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What's wrong with the car stereo in my 2003 Nissan Sentra?

ixohoxi — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 10:31:21 -0800

What's wrong with the car stereo in my 2003 Nissan Sentra? I have a Blaupunkt MP3000 dash unit which has served me well. I had it professionally installed shortly after purchasing the car (new-ish), and until recently I've had no problems with it. (No external amp or anything fancy like that—just the head unit.)

A couple of months ago, the audio started cutting out intermittently. Going over a bump in the road will often cause it to cut back in briefly—and it worked for a short while after I removed the dash panel and disconnected and reconnected the wiring clips—but those periods of functionality have gotten shorter and shorter, to the point where I only hear an occasional split-second of radio when I cross a rough train track. It's not any one speaker that's cutting out; they're either all working, or (more often) all not working.

The Blaupunkt is receiving power, and from all indications is performing normally—the channel meters show that an audio signal is present, and everything works the way it should. It doesn't matter whether the signal is coming from the radio, the CD player, or the aux input—it's just not getting to the speakers.

I tried removing the Blaupunkt and putting the original factory unit back in—and got the exact same behavior. Unit gets power, seems to function normally—but no audio.

Since it's getting power, it shouldn't be a fuse issue, but just for shits I checked all fuses that sounded relevant—under the hood, inside the cabin, and on the rear of the Blaupunkt—and all of them look fine.

When it was still working for short periods of time, it seemed like it would cut out again when the signal got loud (e.g., if I turned it up moderately loud, or when the broadcast/CD peaked)—but I couldn't be certain of that.

(If it matters, I replaced all four factory speakers with new Kickers a few months ago.)

So what's the deal? I thought those eight wires coming from the back of the head unit connected directly to the four speakers. So how is it that two otherwise functional head units are failing to power all four speakers? The behavior with bumps in the road suggests a loose wire/component, but what single point of failure could possibly cause this behavior?

Obviously I'm misunderstanding something here—do the four speaker signals pass through some common component inside my Nissan before they get to the speakers?

Any suggestions would be welcome—I'm starting to go crazy without music in the car, and I can't really afford to take it to a professional right now, and besides I'd rather fix it myself, if I can.

Couple of car troubleshooting questions anyone?

dance — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 11:27:35 -0800

Snazzy Blaupunkt stereo installed in car, but I find myself plagued by a whine which I am assuming is originating at the alternator. If anyone could explain in simple terms how I might be able to eliminate this noise without too much fuss I would be really grateful! I realise it's almost always a grounding issue or speaker/power cables getting tangled together - but I haven't a clue how to go about re-grounding the stereo when it's so tight and dark behind the dash. Strangely the last stereo had no such problems, was also Blaupunkt and the new stereo was able to use the same connectors. Ignoring the fact the stereo itself is changed, the back of the stereo still looks a lot like this.

Plus! Huge bonus points if someone could suggest why my front left wheel sounds wobbly when driving on unmetalled roads even though the roll bars have just been changed....

Where's the simplicity?

dance — Sun, 11 May 2008 14:18:51 -0800

Swapping a car's stereo head unit: I would really like to replace my car's ailing Blaupunkt CD player with a more modern head unit, ideally one with a front aux-in for my iPhone. Before I embarked on this I thought it would (should!) be as simple as popping out the old HU, slotting the new one in and simply reconnecting the connector block. But it seems the process is rarely that simple. My car, a 96 Mazda 626, does not seem to have the pretty wiring harnesses to be seen in many online tutorials. It looks exactly like this.

A friend said that all aftermarket stereos connect to the car's wiring harness via an ISO connector so I presumed that as my stereo is almost certainly aftermarket the hard work was already done for me. But having bought the removal keys and had a look behind the stereo it doesn't look like it.

What are my options? I would dearly love to avoid soldering, splicing and dicing and have a nice clean solution involving adaptors or the straightforward swap I hoped for.

I guess if I buy another Blaupunkt then I can just swap head units? There are two connectors even though only the brown topmost can be seen in the picture. Do Blaupunkts continue to use this setup?

I've tried asking at the12volt and installdr, but without much success!

Any help appreciated!

Identify these scenes: LA's Stack, a bull, a 60's Alfa, a clock, an explosion

stereo — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 05:18:06 -0800

Can you identify these scenes? LA's highway Stack, a bull in an arena, a 60's Alfa Romeo radio, a wall clock, and an explosion. I'm trying to find the origin of a couple of scenes, all of them from movies produced or distributed by Warner. All of those are definitely pre-1993, and most probably pre-1985. The shots were taken from La Classe Américaine, a French parody movie from 1993 that used sequences from other movies and re-dubbed them to create a whole new story, which a friend is restoring.

The first scene (first shot and second shot, ignore the text) shows the first four-level interchange in Los Angeles, aka The Stack, built in 1953. We have already found similar scenes in Hollywood Boulevard (1976), Helter Skelter (1976), and Death Wish II (1982).

The second scene (first shot, second shot, and third shot, but ignore the western scene at the beginning) shows a bull, probably in a corrida arena. Similar scenes exist in The Valley of Gwangi, Around the World in 80 Days, The Miracle, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and Quo Vadis.

The third scene is a wall clock.

The fourth scene is a late 60's a US-model Blaupunkt Frankfurt or Blaupunkt Essen, most probably in an Alfa Romeo Duetto Spider. We've found similar scenes in The Omega Man (1971), Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Every Which Way but Loose (1978), Rock and Roll High School (1979), 10 (1979), and Any Which Way You Can (1980). We've watched all the movies marked as featuring a Spider on IMCDb, with no success.

Number five is an explosion that goes up in a mushroom cloud. It isn't from Mad Max, When Time Ran Out…, Bullitt, Hooper, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure or City Beneath the Sea.

I'd be really impressed if you could identify even one of those!

What is the song used in this Blaupunkt viral video?

TinTitan — Tue, 10 May 2005 13:20:06 -0800

What is the song used in this Blaupunkt viral video? [Teddy bear/bunny action, if you consider that NSFW...] Googling for the lyrics comes up dry. The display on the radio in the video is no help: 01 title 15. It may have been created just for the commercial. The customer feedback form on the Blaupunkt site is broken and the voice mail I left has gone un-answered. Anyone recognize it?