Hu Grounding Through Antennae Problem

[sman83]

Yesterday I did the big three on my 99 mountaineer, prior to this everything worked fine.

The system is charging better then before holds at 14.13-14.14v, but when I turn up the stereo past one on the volume or change the radio stations I get a popping sound out of the speakers and the sub pops intermittently when music is playing.

After checking everything I finally pulled out the head unit and found that the stereo is grounding itself through the antennae.

I had the HU grounded to the battery originally, and through my haste accidentally hooked it up to the positive post on the battery without realizing it until now. Once I corrected the problem, moved the HU ground to the negative on the battery, and tried the original factory ground and a new spot on the chassis, I still have the same problem.

I am concerned that I burnt up my head unit from hooking up the ground to the positive, but it still works minus the popping and grounding through the antennae..

Any ideas?

[audiofanaticz]

So let me get this straight.

You grounded the radio straight to the battery, but you thought you hooked it up to the negative, but in reality you hooked your ground to the positive, and didnt fix it til it was too late.

Your antenna is a grounded surface. Almost every radio will ground thru the outter antenna wire ( or the outter of a rca cable if you have an amp wired up). The center pin that sticks out of an antenna (or rca cord) is what your signal travels thru.

Being that a radio has a 12 volt constant, ignition, and a ground connection Im putting my money on the fact that you shorted out your radio when you connected the ground to the positive on the battery since your radio has power 24/7 flowing thru it to maintain eq settings, clocks, etc (ie memory).

Some place inside the radio you will see burn marks on the board where the short circuit occured.

You can try to ground out the outter rca ends and this may fix your problem (as if how you fix the pioneer headunits that have a broken ground problem), but being that you wired your radio ground to a positive may have made it a lost cause.

Just a question. Why didnt you buy a wiring harness to plug into the factory vehicle wires, and ground the radio thru the factory wires?

[Boon]

Is it a Pioneer headunit? Probably blown the fusible link but if it's not then you'll have burnt the ground traces.