Hey guys, ok ive about had it with this stupid radio

SKIP THIS IF YOU DONT CARE ABOUT BACKROUND:
car is sc400 with very low kilometres. Anyways, the radio would turn on and off when i drove the car hard (ie. drift or road racing) a few days later it would turn on, until one day, my dad washed the car, next mornign i go to start it, nothing, dead battery. The stereo killed my battery and kept popping fuses, so i kept the fuse out, everytime i put one in it would blow... Do you know how much it sucks not having a radio in your car? JESUS i never noticed but i dont even want to go out aynmore, i sit in the car sooo bored on long trips.

PROBLEM:
A few days ago i decided enough was enough, so i ripped out all the trnk panels stripped the truck good, pulled out hte amp and as i suspected lots of water in the side. wires were practically floating in it, so i dried it up found the cause fixed it, blow dried the wires and other misc wet places until everything was nice and dry. Put it all back together... POP goes teh fuse. F!@$ing thing. Now i pulled the back seats, and its very dry. Why is it doing this, obviously a short somewhere, but where? Now i suspect the water may have killed the amp, but if it did, why cant i put a fuse in at all? like the car will be off, ill put a fuse in and itll blow. would a dead amp casue a short? Any other places i can check, and no i dont like getting my cars fixed at shops.

Coles Notes:

water damage, mute line activated
radio went dead killed battery
radio fuse keep popping
everything dry cant put fuse in at (blows) all even when car is "off"

Thanks

Ang

EDIT: also when the back seats are out and i disconnect the two little harness it still shorts out. The only time it didnt short out was when the amp and the changer werent installed.

 

Which fuse blows? There's a 20amp radio (#1) fuse and a 7.5 amp one (#2). Let me know.

 

its the 20, im pretty sure its the amp, have no way of testing it wish i could find a used one to try, aftermarket amp would be PITA, if at all possible for me to do...

 

It's got to be the BLUE-YELLOW wire that's shorting out. Try unplugging the connector that goes to the antenna relay and see what happens. Also the sub amp.

 

ok i looked through the trunk for the blue yellow wire and the only one i found (it was dark out) was the one that plugs directy to the back side of the amp (closest to seats) i pulled it out, and went to put a fuse in and it still blew...

That tell you anything? Are you thinking its not my amp thats dead?

Ang

 

No it means your amp is not shorting it out. Try the antenna relay. Should be a connector with a lot of wires near the antenna. Unplug the antenna and try another fuse I guess; I think you are going to go broke on fuses.

 

I had the same issue with my nakamichi system. Except after I spent $1000 on a new system, I looked at the stock amp and the damn thing was bathing in water. AND I still need rear speakers, subwoofer, and amp. Damn this stereo bull****!!!!

 

Whoa! Once the amp gets soaked, ALL bets are off. If you got water in the amp, it will cause current to flow where it shouldn't and lots of it if it causes a major internal short. This will in turn take out one or more components which may either blow open, or short themselves completely. This is the most likely cause of your problem. Remove ALL of the connections to your amp - ALL connectors - to the point where all you'd have to do is unbolt it to remove it from the car.. Then put the fuse in. If the fuse does NOT blow this time, then your amp is the cause - have it fixed or replaced. If fuse still blows, then amp is not the only problem, but still may be faulty. You'll then need to take car to qualified shop to have problem properly diagnosed with meters.

 

this seems to be the case, only time the fuse didnt blow was when the amp/changer were out.

This may be a noob question, but i did a search and came up empty handed. Can i install an aftermarket 4 ch. amp and still run everything like stock? Or are there special features that wont work? Because its really hard to find a used nak amp and its like 900us from dealer

thanks for everyones help so far
Ang

 

Doesn't your SC have 2 amps, though. A seperate one for the sub? Or is the NAK system just one amp. I've never understood that. On my car the stock amp is a 5 channel and you can just use the line-level outputs from the stock HU and make rcas to run to an aftermarket amp.

Check the FAQ above in this forum and look for my post about where to find info on the "line level hack."

I still think you need to trace that blue-yellow wire. It runs from the 20AMP fuse to the headunit, splits to both amps (maybe you just have one) and the antenna relay. Listen to engin_ear, though, he knows what he is talking about.

Good luck

 

I just had my NAK amp completely serviced on my 95 SC 400. Work was done by the factory authorized svc company. (Pioneer Electronics). Took a couple of weeks. Works like new-cost $250 with a 30 day warranty. If you need the company name and address let me know. I had a hard time finding someone to work on a NAK amp. Everyone kind of groaned when I would call.

 

Part of the reason why people groan at this is that it isn't relatively easy to get schematics from Nakamichi. Had to do that once for a piece of home gear I have and was painful and the schematics weren't even clear when I got them. That's a good way to go though - find the best authorized service co. that you can - don't go to dealer.

PS: Tell Dad to close the trunk and windows next time he washes the car.....

 

looks like just one amp, under the changer, ill take a picture when i put it back together.

hehehe , he didnt forget the trunk open, seems as tho the drain line came off (dont know what it drains) but all the water was just building up in the side. Explains why everytime i would slide the radio would cut out ... I have a bad habit of ignoring problems, shoulda looked at it earlier
anyone know if the nak amps are interchangealbe from other cars? i found someone with a 91 ls400 nak amp? anyone know if this is plug and play?

Ang