The easiest way to test the deck to see if there is damage to it is to pull the radio out, and take a loose speaker you know to be good, and hook the wires directly to the speaker from deck. USE A WIRING DIAGRAM! You need to put the proper wires to the proper place. If your harness is labled, use that.
IF there IS NO SOUND, you have two options. You can open the deck and look for a fuse (if there is an external fuse, there is normally none inside.), burning or other signs of damage. If there is an internal fuse, try replacing it. REMINDER: Disconnect the NEGATIVE batery terminal, and unplug the harness off the deck, and reverse to reinstall. Otherwise, throw the deck and replace it.
If there IS SOUND at the deck, LOOK for the speakers. Did someone have after market speakers and pull them when the car was sold? Sometimes they run after market amps to the speakers and run new wiring, and pull the old wiring.
Now you need to pull the speakers, and look at the connections. Are the wires there? if not replace them. Are they connected? if not, connect them. Do they work now?
Take a NEW piece of speaker wire and and connect the speaker to the deck with a new wire. If it works now, the wiring is shot and needs to be replaced. Use OXYGEN FREE copper stranded wire. It has lower resistance (More wattage for the size.), is normally softer and more flexible, and produces clearer sound.
Basic Length Estimating:
Front dash mount speakers 5-10 feet
Front door mount speakers: 10-15 feet
Rear door mount speakers: 15-20 feet
Rear trunk mount speakers: 20-25 feet
NOTE: The above lengths are measured by taking into consideration properly running wires and hiding them.
Depending on what you have for a audio system, the size of wiring comes into play.
GUIDE FOR SIZING WIRE:
Factory deck & speakers, no factory amp: 24-18 Gauge
Factory deck & speakers, With factory amp: 18-16 Gauge
Aftermarket deck and / or speakers: 16-14 Gauge.
Aftermarket deck and speakers, with aftermarket amp: 12-10 Gauge.
The higher the wattage the parts, the bigger the wire. After market speakers require more wattage, so bigger wire. Aftermarket decks, push more wattage, so bigger wire. Aftermarket amps can push ALOT of wattage, so much bigger wire.
You can run the 24 gauge wire between amp / speakers or deck / speakers, here are reasons you should not do so:
- you are killing your sound quality because the small wire simply cant push the wattage through as well, as a bigger wire.
-If the wire is too small it can actually melt and / or start a fire.
All aftermarket decks are pretty easy to rewire.
12v+ Constant: Run a 14 gauge or bigger wire with a fues link to the battery.
12v+ Ignition: Find a 12+ wire that is only on when the key is turned on. Prefferably the correct radio wire.
12v- Ground: Run a wire to the negative battery post or you can remove paint on the metal of the dash / firewall and attach in a convient spot. It must have bare metal though ot make contact. NEVER GROUND ON THE RADIO! I see it alot where people put the deck ground wire on a bolt or screw of the deck itself. DONT DO IT! If it was intended to be this way there would be no requirement of a ground wire! They would do it at the factory when the deck was made.
Speakers: Simply use the new wire, string an extra foot through the radio opening in dash, and string the rest back to speakers, connecting it the same each time. If it has a + / - or a white stripe, keep it the same on ALL speakers so you dont cross wire and blow out your speakers.
Power Antenna 5v+ (Used for Amps or Antenna.): Use the 12v+ Ignition wire from above. This will raise the antenna only when car is turned on, or turn on the amp after the car is turned on.
Dimmer: Find the propper wire on the dash dimmer, connect it there.
That should more than cover most aftermarket decks.
If you are trying to rewire a factory deck, Get the wiring diagram and do it right! Use the SAME color wire, and equal or bigger wire. The reason for the same color wire is that way nobody has to try to figure out what happened under the dash if you dont have them labels or have issues after rewiring.
Keep in mind your mechanic will happily bill you $50 or more per hour diagnostic fees to trace down your handywork or simply rip it all out and redo it properly.
Hope that helps...
