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Stereo for the deaf


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We’ve had a great run around the Lake District today, and next weekend we’re off to the South West via Goodwood, making up for not using the 3.2 for months (I was trying to sell it, but realised that now is not the time, and anyway it’s way too much fun).

Yesterday I decided that while the Blaupunkt radio cassette looks so original, spending a week with barely audible radio and a very small selection of usable cassettes did not appeal, although listening to the flat six symphony is no great burden. I rushed down to Halfords and got a Sony MEX 4300BT for £80, all black, with CD and blue teeth, I decided to join the future. 

After a long time under the dash, making decent connections for everything using good quality connectors and a crimping tool (I used to spend 5 minutes using twisted wires and insulting tape) all was ready. The unit lit up, paired with my iPhone and started to play my music, it also auto found a few radio stations.

All too easy, of course, we were missing one small detail, audio. However much I faffed about with the settings and connections, not a ruddy peep. Today while sat at Forton services messing around with the settings it suddenly burst into life, a bit of a shock as it was turned up to 50, and lasted half an hour before I stupidly said how good it was not having the same 4 cassettes. Since then not a peep, whatever I try.

The way I see it, the power connections must be OK, as the functions and lights are perfectly stable. As for the speakers, even if one or two had a duff connection, you’d always have something, not dead silence.

i need to get this sorted before I go away, first thought is to take the unit back to Halfords and ask for another, maybe it’s a duffer with a bad connection inside. If it’s the same then maybe it’s my wiring, or something I’m missing in the instructions. It was great when it did work, even the radio sounded strong, Ive always thought my ariel amp may be duff but it’s buried behind the clock, and that bit of fuse wire in the screen is useless, but very light and aerodynamic, typical Porsche.

Any advice or suggestions (other than don’t bother and listen to the engine)?

 

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Pretty much so Nige, it’s had many stereos before. The wiring with the stereo had one block branching into two, power and speakers. I had nothing to plug into them so I cut the blocks off and connected straight into the wires I had with bullet connectors. Everything was still labelled from when I fitted the Blaupunkt.

i do need to check for 12v in both switched and unswitched wires, I may have one but not the other.

I’ve no external amp, Roy.

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On the car side, the power leads, and the switched supply to the ariel amp, go through a skanky black connector block, which fits nothing I’ve got. The wires out of it are what I’m connected up to. I’m tempted to do away with it, as the red connectors into it don’t look OEM to me. That said the connections haven’t been an issue before, but it is something to check out.

Edited by ChesterJLampwick
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Well that was a waste of time.

i went back to where I bought the stereo and swapped it.for another, fair enough no hassle, no questions asked and guess what? It’s exactly the same!! At least I’ve ruled out a DOA stereo.

There must be an iffy connection somewhere, but I’m at a loss to what it could be, as all the lights stay lit, so not obvious that it’s the feed / earth, and how can one bad speaker connection kill all four speakers? Does the amplifier in the radio use switched power? Do the lights/ functions? When the audio briefly worked, it cut out suddenly when we hit a bump, today I had the radio switched on and turned up, there was a definite crackle when I went over a bump / catseye (are all IBs this rigid? I should start a suspension thread!).

All four of my speakers are wired straight to the head unit, someone bypassed the centre console fader years  ago, by the way. I’m off to wiggle the connections again, to see what happens.

 

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Update: I’ve narrowed down the problem to the front left speaker, basically if you disconnect it, the system works fine on the other three.

Possibly there’s a dead short, I think something was disturbed when the front wings were changed, I think something may have got pinched. The passenger side window switch has never worked since, though bizarrely you can work it from the extra switch on the drivers side. 

I’ll whip the speaker out to see if there’s anything obvious, failing that I can run on three speakers for now with the fader set well towards the rears, the doors will probably  be coming off when my sills and kidney bowls get sorted later in the year, I’ll tell the body shop to see if they check the connections, when I investigated the window switch I found out that there’s a connector for the door wiring hidden somewhere behind the wing where you can’t get to it, does anybody know where / how? 

@mig, I checked the earth, it seems the stero also earths via the dash as it works when disconnected, Chris T, you posted while I was typing, yes you’re bang on the money!

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The problem seems to be with the speaker, rather than the wiring - my multimeter tells me that both wires have continuity from the dash to the speaker, and neither short to earth. 

The resistance between the two tags on the speaker seems to be zero, I know they are electrically connected but I’m sure the meter shouldn’t go full scale dead short.

The next problem is finding one, if I google Blaupunkt CL1340 I get the specifications but none for sale. I found genuine OEM Porsche speakers for sale, at an eye watering £498 + VAT for a pair 😳 

Any suggestions for an alternative that would fit straight in, or maybe one of you lightness freaks may have one, or a matching pair - it does weigh a ton, but seems very high quality with a built in woofer.

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Hi Chris, thanks for the offer, unfortunately before I saw your post I had already ordered a pair from an eBay Germany link I discovered here:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ampire-Speaker-5-1-8in-Coax-for-Porsche-911-G-Model-73-89-Front-Rear/372666451971#shpCntId

photos below,

As you can see the outer of the cone is falling apart. There's no reason to assume that the one on the other side is any better, so I will replace both at once.

 

IMG_3975.JPG

IMG_3976.JPG

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