A little help, please - car stereo question.

[Finless]

My car sound system has packed up - I thought it was the amp that was broken BUT occasionally I get some sign of life from it when going over rough ground or if I get engine judder (poor old girl).

The most curious effect is that when the indicators are on or when I "flash the main beam" I get a much stronger sound?

There is no one locally to take it to.

Anyone suffered the same or recognizes the symptoms?

[MattS]

Sounds like a bad earth. Start by checking the multi plug in the back.

[louigi]

just leave it parked in a dimmly lit area on the local councill estate it will be fixed by the little folk.
Well at least when the insurance pays up.

[Finless]

Originally Posted by MattS

Sounds like a bad earth. Start by checking the multi plug in the back.

Matt,

Tks for the reply. My garage "local" had a look and tested for earth probs but he thought it was OK.

Do you have any idea how many strange noises an old car makes without the stereo on?

I guess I'll have to have a day out and take it somewhere.

Bryan

[The Bouncer]

It's probably a dodgy connection on one of the pcd's inside

The pcb's are produced en-masse abroad and there designed to have a short life
hence there are a lot of 'dry joints' (nothing to do with drugs ) on the soldering

[Finless]

Originally Posted by bouncer2

It's probably a dodgy connection on one of the pcd's inside

The pcb's are produced en-masse abroad and there designed to have a short life
hence there are a lot of 'dry joints' (nothing to do with drugs ) on the soldering

PCBs? Aren't they a chemical?

Hmm - I haven't had a look at the guts of it! Dry joints? Well I've got loads of water . In fact I take cod liver oil capsules for my joints. Possibilities .

[Jules]

PCB = Printed circuit board

inbuilt obsolesence means that whereas in the past you could solder new components onto a board, these days you cant usually do that as the bits are so small and fracile that the whole thing melts when you get your soldering iron out.

So highly trained engineers become PCB swappers.. or leave engineering and join the management

rant over..

sounds like a dry joint ( a solder joint where the solder didnt flow properly and hence fails either permanently or intermittently) to me, if it changes when vibrated or an earth fault if it changes when you switch on or off other electric things....

If it's an intermittent dry joint then the fault finding technique is percussive testing. Hit it until it works again or fails completely.

jules
xx

[Andy Phillips]

Yeh,

You got very strange ears, gets louder when the indicators are on. Hmmmmmmm

Andrew

[The Bouncer]

hey hey ... julia you sound like you know what your talking about !!!

It sounds that you like me have spent too much time in the electronics industry

[Jules]

Yeah, you could say that! At poly I did electronics and communications engineering, then did 12 years as a broadcast engineer on operations and maintenance of TV and Radio transmitters before moving into management and then the health and safety side of things.. now spend all my life talking about radio frequency hazards... more interesting than it sounds if you have two anoraks like I do.


Jules