So I just got new 4 inch speakers in my 92 4Runner to replace the ones I blew awhile back. All this time I have had the equalizer and everything in the Z turned off (terrible, I know) and once I put in the new speakers, I got everything set up. I noticed this morning on my way to work, however, that my two subs in the back only work when I listen to the radio. If I have a DVD playing, or listen to music from the library or a CD, only the front speakers work.

Does anyone have any thoughts/ideas on how to fix this and what might be causing it? Thanks!

P.S. This little HU can really power some stuff all by itself. I don't have an amp and my "system" sounds really good, better than before the speakers blew. (I drive an ol' skool 4Runner, I'm not going to have the greatest stuff. lol)

That doesn't seem like a wiring problem...that they work during one AV source, but not the other...it really seems like an internal problem...I dont know about internal issues but I can't see how any incorrect or loose wiring is the problem.

Did you try restoring your EQ setting back to default? Maybe you changed something that is causing that? And just to rule out the HDD, try swapping HDD's if you happen to have a spare. Keep this thread updated I'm really interested in this issue.

I haven't tried restoring to defaults, I may do that but I don't see how much good that would do since the EQ is the same across the board.

The HDD suggestion I can definitely do and will once I find my old one it's somewhere in all this crap I still have to sort through after moving.

The first thing I thought of was wiring but then I ruled it out because it works on one source and not the other. It's really very confusing - and a little frustrating. Because if I listen to the radio is sounds f*in' SICK. I'm so mad that my CDs don't sound as good as my darn radio. And I don't even have HD radio! Aaaaarrrrgh.

I'll wait for some more suggestions and then if nothing works after that I might give Pioneer a call.

I just thought of something when I stepped outside, and I don't know how it could possibly be it, since you said rear speakers and not subs, but it's the only thing that could make sense..

I don't remember, but does the Z have an option to change the auto antenna from antenna to power? I can't see how it relates to your problem, but it does relate to the radio.. I'll think about it more in the morning and of course anybody who can shed more light, please.. but right now I'm baffled by that.

Yeah it does have an option for that. I don't really know where you're going with that though.

That's nice for people like me that have a retractable antenna. Saves my poor thing some wear and tear when I'm doing 80 down Interstate 5 listening to CD's and stuff.

I don't remember, but does the Z have an option to change the auto antenna from antenna to power?

That actually worked. I'm pretty surprised by that tbh. I very much appreciate your valuable input!! I knew you'd pay me back some day for those service manuals I gave you...

Ok smarty-pants, WHY did that fix work then?

The blue wire on the deck is power antenna output, meaning it will only have 12 volts on the radio, powering up the antenna.

Blue/white on the deck is actually the amp turn on, which is what you should be using.

You can change the setting like you did above, but the same thing will happen again if your deck loses power or you reset it.

The blue wire on the deck is power antenna output, meaning it will only have 12 volts on the radio, powering up the antenna.

Blue/white on the deck is actually the amp turn on, which is what you should be using.

You can change the setting like you did above, but the same thing will happen again if your deck loses power or you reset it.

Bingo. That's exactly what I thought, but I didn't understand why it affected only the rear speakers. Glad I can pay my debt. Sincerely, smarty-pants

Yeah I wish I knew more about cars. Computers do me fine though

Thanks a lot for your input superjet, very easy to understand!

Do you guys have any suggestions on what I could do to achieve the following:

Keep my antenna down if I'm not listening to the radio (I hate having it up all time) and still power those back speakers? Would I be able to just tap the blue/white wire into a 12 volt line or would that just draw too much power?

the blue and white wire is already a 12 volt current

Do you guys have any suggestions on what I could do to achieve the following:

 

Keep my antenna down if I'm not listening to the radio (I hate having it up all time) and still power those back speakers? Would I be able to just tap the blue/white wire into a 12 volt line or would that just draw too much power?

Attach the antenna to the Blue wire (set the settings to antenna), and the amp to the Blue/White wire. Antenna will only go up when the radion is on, but the amp will always be on.

Well see that's what's confusing... I don't have an amp. I'm just running all my speakers straight off the headunit...

wait, didn't switching the setting fix the problem???? What problem still persists?

Yep switching that option fixed the problem. I'm just picky and don't like having my antenna up all the time (it's retractable) and was wondering if there was a way to power my back speakers all the time WITHOUT having that option turned on.

so changing that setting fixes them but then keeps the antenna up.. how do u power it down, that setting? For curiosty, can you just check which blue wire you have the antenna wire hooked up to? I'm determined to figure this out.

