1996 Suburban Stereo

[tankplunkett]

I have a 1996 2500 suburban and I am having problems with the radio. I just bought the suburban and was planning on changing the stock radio for an aftermarket head unit I already had, the volume on the stock radio goes from quiet to loud and then quiest again without me ever touching it. Once I installed my radio, it would only stay on for about 10 seconds and then the sound would cut out. The display worked fine, it just didn't have any sound. So I figured the head unit was bad, its been sitting around in my garage for a few years. I bought a new head unit and installed it and it is still doing the same thing.

I haven't figured out what is wrong and and looking for any ideas. There are no other modifcations that I know of, so I'm not sure what could be effecting it.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Karl Stevens]

My 96 does the same thing. It is always when I first start the engine and the radio was already on or just turn it on randomly. It blasts at full volume, which is really annoying. But once I shut it off and turn it back on, it works fine. It's done this maybe 10 times, but not at all in the last year or so. The classic intermittent problem that seems to have no solution. I have no clue what causes it, but I would bet it's dirt in the volume control or something that fools the control into thinking it's cranked up. Very scientific-sounding, I know.

 

[tankplunkett]

The stock radio did the same thing when I bought it, which is why I decided to swap it out. I talked to the owner of an audio store and he seems to thing the problem is a bad speaker. Somehow the speaker grounds out and puts the head unit into protection mode and cutting of the sound. I'm going to try hooking up one speaker at a time to try and find the bad speaker, if there is one. I'll post what I find once I get done.

 

[tankplunkett]

I installed new speakers in all 4 doors, however, I did not realize that there are two speakers above the rear cargo doors. It turns out that one of those speakers was the problem so I just removed them and the problem is fixed. Now the rear door speakers dont work so I get to keep playing with it.

 

[Spikes]

Now the rear door speakers dont work so I get to keep playing with it.

I just put an aftermarket stereo in my '93 and the speakers above the cargo doors are wired in with the rear seat door speakers, so on mine the door speakers wouldn't work without the ones on the roof hooked up.

Not sure if yours are the same or not.

 

[tankplunkett]

I thought that they might be connected, but I tried hooking all of them up and the door speakers still don't work. I'm still not sure what the problem is, but the radio stuff is gonna have to move further down on the list for now. It works good enough for me to drive so now I get to play with other stuff on the suburban.