First post - Installing new radio, powers on but no sound

[Trevor Compton]

Hey everybody! This is my first post so apologies if this is being put in the wrong place, please correct me as I'm still learning the site!

I bought my 2006 Explorer used from someone who used it as a "show car" - There's wires in the back for a sound system, TVs placed in the back of the headrests, a "module" underneath the passenger seat that he said functions as the brain of the system (I know almost nothing about car entertainment systems at all), and best of all a "kill switch" that he installed into the center console that allowed for watching videos while driving - and I could get none of it to work. I ended up ripping the stereo and module out, removed wires for the kill switch, and bought myself a $20 little radio (no CD player as I don't need) from Walmart.

So here's where I'm at - All I need is AUX input for my phone, I don't even need the radio to work. The radio is connected to one large factory harness (there is a smaller factory one that the radio didn't come with attachments for which concerns me), it will power on and when I first installed was able to get a tiny bit of sound out of one (front left) speaker, but now have lost even that. There is also (I now believe this was for the TVs in the headrests) a series of yellow (power?) and black (ground?) aftermarket wires with about 3 fuses, all of which I believe is unnecessary. I haven't opened up the interior fuse box yet, but have heard that could possibly be a problem. I have crimped the factory harness to the new radio's connector but that had no effect.

Any suggestions on what this could possibly be? Troubleshooting this would be hard enough for me stock, let alone this nightmare of aftermarket mods...

- Trevor

 

[peterk9]

Welcome to the Forum Trevor.
You posted in the 5th generation Explorer Forums (2011 - 2019). I will move your thread to the correct one.

Peter

 

[Trevor Compton]

Welcome to the Forum Trevor.
You posted in the 5th generation Explorer Forums (2011 - 2019). I will move your thread to the correct one.

Peter

Thank you so much!

 

[AHenry014]

Its impossible for us to know the extent of what has been messed with without seeing it in person. But i can lend some knowledge that may help. Stock, the speakers are amplified by the head unit itself. The back of an aftermarket radio will have four pairs of wires, each of which goes to a "channel", meaning one of the four speakers/corners of the car. In a SIMPLE stock to aftermarket replacement, you buy the adapter harness to the stock plug, crimp matching colors together, and boom, youre good to go. The aftermarket radio still amplifies the speakers. In your case with a serious aftermarket install, the previous owner likely ran a separate amplifier to power the speakers, which is what i am thinking he called the "brain". There is a couple ways to go about connecting the speakers to the separate amplifier. Im guessing you wont find continuity from the factory harness to the speakers at all. Depending on quality of the install, this may be easily reversed, but it would take a lot of time and knowledge as there is a couple methods of doing so (using factory wiring or running new speaker wires). I understand trying to simplify things and get it closer to stock, but if it were me, i would have left what was there had an audio shop get it working for you. It was probably pretty close to working. I think your best bet is to drop it off at an audio shop. They will be able to deduce what has been hacked up and get you back in working order.

 

[Trevor Compton]

Its impossible for us to know the extent of what has been messed with without seeing it in person. But i can lend some knowledge that may help. Stock, the speakers are amplified by the head unit itself. The back of an aftermarket radio will have four pairs of wires, each of which goes to a "channel", meaning one of the four speakers/corners of the car. In a SIMPLE stock to aftermarket replacement, you buy the adapter harness to the stock plug, crimp matching colors together, and boom, youre good to go. The aftermarket radio still amplifies the speakers. In your case with a serious aftermarket install, the previous owner likely ran a separate amplifier to power the speakers, which is what i am thinking he called the "brain". There is a couple ways to go about connecting the speakers to the separate amplifier. Im guessing you wont find continuity from the factory harness to the speakers at all. Depending on quality of the install, this may be easily reversed, but it would take a lot of time and knowledge as there is a couple methods of doing so (using factory wiring or running new speaker wires). I understand trying to simplify things and get it closer to stock, but if it were me, i would have left what was there had an audio shop get it working for you. It was probably pretty close to working. I think your best bet is to drop it off at an audio shop. They will be able to deduce what has been hacked up and get you back in working order.

Alright sounds good! That was my plan anyway, I just wanted to see if I could get some insight or if it was a quick fix I could do myself before paying someone else to do it. Thank you much!

- Trevor

 

[boominXplorer]

I'll 2nd an audio shop. They can probably get you straight in an hour or two since they're way more familiar with it.

 

[Mbrooks420]

I’d start with the basics. If you bought a $20 head unit, I’m sure your expectations are low. If the radio functions, run a set of wires directly from the front right channel to the passenger door speaker, or any speaker you have on hand. If you get sound, just run new wiring to the harness that goes into the doors, and splice in connections.

Did you ever hear the door speakers work? Are they blown?

 

[MotorCityFats13]

you bought someones nightmare install and unless you yank it all out and go from scratch its next to impossible to reverse what they were thinking let alone have someone help you without pictures... if this was a stock system id suggest that it had a factory amp option and you blew up the amp by piping high level audio into the amp but dont know if it was the basic or audiophile system... honestly if you cant figure out what you have then an audio shop will brake your wallet over a total rewire and multiple other hardware gizmos they claim are either broken or missing