Electric Antenna, Sterio Problemo!

[MR2vince]

Hey chaps

Electric antenna on me MKII is naffed so ive removed it, BUT since ive removed it the sterio wont power on. Then i noticed that on the back of the ariel i removed was a relay, so i fitted that back on the loom, ans still nothing, the sterio will only power up if the electric antenna is fully fitted, (even though it doesnt work)

when the antenna is off, and the relay is fitted, you can hear the amplifiers bang on when the ignition is turned on, and they bang when you turn the power of.

Is there something i have missed or somthing i should know, im an electical ace uassaly but this has me miffed.

All the amps, Speakers, antenna, and head unit are stock and its an active system.

cheers

vince

[Roytoner]

Took ours off !! and there was still power to the radio??

[T600]

MR2Vince

I think it's something to do with the active system's amps, though I'm not certain.

I briefly fitted a new head unit and its loom was forcing the amps to be on, and the aerial to be always up; so I suspect that the power feed to the aerial and the power amps is somehow linked.

Maybe it winds up the arial before turning itself on?

Also might be an earthing issue - some people (me included) find that the unit won't work if you remove arial lead from the rear of Hi-Fi and for others (passive systems maybe) it works fine.

PS - mine's 1994 model with Premium sound sytem (incl. speaker behind each seat).

[MR2vince]

hmm maybe its because of how the sterio is wired, the orginal CD player was nicked out the car and they riped most of the loom out.

The radio was fitted again but some of the wiring was altered in the process, ill have to have poke about.

vince

[T600]

Good luck.

[JappyBeast]

didnt think it was even poss to steal a stereo from an MR2 by the way it is screwed in.. it must be a 20 min job!

Got it sorted yet?

[MR2vince]

yeah the radio should have been bolted in but somehow along the line the past owner hadnt bothed bolting it back so it was loose.

havent sorted it yet, doing it 2morrow.

Also got a new pipercross filter to fit aswell

vince

[jaxx]

the aerial is an odd contraption

it has two lives, no one knows why

two sense lines

and an earth

mess any of them up and you get probelms, look in the tech section of MR2OC.co.uk there is a help guide on there

[MR2vince]

Now get this one then, been out in the car tonight when its dark, put the lights on and guess what some how somewhere along the line, (and i dont know how, cos i havent changed any of the wiring) the radio powers on when ya put the side lights on!!!!! :o

Anyone know how this could have hapend, all ive done its took the electric antenna off, and left all the wiring how it was..............!

im really miffed now

[JappyBeast]

Just join the many Volvo drivers and drive with your side lights on.

Electrical problems are very hard to sort online!

[cfc1]

the aerial is an odd contraption

it has two lives, no one knows why

two sense lines

and an earth

mess any of them up and you get probelms, look in the tech section of MR2OC.co.uk there is a help guide on there

←

Is this the samw with the MK3? just ftted a DVD indash screen thing.. and can't find the right wires for the electric ariel.. its the only thing not working (except the TV.. need a seperate ariel for that )

I have asked on MR2OC for info on what wire(s) i am looking for.

Also.. its the same thing with this new head unit.. but the ariel needs to be plugged into the back of it or it won't work.

Davy.

[MR2vince]

The problem was down to a wire on the original loom, that isnt named on the circuit diagram.

There is a lead that poses as ground (GND) untill you put the side lights on and it goes +12ve, this is a signal wire that dims the LCD display on the head unit (if suported).

Ive now sorted it and it works fine, get quite a lot of earth noise on the system though. Will get a supresser to help this

vince

[System~G]

Does the stereo you fitted have pre-outs? Are you using a propper wiring harnes to adapt to the MR2's wiring loom?

If you have a bog standard stereo (no pre-outs) and the active (super mega) sound system and are using the standard wiring harnes (or even hard-wiring into the cars loom) you will run into all sort of problems with noise as you will be sending already amplified signal into the cars amplifiers.

We found this to be the case on JJ's car at JAE.

You need to get the correct wiring harness for your car (there are three available for the MKII as the MKII has three different sound set-ups). It's even easier if you have a decent stereo with two or more stereo pre-outs.

If you fancy dropping down to Northampton one weekend - I can have it sorted within minutes Used to fit stereos to cars professionally...

[cfc1]

The multiplug at the top right has all the wires coming out from it, i have them all connect fine, except the electric ariel.. i know its the orange wire on the headunit, but i don't know which wire (or wires, as i have heard there are 2 i need to connect)it is on the car, once i know which wire(s) to connect to the orange wire, all will be working fine.

The unit is working good... but the ariel isn't coming up now.

[MR2vince]

Does the stereo you fitted have pre-outs? Are you using a propper wiring harnes to adapt to the MR2's wiring loom?

If you have a bog standard stereo (no pre-outs) and the active (super mega) sound system and are using the standard wiring harnes (or even hard-wiring into the cars loom) you will run into all sort of problems with noise as you will be sending already amplified signal into the cars amplifiers.

We found this to be the case on JJ's car at JAE.

You need to get the correct wiring harness for your car (there are three available for the MKII as the MKII has three different sound set-ups). It's even easier if you have a decent stereo with two or more stereo pre-outs.

If you fancy dropping down to Northampton one weekend - I can have it sorted within minutes  Used to fit stereos to cars professionally...

Yes ive wired the head unit myself, i havent used a harness ive made one myself, and yes ive used the preouts on my head unit, being a a sound and light engineer does teach you not to feed amplified signals into amplifiers.

the problem is down to the car only have a shared earth and common, you cant seperate the sounds earth from the lighting earth ect. hense the noise, by putting a supresser or a GND lift between the preouts and the amp will solve the problem.

vince