Hi guys,

 

After an age waiting for paperwork from customs and DVLA my import has finally arrived from Japan! It's a gorgeous black series 4 TT with a manual box (promise I'll post some pics when the weather improves and I can get her clean) and I am totally smitten.

 

The engine, gearbox, body and all are fantastic, so I've only got a couple of little things to sort which I'd be grateful for advice on:

 

1) Neither of the front speakers makes more than a whisper. It was like that with the original JDM stereo and is the same with my head unit. Is there a connector block or amp somewhere that could take out both fronts like this? The wiring to the head unit looks fine;

 

2) Only one of the illumination bulbs in the heater control pod works. Any idea where I can get hold of replacements? (or a part number I can find in Maplins)

 

I know these are pretty paltry problems but the rest of the car is so spot on I'd like to get them sorted!

 

Thanks,

 

Chris

There's guides on how to change the pod lighting to LED.

My front speakers are very quiet too. My Z is also an import. If anyone could shed some light (or sound!) on this, I would be grateful!

300ZX Audio is a bit of a minefield. There were Bose units which had different amps, non-Bose factory fits where some had rear amps and some didn't. Seems to vary with Series and with whatever they had in the parts bin when they were building the car. Then it gets complicated as soon as some monkey with set of bullet connectors tries to bodge it. Couple of wiring diags and some links here http://300zxtt.co.uk/techaudio.html

 

I haven't had low front speaker issues (did have with rear amp) my guess is might be there is a front amp which isn't powered up.

 

The way I did it was to take everything back to the original Nissan harness and then start afresh. Good luck.

Thanks Gio,

 

the old head unit did indeed have a whole rat's nest of bullet connectors coming out of it, which I've ditched and replaced with a new ISO patch cable. My thoughts were, like yours, that there was a non-powered or dud front amp somewhere, so I'll have to go searching.

 

Thanks for the connector pin-outs, first things first I'll check that my patch cable matches these!

 

Cheers,

 

Chris

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Thanks Gio,

 

the old head unit did indeed have a whole rat's nest of bullet connectors coming out of it, which I've ditched and replaced with a new ISO patch cable. My thoughts were, like yours, that there was a non-powered or dud front amp somewhere, so I'll have to go searching.

 

Thanks for the connector pin-outs, first things first I'll check that my patch cable matches these!

 

Cheers,

 

Chris

Well, after a couple of hours cursing door cards I'm none the wiser! There is a direct connection from the audio connector to the front speakers, and just in case there was something hidden I disconnected the speakers from the loom and connected them direct to the head unit output, and got exactly the same - quiet and very tinny.

 

Sounds like this is an audio problem not a Zed issue, but I don't know what it is! Same result with both front speakers and both old and new head units, so unless both speakers or both head units have failed there must be a mismatch somewhere. My head unit has a 50W/channel MOSFET output rated for 4ohms (4-8ohms acceptable) and the speakers are 4ohm 160W Kenwood KFC-U1692s, which seem to have a 4mfad capacitor in parallel (I think). Any audiophiles out there care to mock my stupidity as to why this doesn't work, because I just can't see it. Next stop is to try a cheap set of speakers and see if anything emerges from them!

So you directly wired the head unit to the speakers to eliminate any loom issues and the sound level is still the same with both head units. Very much suggests the speakers are shot to me.

Speakers in door panels sometimes get water ingress into them which buggers the coil and magnet clearance..... Were they insulated from door panel... were they fitted into the original mountings and was there a plastic film still behind them???

The speakers were fitted into the original door mountings. No plastic film behind them but all looked clean and dry, no sign of water ingress and I even gave the connectors a shot of WD40 just in case. Hard to believe they've both gone AWOL but I'll swap in the cheap speakers from my trusty, rusty old Discovery and see if they make a noise!

I take it you ran directly from the head unit to the speakers to see if they worked using new 2 core speaker wires and unplugged the oem speaker connector from the head unit when doing this??

If you were closer I would pop over with my test gear and spare speakers and take a look for you......

Hard to explain on here....... Mine are all run from amplifiers as my head unit is all fibre optic and pre out only...... won't power any speakers at all.... so ran all new wiring to doors.....

Yes, I made up some new wires to connect to the bullet connectors on the back of the head unit, and to the spade connectors on the speakers. Original loom was disconnected at both ends so nothing in contact with the speaker wires in the car. Thanks for the offer but as you say it's a long way from Essex to here!