I think I killed my radio

During an aftermarket amp install, something mysterious happened and my stock stereo died. No one actually knows what happened, there was sound for a second, then nothing. We disconnected the amp, (which had the rear speaker inputs spliced in and a single out going to a 10"sub), and turned the radio back on. It went one for a few seconds (made no sound) then shut off. Now it doesn't turn on at all. The fuse is still fine. The clock/display above it doesn't work either, plus the "Check Engine" light is on, and my "Cruise" is flashing on/off in the dash. "Error 55" is above the odometer.

 

We bench tested the amp at the shop (this all happened at Future Shop) and the amp is now junk. It just makes fast farting sounds through the test speakers instead of music! The amp work perfect yesterday in my other car!

 

Anyone know what might have happened? Did the amp blow the radio or the other way round? We also found out that the wires that come out of the head unit that go to the left rear speaker read 2 ohms, while the wires going to the right rear speaker reads 4 ohms. Anybody know what that means? I supposed I've voided my warranty on the factory radio too, right?

Future Shop guys are butchers in my opinion, nothing but bad experience with them. You should tell them (and then write to them) that you are holding them totally responsible for the damage, and go see your Subaru dealer (or a reputable installer) for an independent inspection and quote for repairs, then send the bill to FS.

 

 

BTW where was this ?

I got the Er 55 because of a faulty ABS sensor and faulty speed sensor. I am not sure how the Er 55 is related. Maybe it comes up as an indicator that something electrical has failed? I am going to ask the dealer what this Er code is when I get these things fixed.

The guys at FutureShop (Kelowna,BC) feel really bad, and they'd give me a free install and a new amp at cost when this is cleared up, but that's it. The problem is that they didn't test my amp before it was installed, so no one's quite sure if it was already messed up before they installed it... although it was working fine the day before. I just can't prove that it wasn't my amp that wrecked the stock radio. That's the problem. I was right there while they were installing it... helping out a bit. They didn't seem to do anything wrong.

 

I'm going to the dealer this morning to see what "ERR 55" is see if it's still under warranty. BTW, my car is 1 week old. Sucks to be me.

 

James

Ya, so I went to the dealer... of course my warranty is void, so I have to pay for everything. It's booked in for Wednesday, because it looks like a major job - the cruise control, map lights, radio, clock are all fried. And somehow my throttle sensor/speed control is damaged causing the "Error 55" and Check Engine light, which limits my revs to 4K. All this from installing a sub amp!!!? Retarded!

Did they hook the output into the CAN bus? heh.. I would guess more than that list..

You have to make a claim against FS, this sounds like it will be very expensive.

 

Get legal advice if you have to.

But I bet FS is going to say.. customer supplied parts, not our parts, not our problem.

 

How can I make a claim? From my point of view they blew my amp and car electrical, but they're going to say that my amp (which I took out of another car & worked perfect) caused all the problems. The installer said that they didn't check to see if it was working before they installed it, and he admitted he should have done that first. Do you think I can get FutureShop to pay for all the repairs to my car? I don't even know how to go about that.

ouch that sucks man, i did car stereo install professionally for a while. When we installed amps that we didn’t carry (normally something the customer brought) we didn’t warranty the install nor guarantee anything. On top of that we even charged them more to discourage it. They can and most likely will blame it on your amp. I personally would never splice into a speaker output and then feed it into a high lvl input on an amp. I've done maybe 1000 car speaker, amp, alarm, cd changer, RF modulators, remote starts and full systems and i've never installed an amp that way. Using High lvl or low lvl inputs = ok, splicing via low lvl (or LOC) is iffy but because the voltage is so low you would be safe, but splicing into a high lvl is not something i would do. I'm not even sure what that load would look like to a radio. That’s probably what fried it. Still not sure why some sort of fuse didn’t blow but who knows how Subaru wired the car. Since the late 90's manufacturers have wired all kinds of crazy things through their radio's to prevent after market jobs so this situation can’t be much different.

 

Keep us informed.

 

P.S. And as far as bench testing, we never did that either. Was part of the business. If we installed it and it didn’t work well.... you just paid 70 bucks for the install and 80 bucks for amp wires and rca’s for nothing. So more then likely you would be itching for an amp so bad , we'd kick you the pitch, you'd buy one from us, then we would screw it in and call it a day. It's a win win situation. Honestly after working in the biz i no longer trust anyone. I do everything myself because they will always find a way out of something unless it’s blatant negligence (i.e. scratches on the dash). The only reason i trust subaru is because if they mess something up they "have to" fix it period.

If it's still possible I would document all the connections. Even a defective amp shouldn't be able to do that.

For those following this thread... here's an update:

 

FutureShop accidentally cut into my bulkhead wiring harness while trying to run a power cable from my battery to amp.... wiring short circuited.

ABS computer got fried.

ABS/speed sensor got fried.

Stock radio got fried.

Backup fuse blew.

 

FutureShop is paying for ALL damages. (approx. $4000 - $5000 CDN)

They gave me a new head unit to replace the factory one, and refunded my installation (for obvious reasons They are treating me surpisingly well... I figured we'd end up in court, but looks like it'll settle without any drama.

 

I hooked up the new deck on the weekend. It's a JVC model that has a mini-jack aux input right in the face plate (avoids the whole iPod - FM mod crap)...I just jack in my iShuffle and go, with no sound quality loss.

 

I had some Infinity component speakers put in the front, and I'm running a single 10" sub. The sound is beautiful compared to stock. It's a great setup on a tight budget. Oh ya, and my amp which FutureShop blamed destroyed my radio and everything else, works fine... just had to do a little CSI work around my car myself and get a letter from my dealership to get FutureShop to play ball.

Congrats on a happy outcome

Congrats on a happy outcome

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