Stereo/Electric Problems

[RMora]

I've had this problem for about a year but it's really been getting on my nerves lately so here it goes.

I have a 97 TSi
All other electrionic components seem to work fine, I have a Fuel/Air Gauge and boost gauge that both stay correctly lit regardless, as well as my head lights and all other internal lighting components. The only real problem I have is with my stereo, if I raise the volume above 16 it shuts itself off, all other components remain powered just my stereo shuts off. If it's at a volume level of 16 it will only shut off when I apply my brakes as far as I can tell. Anything above 16 it will shut itself off constantly. It is a sony xplode stereo, when I got the car there was another stereo in there and it did the same thing. I thought maybe when I changed it to my stereo it would fix it but it didn't. I don't really know where to start to fix it, the fuses in the stereo are good, and the fuses in the box below the dash and under the hood all look in working order. Now a peculier thing is I have an alpine what looks like an amp under my passenger seat, there is also an alpine alarm system under the dash. The alpine alarm system is no longer hooked up in a working matter, but I don't know if it still has power going to it. So basically I wanna figure out why the stereo keeps shutting off and why. So if anyone has any suggestions let me know.

[cjoh95awd]

check your harness to make sure it's wired right

[Muck_diesel]

ya i would have to agree something in the wireing is messed up so double check that out

[ktiedt]

Who installed the stereo? I've seen a similiar problem in 2Gb's due to the wrong wire being used to power the radio... The wire colors on the stock harness are misleading if you try and hook a radio up yourself w/o an adapter harness or w/o consulting a wiring diagram for the 2G's...

[mrmegnum]

I had the same problem with my stereo when I installed it and it would turn off when I turned up the volume. My problem ended up being that it wasn't grounding correctly so check that out.

[drcustom]

Your speakers may be grounding out, check continuity from them, and check your wiring

If you're still looking for ideas, this is the exact problem we had with a buddies stereo. If it happens with 2 different head units then I'd agree that this is your problem. For my buddy it was happening with aftermarket wiring. One of the wires were runnng underneath the seat rail, and when you braked the rail would compress the wire into the metal of the car.

[Cloud]

I had a similar problem with my sub amp. To be honest I have no idea how I solved it. I had some very wierd problems with the electrical circuit and the amp was shutting down on hard bass hits after I reached a certain volume level. I thought it was grounding but couldn't find a fault, I kept blowing my interior/exterior light fuse and eventually found my 'batt' fuse blew and was driving voltage up to about 16 volts. After numerous trial and errors it magically fixed itself when I replaced the fuse that was causing overvoltage. It might be worth logging your voltage and seeing if you are having issues with maintaining it properly, the whole event ended up killing my sub amp permanently :(

[metalball]

From what you have described, I would venture to say that your headunit is clipping out. Typically this is due to overexertion of the components, bad grounding, or a worn out capacitor in the radio itself. I would agree that you should slap in another radio and see if the issue is still there. If it is, check your aftermarket amplifier power/ground. I would disconnect the amp ground and move it (after grinding off the paint for the best connection).

Keep us posted!

[talonTSi]

Try a New stereo, nay just playen, but naw I had a sony explode and it did almost tha same crap so I baught a pioneer priemer and ive never had any more problems.