2Gen AM/FM Radio Aux Jack problem

[Venturing Sole]

Wondering if anyone experienced something similar or can confirm diagnosis.

 

2006 RSV. 46K miles. Many miles and a few years ago , I inserted a three-way stereo aux line splitter inside the faring...1) to GPS, 2) to Satellite radio/iPod, 3) to cassette aux jack. Also have a Buddy Rich cable.

 

Stereo sound through any of the three stereo aux extension cables worked OK for most of the time, though have had to live with much lower volume levels, especially if two items were powered on at the same time (I.e. GPS and iPod) compared to the volume level of the AM/FM radio.

 

Over time, the audio from the GPS has developed a lot of snap/crackle/pop and the audio from the iPod would drop in and out of the headset speakers (sometimes left speaker, sometimes right speaker) - not getting complete stereo. I would jiggle the male jack into the GPS or iPod and could hear the stereo fidelity cut in and out. I would replace the aux extension cable and use dielectric grease and everything would be good for a few months.

 

Problem progressed such that I can't get stereo fidelity out of either GPS or iPod (I.e. half the sound in only one speaker). to the point where jiggling the extension cables doesn't fix it and replacing the extension cables doesn't fix it. I also replaced the three-way splitter

to no avail.

 

Through process of elimination I have found that the female aux pigtail that is hard wired into the radio is not putting out stereo sound, so every splitter and extension cable downstream is also not putting out stereo sound.

 

Would I be correct in believing that the radio aux pigtail has failed? Should this be covered under warranty?

 

Major bummer. Anyone experienced anything similar?

 

Thanks

 

David

[Owen]

I would suggest cleaning that connector with a good contact cleaner. It will dry very quickly, less than a minute, but while it is wet connect and disconnect it several times to clean the corrosion from the pins. If this clears your problem, then give it some dielectric grease and enjoy the stereo.

[V7Goose]

If you have been regularly wiggling a cord plugged into the stock jack, then yes, you almost certainly broke a wire in there, or maybe even the jack itself. It may or may not be covered under warranty, depending on what the actual damage looks like. To completely test the diagnosis, just unplug the cable between the jack and the radio and plug a good player directly into the cable at that point.

 

Now a word of caution for you - you should NEVER connect more than one device at a time to those audio jacks unless you have a load isolation device on at least one of them! Headset and audio output jacks on portable devices are never designed to protect against cross-wire issues with other devices, so by plugging multiple devices into the same jack you can experience many problems, ranging from reduced volume, audio interference, burned out speakers (or preamps), and complete destruction of a connected device.

 

Here is a little background on why those bad things happen. Speakers require two wires to complete the audio circuit, and usually one of those wires is just a ground; this is especially common in vehicle radios. It makes no difference at all to the speaker OR to the device which wire is grounded (ignoring the phase issue for stereo), since a speaker is simply a completely isolated coil. But as soon as you connect another electronic device to the same jack, you create a different path back to ground. Even if both devices are wired identically, the impedance (load) on the audio output circuits of each device is massively changed, causing potential damage. That is why you almost always get a big drop in volume.

 

And if that second device has the audio output wires reversed internally, you have created a direct short of your audio out from device #1 to the negative power grid on device #2. This is never good, even if both devices are powered by their own batteries, but if both devices are actively powered by the vehicle's electrical system, that is where you can quickly destroy either or both of the connected devices. Sometimes is can be immediate, and some times they will seem to work until the overload causes damage somewhere down the road.

 

Goose

[woolwich]

This also concerns the aux jack, I have an mp3 player and has been working fine now twice while riding the speakers start to bugger up, then I lose the sound, switch to radio works fine.

Turn the bike off try a different jack wire from plug to mp3 still dead, although when switching through the modes on the mp3 the beeping comes through the speakers, but no music, mp3 works fine through earphones. ride on listening to radio stop for a smoke try mp3 player and it works?

This tends to happen both times at highway speed 70mph plus, where should I check for a lose wire or could the jack be heating up...

would wires running under the seats have anything to do with the aux jack, I would think all that would be in the fairing but who knows.

Very fussy and need my tunes or can't function right, regular radio simply sucks.

[V7Goose]

This also concerns the aux jack, I have an mp3 player and has been working fine now twice while riding the speakers start to bugger up, then I lose the sound, switch to radio works fine.

Turn the bike off try a different jack wire from plug to mp3 still dead, although when switching through the modes on the mp3 the beeping comes through the speakers, but no music, mp3 works fine through earphones. ride on listening to radio stop for a smoke try mp3 player and it works?

This tends to happen both times at highway speed 70mph plus, where should I check for a lose wire or could the jack be heating up...

would wires running under the seats have anything to do with the aux jack, I would think all that would be in the fairing but who knows.

Very fussy and need my tunes or can't function right, regular radio simply sucks.

Sounds almost certainly to be either a bad jack or the cord from your player. The dirty environment and vibration on a bike can play havoc with electrical connections. Possible the wires behind the jack have shorted out, but not very likely if you are using the factory jack behind the cassette door.

 

You did say your tired a different cord and that did not help, but were you listening carefully to the speakers when you plugged the cord in? Try it again with the key in ACC and set to Aux, and plug/unplug the cord slowly several times to see the sound briefly comes on. Not all cords are created equal, and sometimes the dimensions on the plug are different so they just barely match up in one specific position. Also take another device with the same size headphone jack with you so you can try it when your player stops.

 

Finally, check the connection in the Aux input wire inside the fairing (no wires under the seat for this). The Aux jack behind the cassette door just plugs into a wire about six inches behind the cassette - this is the same plug where you would add a Y splitter if you were going to install a second input jack. Reseating that plug might solve your problem if nothing else does.

Goose

[woolwich]

Thank you we have a second mp3 its the wifes, her music sucks but I guess I'll need it to see if the problem lies in my player, if all else fails I'll yank the fairing apart and check everything out and clean and grease it all again, and if it the jack in the cassette player I'll just rig up something with a splitter.