Audio Systems: alpine head unit not producing sound, nissan 240sx, alpine head unit

Question
QUESTION: Hello there.  I've got a 1992 nissan 240sx and it had the factory tape deck installed in it.  The FM cut in and out, but the AM radio worked perfectly.  I removed it and installed an Alpine CD player (cd-9845) which was working in my old car perfectly.  I used wiring harnesses purchases from a car audio store which made wiring it a snap.  

When i turn on the ignition, the CD player comes to life, and the power antena comes up and everything seems to work perfectly... but not a sound comes from the speakers.  This is baffling because everything is hooked up properly.  i have a great chassis ground, and in theory, everything "should" work. the only thing not connected is the "Remote on" blue/white wire which should be unnessesary as i dont yet have an external amp.  i checked the resistance in the speaker wires and they are all around 18 ohms.  I am baffled.  

any advice would be invaluable.  the only thing i can think of is the cd player itself is broken, but this doesnt make sense because it worked beautifully in my last car.  thank you for your time

ANSWER: My first suspicion is the wiring harness you are using is the wrong one and the amplifier outputs are not getting connected to the speakers.

My second suspicion is there may be an external power amplifier in the car and it is not powering up because the power wire is feeding to the antenna only and not also to the power amp for turn on.

You can check this out easily.  If you have some clip leads connect to one pair of speaker outputs directly off the radio unit and connect them directly to a standalone speaker.  That will verify the unit is feeding output.

Let me know how it goes.  Especially, if there are rca type cables at the output of the head unit feeding an external amp that would be very telling.

Cleggsan



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: ok... I hooked up the blue/white wire to one light green wire that didnt connect to anything on my aftermarket harness.  This activated the "active speaker" external amplifier that i didnt know i had until i did some more research.  

So now, ive got sound, but you can barely even hear anything even at full blast.  and its also extremely distorted.  So this leads me to believe my factory amplifier is toast, hence why i had the same problem with the factory tape deck.  so the question is, what now?  do i replace the factory amp?  replace it with a better aftermarket unit?  or can i re-route all the speaker wires to the alpine head unit amplifier?  where is this "active speaker" amplifier anyways?

thanks for your advice

Answer
Some Nissans have bose systems. If so, the amplifiers are often mounted inside the speaker's basket.  Others are mounted under the passenger seat and some are mounted under the dash somewhere or in the trunk area.  You will have to do some research.

You must determine if the Alpine unit is defective. Follow the previous idea or do a bench test on it.  Bench test is pulling the unit out of the car, powering it up with long leads coming off the battery and hooking up external speakers to it.  Pain in the neck to do this, I know, but it will tell you if the unit is working; and if so, then the problems are still in the wiring.

Often when the power out is very low and distorted it is due to wiring problems - shorts on the speaker line will do it every time.   Do not run the unit very long when it is distorting like that or it could, indeed, blow the outputs and result in expensive repairs.

Best wishes,
Cleggsan