Oregonreefer Posted February 6, 2013 Share Posted February 6, 2013 Hello, I'm a newbie to the forum and to Subaru's in general. We just purchased a 1998 Legacy Wagon. It's a 5 speed with AC. It has an aftermarket Sony CD stereo. The driver side speaker doesn't work. We just had the alternator and charging system checked and they are working fine. The reason I'm writing is that the lights dim and when the radio is on, it shuts down if you turn the lights on, hit the brakes, turn on the heater, turn on the indicator lights. The radio shuts all the way off everytime you one or more of these actions. We had the serpentine belt replaced today and it still does it. Has anyone had these issues? If so can you lend me your expertise to fix it. Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeyposeur Posted February 6, 2013 Share Posted February 6, 2013 Check the ground to the stereo for starters. I don't know if this is your problem but my Sony stereo would shut off when I turned up the volume or if the subs were drawing too much power. I pulled the stereo out to replace it with a Kenwood. It was getting dark and I noticed a spark from the stereo to the metal cage that holds it in place. Turns out the ground to the stereo was bad or shorted out so I just ran a new ground wire from the stereo to the chassis. Problem solved. Before I replaced the stereo I ran a few more ground lines from the battery to the chassis. This helped somewhat, but the problem still existed. I'd recommend doing this as well. Maybe your alternator is wearing out too. Nice SN btw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mailman Posted February 6, 2013 Share Posted February 6, 2013 Battery? Where in Oregon are you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregonreefer Posted February 6, 2013 Author Share Posted February 6, 2013 Portland. Had the battery and alternator check out and both are fine. I should also say that the speedometer drops to zero when moving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tr00b Posted February 6, 2013 Share Posted February 6, 2013 first things first, who wired this radio? You or the previous destroyer? Check and see that the install was done correctly. You like to see a factory harness plugged into an "adapter harness" (you get them at wal mart to prevent cutting any of the cars factory wiring...) which is then spliced into the factory radio harness. Thats ideal. If one speaker doesn't work, I can bet this is not done like this, and you may need a wiring diagram to fix it. Second, check your system voltage across the battery terminals with the car running you want to see around 13.5-14.4 volts. You may have one of three issues, bad grounds (seems to be a Subaru thing), poor connection at the battery terminals or a failing alternator that are causing system wide issues. All aftermarket decks worth a shit are sensitive to low voltage, and will turn off to prevent circuit damage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregonreefer Posted February 6, 2013 Author Share Posted February 6, 2013 Previous owner installed the radio. Whats weird is the car worked fine on the test drive and on the drive home, then it started all of a sudden. I will check the voltage and have the stereo reinstalled by a pro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregonreefer Posted February 6, 2013 Author Share Posted February 6, 2013 I appreciate all your responses. Thank you for giving me a place to sart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sludgeroo Posted February 6, 2013 Share Posted February 6, 2013 We try to help, but all of these guys nailed it. I had an issue with things drawing power in my 99 Brighton and it turned out being a ground. These cars act super goofy if they aren't grounded right. But once they are it usually subdues the problem for a long while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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