Audio cutting off

[lennon]

For the past 6 months or so, every once in a while, the audio from the stereo will completely disappear. Recently it's happened every day so I've gotta do something about it. The unit will still be on and appear to go through all of it's functions just fine, but no sound from the tuner, aux, or cd. It seems to usually happen right when I start up the car (like if I have turned on the music before starting the car). It also happens out of nowhere while driving. Turning the stereo and/or car off and on won't make it come back on, but if I go in somewhere for a while and come back out, it will almost always be working.

Bad connection affected by vibration? Or is my stereo just going bad? It's an alpine cda 9825. There are four kicker ds5250 speakers. I think the previous owner had a sub and who knows what else, but the wiring for the stereo looks fine, but he could have messed something up that I can't see. I got the four speakers new a few years ago. The alpine stereo was in it when I bought it, and I haven't touched anything except to put in the speakers, so I think it's weird that I'm having the problem recently.

Any advice would be helpful, thanks.

[lennon]

Well upon pulling all of the stereo wiring all the way out, I found some questionable, at least messy, wiring. Too busy with work today to do anything else, but hopefully re-doing everything will fix my problem.

[lennon]

Where is the "fader" (as shown in the ETM) located? Is this something that is removed when people install aftermarket systems? I've never had a way of controlling fade, because I only have wires for the left channel and right, not separate front and rear. How do I fix this? I swear my rear speakers are louder than the fronts, what could cause that in my situation? I need to just poke around more by the rear speakers, got too tired tonight.

[lennon]

I'm thinking I should just run new wires from the headunit to each speaker.

[StereoInstaller1]

What year/model car?

Any idea if it had Premium Sound?

[lennon]

It's an '86 325. Pretty much the base model, had vinyl seats, etc. I had all stock NON-premium stuff when I got it, so unless someone replaced all that stuff, it didn't come with premium sound. Help me out stereoinstaller!

[StereoInstaller1]

On an '86, it is time to get into that harness. Unplug the fader, pull the harness and unwrap it until you find the group of ground wires. Let me know what you find by posting a pic.

[lennon]

So... is the "fader" the knob right above the stereo? I always thought it was the balance. Mine has always controlled balance, if that tells you anything about the wiring. I may get into it today and take pictures.

[StereoInstaller1]

If that installer used the fader to control balance, your shit is all hacked.

[robrez]

I'm having the same problem, seems to happen on hot days after the radio has been running for a while. Lately, it's been cold and the radio is working fine.

[lennon]

so is there anything wrong with running new speaker wire directly from my head unit to each speaker? i think i'll just do that if i don't see a super simple solution when i go out to the car today.

[lennon]

If that installer used the fader to control balance, your shit is all hacked.

I was wrong, the fader doesn't control the balance. I don't know why I thought that. It does seem to control fade but only a little bit (Front or Rear is never all the way off, not sure if that's normal but I don't think so). All the proper wires seem to be connected to it, just like stock. The rear is still louder than the front. When I put the fade all the way forward, I can tell the front speakers aren't as loud as when I put the fade on just the rears. Maybe it's just an audio illusion of some kind... but the difference in volume seems huge. Even when I'm listening normally with the fade in the middle, it seems like most or all of the sound is coming from the rears.

edit: And yes, I have swapped the speakers around to be sure the difference in volume isn't the speakers.

[StereoInstaller1]

No, that is "normal", it is an acoustic issue of the E30. You will see that I recommend using about 3X the power of the rear up front.

However, if your fader works and you have an aftermarket deck, your install is wrong.

[lennon]

If the difference in volume is normal, what do you think is wrong with the install? How do I get 3x the power to the front speakers? Different speakers or what? Thanks for all the help.