head unit OEM plug issue

[rzgibbs]

I had an issue with my oem head unit where the rear speakers and the right front speaker would intermittently cut out. I narrowed the problem down to the male OEM plug behind the head unit. I released some pressure on a few of the wires and was able to get sound back on all the speakers. When I pressed the DIN back in, however, I still got some cut out, so I adjusted it to achieve sound on all four speakers.

It seems to me that if I am going to put an aftermarket head unit on, I need to permanently fix this issue. My question is would I be better off buying the reverse harness from somewhere for 20 bucks and soldering into the OEM harness or try to fix each connector individually. Getting the plug with space to maneuver is a little awkward: I'm worried that in the close quarters and with the frustration that comes along with that, I'll end up damage the OEM more than helping.

My last option would to be just matching the wires with the aftermarket unit, removing the OEM plug and soldering them directly into head units wiring harness. Thoughts on which course of action is the best would be appreciated.

[accordztech]

I think that issue is pretty common and its within the stereo.

Coming from an installer background I would leave the factory plug in tact and try a new stereo. Should be fine, however if you find that the factory plug is bad still you can go to the junkyard and yank a harness to replace it.

[SEgirl]

Is the car an SE or something else?

[wildBill83]

On my BOSE equipped SE the speaker neg lines were all tied to the same wire but aftermarket harnesses didn't do this so I had to cut the factory plug off and soldered directly to the harness. I soldered all 4 speaker negative lines to the factory negaitve line and bypassed the BOSE amp.

[rzgibbs]

car is a 90 ex

[accordztech]

On my BOSE equipped SE the speaker neg lines were all tied to the same wire but aftermarket harnesses didn't do this so I had to cut the factory plug off and soldered directly to the harness. I soldered all 4 speaker negative lines to the factory negaitve line and bypassed the BOSE amp.

I have utilized those bose amps just by taping the positives on the harness. Worked out pretty good. The thing when you bypass the amp, you may run into an issue with Impendence of the speakers being 2 ohms. Most decks cant run them, and if they do they run hot. So its smart to swap out all the speakers if you bypass the amps.

[wildBill83]

car is a 90 ex

Not a BOSE equipped car.

I have utilized those bose amps just by taping the positives on the harness. Worked out pretty good. The thing when you bypass the amp, you may run into an issue with Impendence of the speakers being 2 ohms. Most decks cant run them, and if they do they run hot. So its smart to swap out all the speakers if you bypass the amps.

Myth, the speakers are 4ohm. Discussed in detail in my sig on BOSE myths, check #3. Also I don't have factory speakers anymore anyway, making the amp even more worthless.

[accordztech]

Not a BOSE equipped car.



Myth, the speakers are 4ohm. Discussed in detail in my sig on BOSE myths, check #3. Also I don't have factory speakers anymore anyway, making the amp even more worthless.

HAH I was thinking of acura legends. NEVER MIND =)

[rzgibbs]

Slightly related to original question - what is the peak and RMS wattage on the OEM head unit for the 1990 ex?

[wildBill83]

Slightly related to original question - what is the peak and RMS wattage on the OEM head unit for the 1990 ex?

Worthless. Any $50 deck at walmart will out perform it, but I don't recommend that.

If you went with aftermarket speakers your deck might run hot and not sound very loud if you get speakers over 35w. The factory BOSE amp is a 35wx4ch, I wouldn't imagine the non-BOSE deck would put out more watts.

[lucifer1]

Early 90's era honda radios have cold solder problems on the main connector. This causes the speakers to cut in and out randomly. More than likely your problem is in the radio. I would resolder the connections on the board, I have fixed 3 radios in the past this way.

As for the car connector, there are only 3 ways for it to go bad,
1 terminal lock is broken allowing the terminal to push out and not make contact
2 copper wire is broken from excessive bending
3 terminal contact are have loosened from excessive plugging and unplugging.

All 3 are highly unlikely, but easy to determine and fix without the need to cut of existing connector.

[accordztech]

Worthless. Any $50 deck at walmart will out perform it, but I don't recommend that.

If you went with aftermarket speakers your deck might run hot and not sound very loud if you get speakers over 35w. The factory BOSE amp is a 35wx4ch, I wouldn't imagine the non-BOSE deck would put out more watts.

I bet that wattage isn't RMS.

Even though aftermarket decks only have around 15-30w rms, the sound quality is still much better =)

[rzgibbs]

lucifer thanks for that reply, I'll try to get a good look at the connector for those problems. I did take the PSU off the radio and checked the solder points before I had posted about it, they look fine, but there did seem to be some extra play between the connection and the pins that connected the psu to the rest of the unit.

I ordered a new unit that has 20w RMS: we'll see how it goes. I assume that honda units are something along 30-40 peak wattage.