Stereo only working intermittently

Hi guys, I have a frustrating problem with my stereo where some days it will work and some days it won't. Basically it'll often work for a while (a few days) and then just die for while with no power. I've tried the original Nissan stereo for a test and that has the same problem so I must have a wiring fault somewhere.

I've tried pulling on the wiring that sits behind the unit in the dash but can't find a problem so I think the fault must be further back but not sure where to look. Considering taking the dash apart tomorrow but would be useful to know if there's anywhere else I should check beforehand.

Any help is appreciated as it's been like this for a couple of months now and it's doing my head in.
 

Guy

Has gone over to the oily side...
Club Member
Stereos in K11s are earthed by the radio cage. You could rule out an earth fault by bolting a wire to the back of the radio and the other end to the chassis :).
 
An interesting day so far. I decided to take the dash apart to see if I could wiggle some more wires into life but no good so I thought I'd get the old Nissan stereo out again and try connecting an earth wire as suggested by Guy; when I tested it before I don't think I put it back in the cage to earth it as this time it worked.

This pointed the fault back at my JVC unit but I thought I'd test the short wiring connectors that convert the nissan connections into standard. They all tested perfectly but I noticed that one wire was not connected and had tape around it; it turned out to be the earth of course and when I connected that to the chassis the stereo burst into life.

So all is well now it seems although I have two minor issues - 1) where do I connect the earth wire to as I can't see anything obvious in the dash and 2) does this mean that I have an earth fault somewhere seeing as everything worked fine beforehand?
 
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