SW20 stereo connector pins?

[ansys]

Yes, I've adjusted the balance/fade which is how I diagnosed the fault. I presume there are just some bad connections somewhere for those? I'll have to recheck the wires I think... unfortunate as that harness to the amplifier is a pain to reach with the seatbelt still in place.

The strange noise is fairly loud and very short. Like a cheap sound effect for a laser firing in an old sci-fi movie? It really is like an exaggerated version of the sound those old TV's used to make when you turned them off.

Yeah, I figured those other circuits were isolated and wouldn't affect anything.

The fact that one of the connector pins was not putting pressure on the corresponding male pin is worrisome. I may have to go back and remove each pin to check unless there's a better idea out there

[ansys]

Turns out it seemed like a few more pins on the amplifier harness connector were loose and not making great contact. The ghost stereo seems to have disappeared (messed around with the AMP and ACC wires) for now and the left rear speaker is working again. Maybe I somehow damaged the pins when pulling them in/out of the connector while wire splicing.

[GDII]

I'm getting the same high pitched noise and continuation of the radio when I plugged in my original tape player radio. Interesting!

I'll have to take a look at the pins and make sure they are all contacting properly but my speakers all work and my sub after I wired it back in correctly.

[ansys]

good to know I'm not the only one!
Yeah, I got side tracked working on my brakes, so my stereo isn't 100% installed. I've been too lazy to unplug the amplifier connecters as they're a major pain to reach, and de-pin it to make sure all the connector pins are tight.

BUT, I'm pretty sure the issue has something to do with the power/grounding of the whole system. Let me know how it goes for you.

[GDII]

Ok so I've done some more testing and I let it sit for a few more seconds and it shut off on its own and the aerial went down after. I'm 99.99% sure this is a feature of the system to allow the aerial to come down.

The squeal I'm not sure is normal but it is very short so I can live with it.

I have some plans to modernize this unit. I'll post it in my project when I've done it.

[ansys]

That's strange... I'll quadruple check, but after I messed around with the connections, I no longer have this "feature". If I remember right as well, when I had this "feature" the sound coming from the stereo was quiet, as though the amplifier wasn't working??

I will confirm though that when I had this 'feature', it also did eventually turn off for me, but I recall it being a little longer than just a few seconds.

I'll have a check on another MR2 w/ a stock stereo that I haven't messed around with, but I'm pretty sure that one also doesn't leave the radio on after the key is switched off.

Anyone else out there with the OEM stereo care to chime in?

[GDII]

Yeah I guess that 0.01% proved me wrong. I mean, I know some things stay on but I found that if I turned the car off and then the radio off with the button the aerial stayed up. Maybe there is something amiss on mine too but it matches your exact description. Mine does take more than a few seconds to turn off fully.

[ansys]

yeah, it's bizarre, and I wish I knew more about electronics. Clearly the radio is still getting some sort of residual charge/current after the key is turned off. I'm guessing one of the ground wire connections isn't the best? I noticed my pin was faulty when I took the female pin out of the connector and then tried to slide it over one of the male pins on the back of the radio. There was no resisitance. I tightened that up and voila. I imagine I may have opened up some of the female pins by accident with the multimeter leads when I was checking continuity. They are fairly fragile afterall.

Let me know if you solve it!

[GDII]

I'll check all the pins out to see if they make good contact. Also my earth point looks a little corroded so might clean that up.

With the radio there is the constant power and ACC switched power. So to turn on you need to switch the key but as it keeps power on then there is some internal switch that doesn't fully open or a capacitor that holds enough charge to run that long.

The windows can actually be used with the key off after you turn the car off for a certain amount of time. It's part of the design although I have only ever been able to get it working once. Maybe because I never actually tried to play with the windows when it's just been turned off.

Lets see how I go.