saukeye

I just made the jump from honda to toyota and decided to take the plunge with a 93 celsior. When I went to pick it up from the port, the battery was dead. A port worker jumped the battery and the car started fine, but when I went to turn on the radio, there was no volume. Not even a slight hum of static. Nothing. I paroused google and saw that it may be a fuse issue so today I checked the radio fuse and it was intact and fine. I read that it could also be an amp issue.

Just to clarify, the radio works and all functions (tape, cd, fm/am etc.) works fine and lights up, but no sound. Any ideas on a remedy?

CELSI0R

Amp might be shorted or disconnected or the volume is being affected by an accessory. Check for moisture or water buildup in the trunk.

Although, it's more common on LS 400s than Celsiors for first gens to have the amp temporarily short out, because water can leak through the telescoping radio antenna, which is not on Celsiors. This happened to me once in my LS after driving through heavy rain with the radio on. Now, I don't listen to the radio when it rains... Luckily, Celsiors have the radio antenna integrated into the rear glass.

Also, what system do you have? Pioneer, Nakamichi? Do you have the Cellular phone option, or anything that interrupts the radio audio output? There have also been threads about the car phone causing the radio to think it is on, which would then mute the audio.

saukeye

Hmm... I'm not seeing any moisture in the trunk. I'll look a bit harder though. I have the pioneer system with the CD changer w/o the phone option. Doesn't the pioneer system go through the head unit and onlyt he sub gets amped? Maybe something in my head unit is unplugged.

CELSI0R

I have not looked at the wiring in a while, but I remember that when my amp got wet, I lost all audio in the car until it air dried. So, I do think that the amp is still relevant to the rest of the speaker audio output.

EDIT: Some diagrams attached for 1993 LS 400 to help you troubleshoot

EDIT2: Looking at the diagram, it appears the amp controls just the sub. Interesting I had the symptoms I did in the past..

One thing to note - Celsiors run off of a different radio frequency than LS 400s. Not sure how that affects the operation in the US. The diagram might not be 100% accurate because of this.

saukeye

Ahh thank you for the schematics. It looks like the radio goes through two junction blocks. I didn't check the one in the car, I only checked the one near the battery. It could be that fuse that's blown. I'll test the amp in the back as well.

EDIT 1: I was waiting for a friend yesterday and when I tested the radio to see if it would miraculously work, I heard a *tick* sound from the trunk (presumably the amplifier) whenever I turn on on/off the radio. Maybe the caps are bad in the amp?

saukeye

UPDATE:

I took apart the center console to get to the radio and everything was in its place and hooked up correctly. I did a battery "hard reset" (I unplugged the cables from the battery, waited about 15 minutes, and re-attached the cables to the terminals) which upon startup, when I pressed the power button, I heard a "thud" like the radio was sending power to the speakers, but no volume functionality. I'm starting to think the radio needs a new volume cap or another component.

Is there any information out there about which caps to use for the Pioneer "premium" system?