Wheeee

"MM54" (mm54mk2) 04/03/2018 at 22:10 • Filed to: FB RX7

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Ever since I got it, the RX7 has had terrible radio reception, was incapable of getting loud enough to hear at highway speeds, and 75% of the time the radio would cut out when you turned left (seriously). I had planned to investigate this over the winter, which is good since my test drive a couple weeks ago revealed that the radio was silent now (except for deafening noise when adjusting the volume knob thanks to a dirty pot).

I think I figured out part of the problem. The wiring was twisted together and taped, and whoever did it had unplugged the line to the rear amp and run new wire to the rear speakers, which were in parallel with the fronts. There are also three ground wires which were cut and just dangling and other general hackery with power wires. It’s pretty safe to say there used to be an aftermarket head in here, which someone ripped out and slapped back to “stock” before selling it at some point.

I’ve put it back to stock in there except for the grounds, which I’m still trying to figure out where they go. I still have to reconnect the rear speakers to the factory harness, and may investigate the front speakers to make sure nothing fishy is going on there, too.

The radio and tape deck themselves are in fairly rough shape. Once the wiring is back together I’ll see how functional they are (the front amp may be blown from having speakers in parallel...) and go from there. Certainly shouldn’t make it any worse than “dead” though!

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > MM54 04/03/2018 at 22:33

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Why return the setup to stock? Stock sound systems are always way overly complicated compared to aftermarket solutions. Generally when doing a sound system I’d rather just entirely run the power, ground, and all speaker wires all myself. And include a nice 4 channel amp to power everything. It’s just so much simpler to make it all just work rather than chase gremlins forever.

Boxer_4 > MM54 04/03/2018 at 22:46

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Car stereo projects... fun!

When a friend of mine first got his ‘03 WRX, it didn’t have working speakers. It turns out none of the speakers were connected to the aftermarket head unit ( Alpine CVA-1005 ) and amp. Instead, they were all shoved under the dashboard. Once we figured out where everything went, everything worked pretty well. We also removed a bit of extraneous wiring...

MM54 > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 04/03/2018 at 23:03

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There are few things I hate in a car interior more than the look of an aftermarket stereo slapped into an otherwise-nice dash.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > MM54 04/04/2018 at 00:04

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There are “period correct” or at least inoffensive head units out there. Yeah the flashy annoying ones are cheaper, but there are decent ones out there that just work. I also do not like changing out head units so I’ve kept the stock but broken radio in my Miata. However, I have bypassed it entirely by running my phone to an amp and wiring the speakers with everything hidden away. I just hate the way stock stuff is wired, cheap wires suck

MM54 > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 04/04/2018 at 18:39

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I’ll stick with the stock Clarion system :) Between the exhaust and wind/road noise, there isn’t much to gain with something “better” sounding anyways.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > MM54 04/04/2018 at 19:14

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Yup, all that “environmental noise crap” is why I feel my efforts are so futile. It sounds really good while not moving with the top up at least but that doesnt happen all that often haha. I would be more interested in doing something of quality in the Subaru since there is at least minimal wind noise at speeds above 5mph.

MM54 > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 04/04/2018 at 19:45

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I have an excellent stereo in my living room and a pretty good setup at the computer. The car just needs to be “acceptable” since it’ll never be “great”