Rep Power: 0

so i just bought this car the stereo worked fine when i first got it. the unit is a aftermarket jvc pretty old. i had another deck from my old civic so i pluged that one in with the same wiring harness that worked for years in my other car. a few days later the speakers started cutting out all 4 at once over bumps and commin back in but eventually went silent with random clips of sound over a bump on hitting the dash, but the deck never lost power. thinking it was the deck i put the jvc back in and had the same problem. i tested both decks on my old car and both work fine. so there must be a wiring problem somewhere. i searched the forum and didnt find any similar posts hope someone can help!

 
Rep Power: 195

Check the connections in the harness. Would be willing to bet there is a short in there. maybe even where the harnesses connect to each other.

 
Rep Power: 190

depends on how the connections were made, if they were made with butt connectors crimped on then yeah try to pull each one apart I bet there is one that is loose in there, that is why I solder and shrink tube everything electrical, it makes a permanent worry free corrosion free connection.

 
Rep Power: 0

i dont think the problem is in the wiring of the deck, as in my new car 2 decks do the same thing and when those 2 same decks were tested on another civic it worked fine. is there any other place where this short could be happening? if i bump the dash with my fist the music will start sometimes lol

 
Rep Power: 190

If bumping the dash makes it come back sometimes I would look at the factory harness see if there is any damage to the loom and see if any of the pins are loose in that plug. The factory wiring is pretty well protected but its not beyond the realm of possibilty that a pin got bent or pushed out of place in the past making a loose connection. If one of the speaker wires ground out to chassis it will go into safe mode and shut off power to all speakers and seeing as how bumping the dash makes it come on sometimes I would be looking at the factory stereo harness as the main culprit. Do you know how to use a multimeter to check for continuity to ground?

 
Rep Power: 0

no unfortunitly i dont really know much about wiring or electrical which is why this has been so frustrating to me. would a mechanic or a stereo installer be the best for checking this type of thing?

 
Rep Power: 190

either or should be knowledgeable enough to troubleshoot it, the stereo installer would probably be cheaper though so I would try the local stereo shop if I were you.