Car stereo problem--PLEASE help

[Michael Williams <mike@urquattro.com>]

Hey all, maybe someone on here can help me out, im completely perplexed 
and have no more ideas...

So, when i got my UrQ, it had the stock speakers, head unit and wiring.  
Then, around january, i installed an Alpine CDM 7834 CD unit into that 
setup.  Upon installin the unit, a wierd thing happened.  Whenever the 
fader was set to any decent power to the rear (+3 all the way to -8) it 
would go all staticy, sounding like something was shorting.  Immediately 
i thought that the head unit was bad, but i figured i was getting an 
external amp so i would bypass that problem, because if i sent all the 
power to the front speakers, there was no static at all and everything 
was perfectly normal.  But anyway, i havent gotten around to it, so i 
just ordered a new head unit since i didnt like the fact that this alpine 
had only one set of pre-outs.  I got a brand new Blaupunkt Toronto (7 
series, top of the line, german made even) and installed that.  Took me 
all of 45 minutes, really easy.  Anyway, same thing is happening.  So, 
needless to say im very very confused...

I even then plugged in the blaupunkt head unit that is in my 4kq and that 
was having the same problem.  I thought it had to be in the wiring, which 
is a bit odd is that for the rear speakes, there are 4 wires at the 
radio, and then it goes into this 3 prong plug thing that keeps two of 
the wires seperate, which i assume are the positive leads,and then joins 
the other two into one at the plug, which i took to be a common negative 
(ground, right? as usual for a negative?).  I thought this might be the 
problem, either that, or it was the original speakers in the back that 
just couldnt handle the power.  

So, i took the rears out of the 4kq, and put them in the urQ, they are 
rated to 50 watts rms and the blau puts out 23, so no problem there.  
Still, same symptoms.



So i figure, it hs to be the wiring for the rear speakers...BUT even when 
i unplugged that plug with 3 wires for the rear speakers so that it wasnt 
even hooked up, it still did it...so, that leads me to believe it is in 
the wiring for the front speakers somehow, yes?  Nope, i then cut the 
wiring for the front speakers so they werent connected at all, and guess 
what, still doing it...Then i swapped in the blaupunkt head unit from the 
4kq again, and still had the same problem...

Te only thing i can think of now is to join everything with spade 
terminals so i can move thins around and see if somehow the polarity is 
messed up or something.  It isnt in the front wiring because when the 
rear is unplugged it does it, but it cant be in the rear wiring because 
when the fronts are disconnected it still does it...  

And i figure it cant be the head unit because 3 high quality units are 
doing the EXACT same things. so what can it be? 

This is how i have it wired: the switched 12 volt lead and the constant 
power are spliced together because from the car there is no ignition on 
lead.  Ground is plugged into ground, and i havent plugged in the dash 
lighting wire or the power antenna wire because i dont have a power 
antenna and i havent had te energy to interface the dash lighting yet.

So what can it be?  Could the ground be faulty somehow?  i have no 
idea...anyone???????

later...

Michael Sheridan Williams
San Francisco, CA
ICQ# 11740998
1983 UrQuattro, MC--1.8 BAR, borla, 2B Coilover, 16x7.5 OZ Mito's w/ Yoko 
A520's, Cibie H4/H1's, K&N (blah)
1985 4000S Quattro, Koni Yellows/Coilover (2B), strut brace, Sport 8000 
Tires, K&N
http://members.aol.com/daserde2