Blowing fuses

[Chuckzul]

Ok, here's a weird one. My Z-1 has been working flawlessly since Summer. The last couple of days have been bittlerly cold. Now, I know the Z-1 has some thermal protection protocols built into it, but, mine would issue a loud shriek from the speakers and then would blow the fuse. No start up screen, no Pioneer splash screen, nothing. Just a high pitched shreik and then the fuse blows. It finally warmed up a little today and after replacing the fuse about 6 times, I finally got the thing to work. Electrical wizards out there, help me!! If this was a wiring problem, why would it only affect the unit during times of thermal excesses (either cold or hot) and why is it now working (although, it will probably blow another fuse when I go home this afternoon). Pioneer's tech support is useless. Their answer, "something is terribly wrong", yeah, no shit. But is it the unit or a wiring issue. My warranty expires in April and if this thing is hosed, I want to return it ASAP for repair.

[tillithz]

welp, do you have an amp? system configuration would be great. likely something with wiring though. let us know.

[Chuckzul]

I've got the Z-1 wire tapped into the existing OEM head unit (complete removal and replacement is not an option in this car). You make good point, but why would this unit only exhibit failures during temp extremes. I doubt it's the wiring because it has worked for months without issue. I think there is something wrong with either the hard drive or any of it's related systems. The reason I think this is that there are thermal protections built into the drive mechanism (too hot, too cold, and it won't spin up) and that exactly what is happening. Will probably rma this just in case.

[tillithz]

well first off, not sure what you are referring to as the thermal protection. but irregardless, that wouldnt blow the fuse. but since you didnt post much of your setup, such as car and amp or not, might want to just send it in and see.

[Chuckzul]

What I meant by thermal protection is the unit is not designed to work if temperatures exceed a preset limit (either high or low). I can't remember what page of the manual mentions this. The set up is this, It is an 05 Subaru Legacy GT with electronic climate controls. The Avic is connected on top of the existing radio wiring (because you can't replace the OEM radio in this car as it also operates the climate controls..silly design, really). I don't not know if this oem radio incorporates an amp or not, again, since the unit works during times of normal temps (not +105 or 10 degrees), I can't see the relevance of the wiring or the oem radio. If it was the wiring I would suspect it would either work or not, but since it actually starts up, and it gets to the point where it starts to spin the hard drive up, I am thinking hard, its the hard drive. During the summer, multiple uses of the reset button "sometimes" alleviated the issue, but not always. Now that it is cold, nothing helps except constant replacment of the fuse

[tillithz]

well who installed this? you? the reason i ask is, and this isnt a slam on you but, it is very obvious car stereo installation is NOT your area of knowledge other then what you might read. with that said, i would look at the wiring and see if the speakers are connected to both the oem stereo AND the avic unit as that is NOT needed. did they just tap into the speakers or did they actually sever the connection to the oem head unit? if it is then fix that first, and that would also tell us that there is probably something other then that that is not wired correctly.

 

get back to us with that info and we can go there, maybe some pictures of the actual wiring so that you can get a judge of the work done.