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E7039 JBL Head Unit Audio Quits During high bass songs

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by Crixus, Sep 22, 2019.

  1. Crixus

    Crixus Junior Member

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    The Head unit audio quits when a song with high bass plays even though the bass tuner is mid center. I had the problem originally with the car. So I had professionally installed New Memphis Speakers and an JL audio amp. With new wire run all the way up to the head unit and the problem persists. Could it be a fault in the wiring harness. It handles other songs at about 50 without quitting but heavier songs will guit at 44. I ruled the amp and the wiring all the way up to the head unit. Is this a common problem? 0920192353.jpeg 0919192324.jpeg

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  2. Crixus

    Crixus Junior Member

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    Edit: The Head Unit Has been Swapped twice. So I don't believe it's the issue. And more the wiring harness. Can the same problem persist on two different head units?

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  3. spiralhelix

    spiralhelix Active Member

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    Why did you start a new thread? Discussions work best when you participate in your own post. Did you not like the responses there?? Maybe if you had provided more information a better answer could be provided.

    Before you said cuts out at 45. Now you say it’s only with heavy bass. Which is it?

    Honestly, if you had it professionally installed, take it back to them to fix it.


    -Spiral
     
  4. Crixus

    Crixus Junior Member

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    Figure I would Cross Post. It Cuts out at weird volume levels and it varies depending on how low the bass hits. Sorry for the confusion. I mainly Lurk and don't post much. I scored a Salvaged Level 5 with only 39K miles. The audio is the only problem.

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  5. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    If you have a carpeted mat covering the amp, it would overheat
     
  6. Crixus

    Crixus Junior Member

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    It's not the amp. It doesn't shut down. It thermal throttles like a CPU. And again this problem has been persisting before the upgrade. The only thing left really is the original wiring harness. Even the Head Unit was switched out.

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  7. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    The fuse you installed next to the battery is probably loose, zip tie it tightly and try if that helps

    Or maybe install a power capacitor in between battery and amp
     
    #7 JC91006, Sep 23, 2019
    Last edited: Sep 23, 2019
  8. Crixus

    Crixus Junior Member

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    This problem was existing in the original JBL set up as well. Everything besides the Headunit has been replaced even the speaker wire.

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  9. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

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    Weird problem. What load is the head unit driving? I guess I’d expect that new amp to be doing the heavy lifting, but that isn’t the only way to hook it up.
     
  10. Crixus

    Crixus Junior Member

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    The amp is carrying the mass. The amp is set as a low voltage input. I'm honestly thinking about giving up the Nav because 1 it's outdated and 2 the Stealership is a ripoff. What would you recommend for a plastic surround aftermarket for this? I'll sell the Head unit for 350 use it towards a New Nav aftermarket Headunit.

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  11. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

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    1. Wiring harnesses really can’t do the problem you’re describing.
    2. What is the speaker level output of the stock system connected to?
    3. What speakers are in the car currently?
    4. Which speakers is the new JL amp feeding? One, a few? all?
    5. OK so the amp gets line level from <something> presumably the head unit- nothing in between?
    Just go to the Crutchfield website, plug in your exact model info, then refine search by specific features you want in the new deck. Sky is the limit these days. They’ll show you all the gear you need to install it. The exact plastic finish may not be a perfect match- paint it with plastic model paint if that matters to you. Or optionally alter it to taste.

    I did a Sony multimedia rig- inexpensive, no CD/DVD player. It does have AM/FM and digital media via Bluetooth and USB, including Apple Carplay and Android Auto. So we let the phones do the navigating. It was cheaper than buying the version of the car that had the crummy Toyota navigation built-in.

    I haven’t bothered to try selling the almost untouched stock unit from our car- I suppose I should see if there’s any market for it?
     
  12. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

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    Plug a 3.5”mm jack to 2 RCA output converter between the amp and iPod. Turn the audio up with the same song, or bass equivalent, and see it amp will shut down also. This easy test will isolate the head unit from the equation for troubleshooting.
     
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  13. Crixus

    Crixus Junior Member

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    I did it with the LGV40 no shut down with max volume. Amp was warm but not overheated. It is a Digital amp.

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  14. Crixus

    Crixus Junior Member

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    The Amp Powers 4 50rms/100 peak tweeters. 2 6.75 components 50/100 and 2 6x9 components 60/120. Would the SWC cause issues at all?

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  15. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

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    Back to head unit connection to amp, are speaker outputs on the HU connected directly to the amp high level inputs or a high to low level converter was used between amp and HU?
     
  16. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

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    Ok that’s part of the answer but what about the rest?

    Do you mean Steering Wheel Control? I’ve seen them fail to work properly and trigger ghost commands, but I didn’t think there was a “stereo off” button on the steering wheel of any of these cars.
     
  17. spiralhelix

    spiralhelix Active Member

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    oh man, this is getting interesting. I agree with the above, i highly doubt the physical speaker wires are the problem. Now that I see all that's connected to the amp, and correct me if i'm wrong, the HU only supplies a line level output to the amp, no speakers are connected to the HU, correct?

    Looking at all you have connected to the amp, do you have an 8 channel amp? if not, are the speakers wired correctly for the impedance of the amp? You can't just wire up a bunch of speakers in parallel.

    The catch here is that you said this was happening on the stock system, to which that means before anything was changed.

    You may need to just start from the amp like grit said and test from there to each point towards the HU.
     
  18. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

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    10 out of 10 times I would not connect speaker leads from any HU directly to an amp’s high level input. The speaker signal impedance / ohms / resistance are too low combined with high voltage, this will result loss off audio quality such a clipping and distortion. Ultimately use high to low level converter to step the speaker outputs down to lower voltage with higher ohm / impedance / resistance. The HU’s amp is working too hard without the step down converter in my opinion.
     
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