N16 almera radio dead

trevorbrady

no good deed goes unpunished...

Last weekend I replaced the gearbox in the wife's 2003 N16 Almera. It's the facelift version with the ridiculous integrated radio/heater controls and built-in screen in the dash. Bog standard 1.5 petrol model.

Once the job was all done and everything buttoned back up again, I switched on the ignition to drive the car out of the garage and found the radio was dead. I know it was working beforehand as I turned it down while reversing it into the garage so I could see where I was going better

While at the gearbox, I removed the battery and battery tray to get to the left gearbox mount easier and to do so, I had to unclip the engine-bay fusebox from the battery tray and tie it back into the (now empty) battery area to keep it out of the way. The fuse for the radio lives in this fuse box incidentally.

So, now I have a dead screen in the dash and a largely unresponsive control panel. The button for the rear-screen demist works, the little LED in the button lights up once pressed and I can hear the relay under the dash clicking when I press it. The button illumination comes on with the parking lights too. Other than those two things, it's dead
The CD player accepts CDs and the eject button works but other than that it does nothing. I can't control the heater/fan in any way but interestingly, when the ignition is switched on, the fan comes on really low and over the space of 10 minutes gradually speeds up to a medium blow. I can't control this at all, it just does it itself. Even if the radio/heater controls are unplugged from the loom.

I have a multi-meter and I checked the wires at the back of the controls for continuity to earth, the black wire buzzed through so I'm presuming this is the earth wire for the controls. The pink wire is the only one that shows 12-ish Volts with the ignition on. Zero when ignition is off.

I removed and cleaned the legs of the radio fuse in the engine bay and refitted it. I checked the fuse itself (removed from fusebox) for continuity, I tested the two sockets for the legs of the fuse for voltage, the left one shows battery voltage, the right one pretty much zero with the fuse out.

I'm thinking it's possible I upset/broke a wire inside the trunking from the fusebox to the interior while moving the fusebox temporarily. Can anyone who's familiar with this model tell me which wire I should be chasing to see if it's broken somewhere?

Much appreciated

iamthemanwork

Even with all wires unplugged from the back of the radio you should have heater controls and display should be illuminated . You either have a cut wire or a blown fuse and most likely fault is in the engine bay and not inside of the car.

Satriale

Any solution to this? Ive one with a dead radio, engine bay fuse is fine. All the wiring seems fine behind the control panel, climate control is fine but not a peep from radio or CD.

I did notice that there's a stray block connector under the fuseboard in the footwell that looks like there should be a relay attached maybe? Could this be the problem?

iamthemanwork

What model no. is written on top lid of your radio ?

Sometimes there is a fuse in the back of the radio its self .

iamthemanwork

There is no fuse at the back of the Nissan radio

Satriale

iamthemanwork wrote: »

What model no. is written on top lid of your radio ?

Hi Iamthemanwork. Model number on the back of the radio/climate control panel is CSW-8260D(EU).

Pic attached.

Satriale

BrownFinger wrote: »

Sometimes there is a fuse in the back of the radio its self .

Hi BF. Iamthemanwork man beat me to it. No aftermarket one added either that I can see.

Satriale

Satriale wrote: »

I did notice that there's a stray block connector under the fuseboard in the footwell that looks like there should be a relay attached maybe? Could this be the problem?

Pic of this, if relevant.