Do you have a factory amp of sorts installed?

Do you have a factory amp of sorts installed?

doubtful, its a 92 4runner

Do you have a factory amp of sorts installed?

 

doubtful, its an old piece of shit

fix'd.

BUT I LOVE THE DAMN THING. It's got character.

Goddamnit, I saw "fix'd" and thought you fixed the problem. Then I lol'd when I saw what you did. Capt, did you check the back of it yet?

Nah man haven't had time. I worked from 6 this morning to JUST now (it's 9:30 at night). I do remember when I did the bypass though that my antenna was going straight to the HU. Does that help any?

Here's what I'm talking about with that setting: when I set it to radio, the antenna only comes up (and the back speakers only come on) when I listen to the radio. If I set it to Power, the antenna stays up all the time and the speakers stay on all the time. So in essence my original problem is fixed and there's no worries. I'm just curious as to why it's doing that with no amp in the middle and how I can going back to having my antenna only up when listening to the radio AND have my back speakers on all the time. I basically want the best of both worlds. It's not a huge priority because as I said, I'm very very busy, but I'd be interested to find out why it's doing that.

there is an amp in there only for the rears. there has to be...there is no other reason for the rears to shut off when the antenna goes down. the fronts go directly to the radio.

the amp turn on lead for the rear speakers is tied into the power antenna activation wire.

only way to get around this is to run some wires.

you can either:

1--run new speaker wires from the deck to the rear speakers, then you have bypassed the factory amp, and you can switch the antenna lead back to auto antenna and all the speakers will work and your antenna will function how you want it to.

2--connect the blue/white wire where the blue wire is now and run a new wire to the power antenna relay. that connects the auto antenna wire from the z to the antenna relay and allowing it to function as you want it to and the speakers still work and you retain the use of the factory amp in the rear.

3--- look for the factory amp. ive seen a lot of toyotas with the factory amp in the dashboard. its a small silver one with a heat sink on one side. that has the speaker leads in it. you can bypass the back speakers by running new wires from the z to the output of the factory amp so that it runs directly to the back leads. or you can run a wire from the blue/white on the z to the amp turn on lead going into the amp to keep it powered on when the auto antenna lead shuts off. but dont forget to cut it so that it doesnt backfeed to the antenna.

hope this helps!

Roader, why would there be only an amp for the back? quality sounding systems have the fronts powered more than the rear. itd be completely backwards...

Capt, at this point how do you get your antenna to go down? what do you have to press to get it down?

well, with the tiny speakers in the rear, the idea of rear fill was probably taken into account. from what i remember, they were able to get quite a bit of bass out of those speakers. bass takes more power to make than highs, so the amp helps reproduce that. also, those rear speakers are behind the back seat if i remember correctly, so they would need to be pretty loud to be able to hear well.

well, with the tiny speakers in the rear, the idea of rear fill was probably taken into account. from what i remember, they were able to get quite a bit of bass out of those speakers. bass takes more power to make than highs, so the amp helps reproduce that. also, those rear speakers are behind the back seat if i remember correctly, so they would need to be pretty loud to be able to hear well.

I understand that and I agree with you but what I don't understand is why the front would not also be amped if the rears were. I also tried googling any info on a 92 4runner factory amp, front OR back, and nothing came up. If they are amped for whatever reason then the answer is probably between the 2 blue wires. The only fool proof way to check is run new speaker wires from the unit directly to the rear speakers. If at that point they do work, then they were amped and something is wired wrong...if they still don't, I think it'd be safe to say it's an internal problem?? There's no logical reason why everything is wired correctly, and the rears only work on the radio source. It's such an inconsistent issue.

The antenna only goes down if I power off the vehicle.

You're correct about this being inconsistent, when I figured out what was going on with the back speakers only working on the radio I was very perplexed.

There was only one owner before me of this vehicle, he took very very good care of it and there's a couple mods that were in place when I bought the vehicle about 4 or 5 years ago. For example, the foglights are custom and I'm under the impression that he did them himself. If there is an amp somewhere in my 4Runner I 1)Can't find it and 2)Wouldn't be surprised if there was one since the previous owner loved to tinker. I don't have any contact info for him or else I'd ask him if there was an amp hidden somewhere.

However, when I got my HU installed, the installer never said anything about finding an amp so I guess I should keep looking? This is a very odd problem.