My stereo is DIRE!!

cormie

Hi,
I bought a 91 Fiesta a while ago and it's going fine and great value for the money I paid for it. Anyway, one pretty annoying problem is that the stereo and speakers are just terrible. There is no volume at all, you can only barely hear a song when parked at traffic lights in a quiet area. The sound from the speakers is fine, they all work, it's just far too low. I've take out the head unit and had a look, but that's about all I did. I'm not too familiar with what may be wrong with it. I was told that to get the radio working I would need to input a code that a ford dealer could give to me, but I don't think I have to do that as the radio is working and so is the tape deck, the only problem is the volume. Now there are speakers in the front and back and they are all equally low.

Any ideas as to what the problem is? Is there even a problem or is it just as high as they go? Where could I bring them for somebody to have a look and not charge through the roof or try and sell me the latest sub amp and head unit system which I can't afford?

Any feedback appreciated:)

ds20prefecture

cormie wrote:

Any ideas as to what the problem is? Is there even a problem or is it just as high as they go? Where could I bring them for somebody to have a look and not charge through the roof or try and sell me the latest sub amp and head unit system which I can't afford?

You should be able to sort this yourself fairly cheaply. What kind of stereo is it? If you remove the unit, what kind of connectors are on the back? If they are standard DIN connectors, most any stereo will just slot in there in place of your original. Argos have new (admittedly crap) CD players for around €70 that should do the job just fine. If that's a bit steep, have a look on eBay, but make sure the code comes with the stereo. - http://tinyurl.com/dsn45. Have a look in Buy & Sell too.

If it doesn't have DIN connectors, it shouldn't be too hard to connect up a set. You just need to buy a set of DIN block connectors to hook into the new stereo. You can get these online for a given model. e.g. This is for a Blaupunkt. http://www.bluespot.co.uk/install/show_model.asp?id=84.

Your existing one is probably dead, and certainly not worth the labour cost of fixing it unless you give it a crack yourself.

Hope this helps.

cormie

Hi,
Thanks for the help, I'll try and get some snaps and post them up of my set up, I'm not sure what I have and what I need. Waiting on a digi cam to arrive from the states so I'll try get them posted up asap:) That ebay stereo looks like a good deal alright!

PlayaFlow

HAHA - you said "dire"....what is this?...the 1930's??

PS. Congratulations on buying a **** car , not much of an upgrade from a micra is it?

Alfasudcrazy

What happened your Micra - thought it was newer than 1991?

Anyway id suggest scrapping the entire system - speakers and radio - then go around to your local scrappie and pick up a decent radio - with preferably a cd player and buy a new decent set of speakers and fit them yourself.
If you don't want to do that it might be less hassle to buy a different car.;)

cormie

PlayaFlow wrote:

HAHA - you said "dire"....what is this?...the 1930's??

PS. Congratulations on buying a **** car , not much of an upgrade from a micra is it?

No it's not much of an upgrade, which was actually the whole point of getting it. To downgrade and get some extra cash for a car I don't need the extra luxuries of.

Regarding the word "dire", well really I don't know what to say to you about that. You got me, I'm stumped, stuck for words, speechless.

Sorry but what was the point of your post?

cormie

Alfasudcrazy wrote:

What happened your Micra - thought it was newer than 1991?

Anyway id suggest scrapping the entire system - speakers and radio - then go around to your local scrappie and pick up a decent radio - with preferably a cd player and buy a new decent set of speakers and fit them yourself.
If you don't want to do that it might be less hassle to buy a different car.;)

Thanks for the help, do you reckon a scrap yard would have head units still in tact? Do you reckon it's definitely the head unit that the problem is from? Actually.. think I'll go out and swap around head units from both cars now and see if it makes a difference.

PlayaFlow

cormie wrote:

No it's not much of an upgrade, which was actually the whole point of getting it. To downgrade and get some extra cash for a car I don't need the extra luxuries of.

Regarding the word "dire", well really I don't know what to say to you about that. You got me, I'm stumped, stuck for words, speechless.

Sorry but what was the point of your post?

No point really, just being observative.

anyway , to be somewhat helpfull : get two 6x9 and fit them in the back (20 mins) , buy a 1din Cd player (the panasonic in argos is v.good for 120) buy a pin converter (20e) and fit the radio .15 mins

less than 1 hrs work and less than 200E and u got urself a relatively good sound sys.

Alfasudcrazy

Assuming your radio is the original fitting - Ford always fitted crap radio's to its basic models and so it could be either radio or speakers.

I suppose a a quick fix it might be easier to buy a decent set of speakers first and fit them - if there is no improvement then it obviously the radio which will have to be changed then.

The scrappie is always the best place to pick up car sterio's cheaply. Obviously they will be disconnected from the car so you don't know if they will work or not but you could ask if its returnable if it does not work.

Try and get one as new as possible and of course clarify with them if the radio need a code - if it does you must get it from them before buying it - otherwise the unit is useless.:rolleyes:

cormie

Thanks for the help. I don't really want to spend anywhere near €200 on this though as the car is just a temporary car while I make some financial investments with the cash I make from the Micra. I'm planning, Once I have money, to buy a Focus and then I can finally concentrate on making it my car. Even before I bought my Micra I knew it wasn't going to be my permanent car so never really put much money into it in terms of sound systems and the likes.

Have you any idea where my local (Bray, Co. Wicklow) scrapyard is?

Alfasudcrazy

cormie wrote:

Have you any idea where my local (Bray, Co. Wicklow) scrapyard is?

Nope im afriad (in Kerry) - but the nearest garage or car nut will be able to guide you to that pretty quickly.:)

cormie

Ok, thanks for the help. I'll try and get photos of my set up anyway explain it a bit better:)

ds20prefecture

cormie wrote:

Have you any idea where my local (Bray, Co. Wicklow) scrapyard is?

There's one off the Dargle Road, in Little Bray. There's another (slightly better) one on the west pier in Dun Laoghaire.

PlayaFlow wrote:

PS. Congratulations on buying a **** car , not much of an upgrade from a micra is it?

What an asshole. Under no circumstances feel obliged to defend your choice of car to an ignoramus like this. He's just being "observative", which of course isn't even a word.