After upgrading your radio you may be experiencing some issues. The most common issues we are aware of are speaker hissing, speaker whining, steering wheel controls not working, no audio, no power and power cycling issues.
- Aftermarket Radio speakers hissing
If your speakers are hissing or whining your first step is to thoroughly clean and tighten the battery terminals. This seems trivial but will cause the speakers to hiss. If cleaning the battery terminals did not help the next step is to disconnect the factory center dash speaker. You can disconnect this speaker by carefully prying up the grill above the clock and reaching into disconnect the speaker. That speaker is usually the only one hissing after you upgrade the radio. - Aftermarket Radio whining coming from speakers
The whining is most likely alternator feedback and if you hear it through every speaker than it most likely indicates that your factory amplifier is bad/going bad. Even though with the factory radio you did not have this issue if you encounter it after upgrading the radio it is still the amp and not the radio. If you only have whine in one speaker then it could be a bad RCA port or RCA cable but if its in all speakers then you will need to replace the factory amplifier with another used one, have yours repaired or replace it with another amplifier all together we have PNP amps and amp bypass harnesses available. - Aftermarket Radio steering wheel controls not working
If your steering wheel controls aren’t working then the process of elimination to get them working is as follows. If you have a Kenwood make sure the blue/yellow wire connected to the brown wire (with headphone jack). If you have a radio where the 3.5mm headphone jack plugs straight into the back of the radio make sure the plug seated all the way in. If the connections are correct and secure then your next step is programming.We recommend and only sell the AXSWC so if you are using another module you will need to look for specific instructions of that modules. The AXSCW has a reset button that you must activate is programming wasn’t successful on the first try. All you need to do is hold the programming button for 3 seconds and then let go. The button is on the same side as the LED light it is in the other hole form the LED. After you held the button for three seconds and let go it will begin to flash red/green very quickly. Now press and hold volume up on the steering wheel. The led will flash several times with red and green flashes slowly then quickly, then finally it will turn solid red after about 15 seconds. Once it does release the volume up button cycle the key on and off and the controls should begin working. If they do not work you will need to switch the radio mode or manually program. You can find more information on the AXSCW product page. - Aftermarket Radio no audio
If you have no audio after installing an aftermarket radio this is most likely because the factory amplifier is not turning on. First verify you have connected the blue/white wire often labeled remote/amp on from your aftermarket radio the corresponding wire on the grey plug from the accessories we sent you. If this occurs on a plug and play harness it is often due to the manufacturer changing the location of the pin with the blue/white to another location. Verify that the harness we sent you and the harness that came with your radio have the wires in the same locations. If the blue/white wire is in a different location then that is issue. You can either unpin the wire or cut and connect and that will get your sound working. If this is something you rather not do then you can send the harness back to us so we can fix it. The shipping will be covered by us. If your connections are correct but you still aren’t getting sound check the settings of the radio to make sure the amplifier setting is set to on or sometimes it’s a setting call subwoofer that you need to make sure is on to enable the amplifier to work. If none of these solutions work for you please call or email us so we can help fix the issue. - Aftermarket Radio sound only form 3 speakers
If you only have audio out of certain speakers and not others check the connectors for any bent pins or any pins that are starting to come out of the harness this can happen and cause a bad connection or speakers to short out. When you connect the connectors to the factory harness or to the aftermarket radio you should hear a click and encounter some resistance but it shouldn’t take all the force you have to get the connector to come together. If everything checks out but you still have low or faulty audio a component in the harness could be bad or your speakers/amplifier could be bad reach out to us for your next steps. - Aftermarket Radio not turning on
If you have no power to your new aftermarket radio don’t panic this is often because you blew a fuse during installation. This is common and why often it is recommend to disconnect the battery before installation. Check the fuses at the passenger kick panel look for the radio and accessory fuse to verify they are both good. If you still have no power check the fuse on the back of the aftermarket radio usually right where the connector for the radio connects. If you still have no power you must check the fuses under the hood for blown fuses. The Acura system is very tied together so a fuse that may have nothing to do with the radio directly will cause it not to turn on. Check every single fuse if you cannot get power to the radio. If you connect the factory radio back (make sure to input the radio code) and it does work but the aftermarket radio does not then it might just be a bad or dead radio. You can also test the connectors for power if you have a multimeter to verify that the yellow wire has 12v and the red wire has 12v when you turn the key on. - Aftermarket Radio keeps shutting off by itself
If you installed an aftermarket radio and the radio keep shutting off as you are driving or when you hit a bump. This means one of the connections is not seated properly or there is a fault. You can test for faults with a multimeter and set it to continuity than begin turning and twisting the harness while check if the continuity stops. Before the continuity test make sure all the connectors are seated properly as that can also cause an issue.
