Audio Systems: 2 Failing head units., mitsubishi triton, pioneer speakers

Question
Hi Jerry!

Just a couple of things im a little confused about.... Heres the story.

I was given a set of 6x9 Pioneer speakers (240W, 4 Ohm) and a Kenwood flip face head unit (50w X 4). I wired everything up correctly ie Constant power, Ignition power, Correct groud (tested) Everything was fused correctly. Now the system ran great no hassle what so ever(for about 2 days). Then after about a 5 minute run in the car i switch off the ignition as per usual and the face flips around and hides itself. Next run in the car about 10 minutes later the face flips around but the screen is stuck on one function, no buttons work and it plays the same cd and at the same level over and over again? Strange... I then notice that the screen starts to become blurred as in it looks as if the numbers are "running" or becoming "fatter" From there the head unit completely stops working and i then find that only every now and then that it decideds to turn itself on and open up but still no sound. It also sometimes only opens up halfway and thats it. So i decide to rip it out and put in my other head unit which is a clarion. (nothing fancy) just to see if it works and yep bingo everything fires up great and sounds great for now...... It ran fine for a couple of days. Then when i go to play it next it turns on and absolutely no sound. Im really confused as too why this is happening and im scared to go out and buy another head unit just in case im doing something wrong. Any ideas ? :) :) Thanks Jerry.

Btw the car is a 89' Mitsubishi Triton Diesel Ute. If this means anything.  

Answer
That is a wild one, eh..:(
Anyone can make mistakes, so I will go over the basics of how I would approach it.

First of all, be absolutely certain that you have a tight and secure 'chassis ground' for the head unit. That is, run the decks' ground wire directly to a nearby bolt/lug on the vehicle chassis.

If problems persists:

As to the Kenwood problem, I would 1st try its' reset button. If that does not fix it, benchtest it (out of the vehicle). Return it (if it does not work in the benchtest).
It is more probable that your power wires or speakers are not as operational as you think they are. We can pretty much say that it is either the power wires or the speakers/wires (since it seems to go haywire with either the Kenwood or Clarion deck installed).

That said, I would manually fuse and run two new wires for constant power and key-switched power (and again, check that ground!).
If that does not cure the problem, I would try new speakers (and new speaker wires). They could have bad voice coils or are otherwise shorting out enough to cause a problem, even though it occasionally sounds 'fine'.

I have never had problems with diesel installs so I do not think that is the problem. However, I have had plenty of problems trying to install used gear that was supposedly functional and I soon learned to steer clear of them.


Good Luck, Reece.

Jm