HU amp blown?

[87accordlxi]

I think I may have a bit of a unique situation. I was driving along on the highway when suddenly I lost all sound from the speakers. The head unit was still powered on, all the functions were working, just no sound. I turned everything off and about a half hour later turned it back on. Sound returned, but only for about 1 minute, when it cut out again. I tried it again the next day, and the same thing: Works fine for about a minute, then cuts out. Occasionally I will hear a faint popping noise from the rear speakers when I turn on the deck and when it cuts out.

So I pulled out the deck and checked the wires, everything seemes to be connected tight, no copper was exposed, nothing looked shorted out. Could the head unit amp be blown? Any other ideas?

It's a Pioneer 3100, with Pioneer 6.5's in front and Pioneer 6x9's in the rear. I don't have an external amp.

[shepherd79]

yeap, sounds like HU is dying. it is very strange to see pioneer to crap out like that.

[Vinny]

thats what it sounds like to me, unless you have a speaker wire shorting out, but I think that would only cause you to lose front or back or side to side not all sound period

[87accordlxi]

Yeah, probably once the amp heats up to a certain point it will keep blowing. And it apparently only takes a minute or two.

I'm really surprised this happened too. Friends of mine all had Pioneer with no problems like this. I've had this one for almost 4 years and it's been one of the best purchases I've ever made.

[87DXHatch]

Check your speaker wires! Make sure none of them are grounding out, anywhere along the runs. My friend had a similar problem, only his HU would start with the sound off, then he'd bash a speaker, and the sound would come on.

Something else to try: Disconnect one speaker at a time, and turn the HU on. See if there's one speaker that's causing it.

Good Luck!