UPDATE:
I got my car back today, finally, and it seems like i've got some bad news.

I took the unit out again and it appears to be plugged into the 9 slot via a jumper from the 8 slot.
http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...zeRender-4.jpg
As you can see the little blue one plugged into the 9 is just a small 1.5" jumper from the 8.

It also has this on the main blue wire going to the 8 slot.
http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...zeRender-5.jpg

Do I need to just push the 8 out and put it in 9? I wouldn't see that being the issue since its jumped over..
Anything is appreciated! Thanks!

No, that's fine... the jumper is there because in some cars (like the BRZ) the antenna has a power booster that comes off pin 8, and both are usually wired to the remote lead on the aftermarket HU. I am curious, however, where that tap splice is going. I'm guessing that was for the sub amp that has since been removed, which, is kind of funny, because that means that the previous owner's sub only worked when playing the radio as well. :D

Are there any other wires coming off the HU that are either not connected or possibly a combination of a blue color? Blue/white or white/blue or blue/gray, etc?

I did a quick search and didn't find an install manual for that model... I'm sure it's out there I just didn't dig very hard for it. If all else fails, what you may have to do is find any/all wires that aren't connected off the HU and test them with a multimeter while the radio is on.

Since you're not using that extra blue lead, you can cut it off and use it to test the voltage on the blue wire that's going to pin 8/9 without having to disconnect the harness. If you disconnect the harness, you won't have power/ground so you'd have to rig up a temporary jumper for the red and black wires to get you +12V switched and ground. If you snip off the blue wire that's tapped into the blue leads, you can test it there, then just cap it off when you're done (use a real crimp cap, please don't tape it. Tape will melt and come off over time and eventually you'll possibly end up with a short).

With the HU set to radio, you should see 12V DC on the blue wire. If you then change the source to CD or AUX and that lead drops to 0 (or anything significantly below 12), then that's the antenna lead. Look for another wire that has the 12V DC coming off the HU regardless of what source is selected, that's the AMP turn on remote.

It's there somewhere.

I, unfortunately, do not have a multimeter.

Here is the manual if this helps..
http://books.jvc.com/booklist.asp?Model=kw-nsx700

I will check again tomorrow for any unconnected wires. For sure is at least one that I can remember, its not blue I don't think.

Actually. Here. This should help.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/a...RS/harness.jpg

I think I figured it out. They have the blue and white (remote) going to the aftermarket amp, which isn't there, and they hooked the radio signal to the factory amp. Let's see if that's it

Thats what it was! it works! thanks for nothing guys... haha I am just kidding! You guys got me searching!

It blows my mind that the previous owner didn't have any door speakers ever...:bonk:

The iPod still doesn't work. It shows playing but no sound, I think it may be the cord tho, I am going to use my girlfriends to see if it works with that.

I was about to comment on this. I was going to say that technically the remote out and the antenna are both 12v highs (rated .2A and .25A), you could just splice all the blues together. not the best practice for sure but I'm pretty sure it would work fine. but glad to hear its working now!

I just connected the blue and white remote to the aftermarket and to the factory. I unhooked that solid blue for the radio antenna or whatever and the speakers still work fine on the radio so I guess it works. haha

Thanks again everyone

Depending on how you are connecting the Ipod(USB or 3.5mm jack), the problem is either that 28-pin connector that isn't plugged into anything(3.5mm jack is connected to that) or the USB adapter that probably isn't installed.

I figured it out, I reconnected all the plugs and then messed around in the settings and got it to work. Thanks!