Hi all. I have a 1998 Honda Civic LX with an aftermarket radio that I installed myself. It has been working fine for about 5 months since I put it in. Then one day it was on then slowly fizzled out over like 5-10 seconds. Like it got quieter with some static then died. I took it out and put the factory radio back it - nothing still. I checked the radio fuse and it seemed fine. I switched it with the ignition coil fuse which was also 15A and the car started but still no radio. Then I checked every other fuse to see if they were broken, but I didn't see anything wrong. All the other electronics in the car work fine still, I don't know what could have happened. Anyone have an idea?

 

Check the back up fuse in the engine bay fuse box. Mine blew out and the radio did exactly what yours did. Turns out it was the signal wire that got chewed through. Replaced it, no problems since. Does your clock work on your dash?

 

Thanks emerald for your reply. I don't have a clock on my dash, its part of the radio. I just checked the engine bay fuses (which I totally forgot about) and the back up/radio one was blown. I replaced it and tried the radio. It worked for about 3 seconds. I checked the fuse and the new one had blown too. What would be causing that?

 

Shorting out somewhere apparently. If you didn't use a proper aftermarket harness your wiring could have worked itself loose or become exposed. Check your work. Start from there.

 

I think you were right grumble. Some of the things that hold the wires together on the wire adapter fell off so I fixed that and put another fuse in and it seems to be working now. Thanks for your help guys.

 

Its always good to use a little tape or shrink wrap on your connections.

 

 

Tape, no. Solder and heat shrink. Do it right, or don't do it. A soldering iron is $20 - there's no excuse to not use one.

 

He used some kind of connector between the wires. I wasn't talking about twisting the wires together and using tape to hold them together. I meant using like a butt
connecter and crimping it then using tape or great shrink tubing over the whole connection.

 

Probably a butt connector is what he did use. If you don't crimp them down tight or use the wrong size they will slip. Short of soldering (which is the BEST way), I use Posi-Lock connectors. Why would you put tape or heat shrink over a butt connector? Shoddy.