Think I found the culprit, but what the heck is it?

[ag bullet]

OK, so I was able to check the connections without removing the head unit. I think I have narrowed it down to a little transformer (?) that was near the amp. I think that maybe it is shorting out, or something and that is what is causing the volume to cut in and out. Here is a pic of it and inside it was like a spool of wire with the two orange wires connected to it. If anyone has this particular piece laying around, or knows what it is and some ratings/specs, let me know! I am hoping if I figure out what exactly it is, I can find something comprable at Radio Shack.

[NXRacer]

i'd be willing to bet its the noise filter. It takes out the noise caused by the altenator and stuff. EQ's are suseptable to that kind of interferance which something like that would take out.

[ag bullet]

i'd be willing to bet its the noise filter. It takes out the noise caused by the altenator and stuff. EQ's are suseptable to that kind of interferance which something like that would take out.

When I unplug it, I get no sound at all. Are those things kind of universal? The plug on the car side reads 12v on my meter so it is getting power or at least doing something with it.

[NXRacer]

it would kill the sound because signal has to pass through it before going to the speakers. I'm not sure if its before the EQ or what, but if you unplug it it would break the circuit so no sound will come out. I'm not exactly sure what it does or else i'd tell you to just run a 'jumper' wire and take out that thing all together, but if it changes the voltage/amperage somehow you could fry your system.

[Vinny]

look and see if it has a Part number on it. Caleb is more than likely correct its probably an inline noise filter. I don't know if I would go as far as bypassing it until you are sure what it is. Kinda suck if it was a tranformer or regulator of somesort. Over voltage or under voltage can be a bad thing

[HostileJava]

If the audio signal is passing through it I hope it's not reading 12v on one side.

[ag bullet]

look and see if it has a Part number on it. Caleb is more than likely correct its probably an inline noise filter. I don't know if I would go as far as bypassing it until you are sure what it is. Kinda suck if it was a tranformer or regulator of somesort. Over voltage or under voltage can be a bad thing

Thanks for the tips so far. It was covered with foam tape or something, either from the factory or the orginal owner, either way, it is hard to tell if there is a part number on there or not.

My system doesn't have an EQ either. I have a Bose tape deck, the amp in the back and Bose lables on the speakers.

[Vinny]

Thinking old style 12v inline noise filter going to the crappy bose amp.

Hey I know what lets do.

Yank all the archiac Bose BS out and get a nice CD player and some decent speakers all for under 250 bucks or so

[shepherd79]

that is old style noise filter. i just got simular one Alpine from ebay. try this and see if that helps: take that transformer and cut the wires at the transformer it will leave you enough wires, now connect them together and plug it back in. what you just did is removed the noise filter. it could be that noise filter had somekind short inside the transformer.
see if that helps.

[HostileJava]

Thinking old style 12v inline noise filter going to the crappy bose amp.

Hey I know what lets do.

Yank all the archiac Bose BS out and get a nice CD player and some decent speakers all for under 250 bucks or so

It's only got 2 wires coming from it though, It would need more then that to be an inline noise filter, no?

[ag bullet]

Ok the wires that are on the plug on the car side are yellow with a red stripe. One goes back to the car the other goes to the amp. I did jump the circuit and saw no real improvement. I am guessing it is a noise filter like you guys. It is definitly wound like a coil or transistor. The 12 on the car side is what has me stumped. What if it is helping to power the amp, like stepping up the 12v power to turn the amp on? I will say that figeting with the whole thing does affect the sound/crackiling, so I am 95% sure that this "mystery box" is the problem. I am betting that the old wires were bent, etc, and have shorted somewhere along the way.

[3G Jester]

jim could you order him a new one with that catalogue of glory of yours?

[nswst8]

It a crude power filter, I was under the impression that orange is for memory. I could be wrong, but you can bypass it.
Hope this helps
NSWST8

[ag bullet]

I checked on www.installdr.com and there is no mention of an orange wire. The yellow wires with red stripes that it intersects are listed as the 12v ignition wire. Here is the pin-out diagram on that site:

http://www.installdr.com/Harnesses/HA-Wiring.pdf

So now I am guessing it is something that regulates the power going to the amp. I think if it were a noise filter, there would be more wires or at least one per channel or something.

It seems just as I think I know what it is, I read or find something else out and change my mine.

[shepherd79]

no, i am telling you this is noise filter. i have alpine noise filter and it has the same principle. it sits somewhere in the power wire close to the amp. it doesn't need ground or anything else. it is power coming in and power coming out.

[ag bullet]

I will try the spliec test later, although I did a similar thing by making a jumper for the plug. It didn't really change things.

Since you are the junkyard guy, care to dig for the mystery box along with an amp?

[3G Jester]

Trust Alex (shepard) hes a good kid and knows his shit.

[shepherd79]

hahah, i have seen the SEI only ones at the yard. if i see it again, i can assure you i will pull everything off of it.
the reason you didn't see any diff because there are no noise in the power line. if you had alternator wine you would hear it since amp will amplify that noise.
put the jumper in and see if that helps.
if that doesn't help, i would check the the wires at the deck. and may be replace the HU.

[ag bullet]

hahah, i have seen the SEI only ones at the yard. if i see it again, i can assure you i will pull everything off of it.
the reason you didn't see any diff because there are no noise in the power line. if you had alternator wine you would hear it since amp will amplify that noise.
put the jumper in and see if that helps.
if that doesn't help, i would check the the wires at the deck. and may be replace the HU.

I guess what I meant by no change was that the noise (static and fadeed volume) were still there. Based on this site's info, it looks like the amp could be bad:

http://carstereohelp.com/honda.htm

But $200 for a repaired amp on a 15 year old car seems steep. For that, I can almost redo the whole thing or for a fraction buy an amp from another SEi.

[catalin]

It's definately a noise filter.

[shepherd79]

well you can replace the filter with aftermarket one,
this is the one i won on ebay. i could have got something else but i wanted Alpine to match my hole Alpine system. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWN%3AIT&rd=1

the one you need to find is "INLINE noise filter". there are many diff ones but you need the INLINE one.
something like this http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...093137445&rd=1
or this one
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-qUBCqQ2...=0&cc=01&avf=N

[HostileJava]

jim could you order him a new one with that catalogue of glory of yours?

I'm sure I can get him one at wholesale, but it may be cheaper for him to get it outta a junkyard. I really think he should just replace the HU and junk the old HU and amp.

[ag bullet]

I would like to junk the whole system, but money is kind of tight right now. I think it would be cheaper to replace it with what is in there instead of new stuff. Let me know what you find and prices and I can go from there.

[ag bullet]

As a band-aid, I took the noise filter out of the loop, so to speak. It made no real improvement, so I am guessing that the amp is dying. Shep, can you find me one or does any one with an SEi wanna unload one cheap?