Went to fit my old stereo from my Range Rover in my zed today... plugged it into the aerial and the iso block and it wont turn on. I can hear the motor going when its plugged in but it will not power up. The fuse seems fine on the back of it. Any idea where I am going wrong? If I plug my old cd player back in it works straight away...

hi matey, its not a mask kenwood unit is it? where the front panel turns over, you have to press a concealed button on the front that is not marked?

 

also check your iso connections for live and switched live sometimes their the other way round thats sound more like the culprit for you, ignition live ect

yeah there is a wee dimple think it center left if it is the kenwood mask i had 1 till sum fecker stole ma car.

The reset button?

no it is a reset button m8. it is a dimple think its center left thats if it is a kenwood mask that u have. push it make sure ignition on till ut spins round.

that reply was rong m8 its not a reset button. if u push on the face plate it will rotate the panel round then you have your controls. now i said think it wad center left just checked on the web and they are sayin top left.

Check wiring on the rear of the unit, make sure its the same as your old unit you have removed. Id also run a better earth from the unit to the earth point behind the dash where the unit sits. also what is the model number as they are all different.

Kdc-bt52u

The only button I can find Trev is the reset button, didn't quite understand your post. If I push on the face plate nothing happens, nothing rotates

Ok i think you both should stop ... making things way to complicated ...

 

regardless of the head unit having a Roll down/around front it should still come on with ignition or powered up ...

to what i have read it dose not ...

 

 

Head unit wires

Red = Power Battery ( Constant live )

Yellow = Ignition ( Switched Live )

Black = Ground

 

now i can not remember the colour codes on the original nissan loom

so if u have a Multi meter handy use it to find out your Power wires

really it should of been the first thing you used as theirs nothing like wiring your unit up wrong .. BANG !!

 

Head unit wiring diagram for 1990-94 Z32′s

 

The speaker wiring diagram for Z32′s equipped with the Bose systems:

Edited March 5, 201312 yr by MarkDerby

I am plugging the Kenwood loom straight into the old loom that was on the back of the JVC unit is that maybe where I am going wrong?

yes ... indeed ..

 

 

it should be like this

 

Head unit black plug to kenwood ISO block ... ISO Converter to Nissan ISO block on car loom

 

the JVC head unit ISO loom block will not work on the Kenwood Head unit ..

 

i see why u did that as the Kenwood ISO loom didnt have the correct plugs on it to match up to the nissan ISO loom block

 

i'm surprised you haven't damaged the head unit you got kinda lucky

I see the same connector and I just assume it would work the same *blushes*. So I need to find one on ebay or in halford then that will work plug and play

you should have these

 

even thou the plug looks the same the Pin out of the plug will be totally different

 

 

what model number is your head unit

 

 

http://caraudiosecurity.com/shop/product_list/c_path/48_1016_1020/spd/kenwood-head-unit-looms.html

And some non-Bose cars had rear speaker amps. You can spot this if you have two wires in the Nissan loom which don't seem to do anything (green/silver and a grey). As per the diags here http://www.300zxtt.co.uk/techaudio.html

That's important because if you don't put 12v on the rear amp, it won't turn on and you think your rear speakers and/or your wiring is snafu and then you re-wire completely unnecessarily (I know - did it twice!).

if you have a decent head unit .. you dont want to be using the booster amp anyways ..

as you would be putting 40>50watts in to it for the amp its self to output only 25watts

so bypassing the rear booster amp is a Must with new Head units

and this is the same with the bose system as well

Ok this is what I have...

 

This coming out of original loom which was plugged straight into the back of the JVC head unit.

 

and I have this coming out the back of the Kenwood head unit....I tried plugging this into the former! No joy.

ok the 2 plug iso blocks are universal .. when u mate both female/male plugs together make sure the Yellow/Red/Black match up

So I was right to plug straight into that? I just need to check if the colours are matching?

yes ..

 

i thought u was talking about the little black plug on the HU its self

Good show Mark, sure enough on closer inspection the red wires did not match up, so I pulled it out on the Kenwood loom and moved it down so it lined up and all working.

 

Thanks a million to everyone that helped

nice .. thought we get there :)

if you have a decent head unit .. you dont want to be using the booster amp anyways ..

as you would be putting 40>50watts in to it for the amp its self to output only 25watts

so bypassing the rear booster amp is a Must with new Head units

and this is the same with the bose system as well

 

Really? I'm no techie myself - but I always thought that an amplifier did just that; ie it amplifies the input by a factor of x to increase the output; rather than just giving a specific output...

 

.....I did what Gio says in his post above on both of my ZXs; I currently have a Kenwood DAB unit which puts out in the region of 50 watts per channel (can't remember the exact spec) and I wired in the live feed for the stock rear amp. The sound from the rear is so much louder than from the front with the fader on "zero" that I have to set it with bias to the front to even out the sound.

 

Which would suggest that output to the rear channels has been amplified; thus making it louder then the front... If that makes sense?

 

Richard:confused1:

yes your partly right ..

 

it will amplifie the input signal but the Main output of amp its self is only 20>25watts all your doing is Over driving the Gain input with the Head units output ( original designed for 10>15watt input of the old style HU

Hence it seems like its louder than fronts but u will find it will Distort with very little effort .. and thats why u have to use your fader to Lower the volume to balance the audio out

 

and all so you run a high risk of damaging your Rear output channels of the head unit

Edited March 6, 201312 yr by MarkDerby

yes your partly right ..

 

it will amplifie the input signal but the Main output of amp its self is only 20>25watts all your doing is Over driving the Gain input with the Head units output ( original designed for 10>15watt input of the old style HU

Hence it seems like its louder than fronts but u will find it will Distort with very little effort .. and thats why u have to use your fader to Lower the volume to balance the audio out

 

and all so you run a high risk of damaging your Rear output channels of the head unit

 

You're both right. The original factory head units were intended for use with the rear amp (at least those cars that had them - and Series 6s don't. S3 did and S1 JDM - again, at least mine did but that's not to say they all did. We know how consistent Nissan was!). On my S3, I had the rear channels of my Sony head unit turned way down for exact same reasons Richard found.

 

But had I known this at the very beginning of 300ZX ownership, It would have saved an awful lot of headscratching and "wtf is this not working" and laying new rear wires and changing the connectors etc etc. I had a major fall out with at least one car audio supplier who couldn't get the rear speakers working and came up with all sorts of b*llshit about why not (thanks, Hendon Car Stereo).

So even if people do change their rear wiring and bypass the rear speaker at least they know why and if they are OCD "keep it like stock" like me, at least there is a way of getting the original rear speaker setup working. I'd even have kept the OEM headunit had there been one.