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My Fuse-Hungry Head Unit.

Smallies

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Hey guys,
My "Radio" fuse (10A) blew a couple weeks back - so i replaced it and it was fine. But on saturday it blew again - replaced it, and blew again. Replaced it with a 15A (being the innovator i am) and it blew that as soon as i turned the car on. The head unit is not the stock one.

Anyone experienced this before? Any ideas on where the problem would lie. It must be shorting out somewhere i guess.??
 

holdenboy

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Yep i'd say its one of two things.

1) The wiring/connections at the back of the head-unit are touching each other or metal. Pull the unit out and re-do the power/earth and acc connections.

2) The head-unit itself is faulty and drawing more current than it should, basically its wanting to go up in smoke but the fuse is stopping it. Dont put anything larger than 15A in, try my first suggestion and if that dosent solve it then its time for a new head-unit.
 

Smallies

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Alrighty - ill rip her out and have a suss. I think its a bit unlikely that its the head unit itself, its fairly new. But ya never know i guess. Thanks for that.
 

holdenboy

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OK, well if the unit is fairly new it'll probably be a connection etc. Just re-do the power/earth and acc. Before you re-install the head-unit check to see if its working first. If not then maybe warranty?
 

StoneX

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You never put a high rating fuse in something... You've probably done more damage to it now.

What brand is it?

Pioneer units blow the fuse when the internal amp has been cooked... The internal amp cooks due to bad wiring usually.
 

Smallies

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You never put a high rating fuse in something... You've probably done more damage to it now.

What brand is it?

Pioneer units blow the fuse when the internal amp has been cooked... The internal amp cooks due to bad wiring usually.

I doubt i would have damaged it more - even with a fuse one size higher, the power didnt even make it to the head unit - blew the fuse instantly.

Its an Alpine. Ill pull it out tonight and have a look.
 

holdenboy

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Yeah what StoneX is trying to say is that it may be an internal fault, and replacing the fuse with a higher rating one (even though its onle 5A more, its still 50% more than 10A) may have caused more damage to the internals of the head-unit. I still doubt its an internal fault though, considering its not a cheapie head-unit and not very old.

Who installed the unit, and if it was you how did you make your connections?
 

Smallies

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Nah im not sure who installed it - i could find out pretty easy though, bought the car off my cousin. I'd say he woulda done it himself. Still havent pulled it out yet. Im going to have to do it quickly - car's for sale, so i want it fixed before someone wants to look at the car lol.
 

vn calais manual

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it will be a dodgey conection luke, this isnt the first time it has done this, if it were a problem with the h/u it would be dead completly, not intermitent like it is now.

note: it has done this before and changing the fuse fixed it. leaning my thougts to a bad conection somewhere in the sterio loom.
 
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