Stereo Problems--96 Tahoe

Mr Dave · August 22, 2004

My new (to me) 96 Tahoe is having stereo problems. The radio worked fine when I bought it and fine all the way home. After a couple of days, on the way to work it stopped playing. The radio still shows a signal, but no sound out of the speakers. At lunch that day the radio played fine. That afternoon it played fine all the way home. Now its not playing again. Is there a factory amplifier that may be going out or is the head unit bad? Anyone have a similar problem? It has the factory CD player and tape deck. Thanks for the help!

sdtahoe · August 23, 2004

On the 4 door Tahoes there is a amp under the drivers seat for the rear door speakers only the rest are powered by the deck. Also check the wiring behind the deck to see if the PO had an aftermarket deck and didn't get the wire hooked up good before trade.

EXJAY · August 23, 2004

ahhh...yes. brings back nightmares of my radio re-wire. when i got my used 96 tahoe only the front speakers would put out sound. figuered out someone did a hack job on the rear speakers and headliner speaker wiring im guessing wiring in a amp etc then putting it back (or close) to stock for the buyer. anyways, i gave up and just re-wired all the speakers back to the harness and replaced all the speakers aswell. GOOD LUCK!! X 10

99-2door · August 23, 2004

Sounds like the stereo has a short inside. I have seen several of them do the same thing. you can get a replacement for that stock cassette player head-unit farily cheap on eBay.

04Yukon · August 23, 2004

My '96 Tahoe had the tape deck and CD player. God, I can't remember ever using the tape deck, but I HAD to have it when I bought the truck brand new. Ha!

Anyway, that stereo was really acting up before I sold it (up here in PA.) It had a mind of its own and I had never altered anything in that factory set up. The last straw was when the CD player wouldn't spin up on cold mornings. That's when I sold the truck.

99-2door · August 24, 2004

My '96 Tahoe had the tape deck and CD player. God, I can't remember ever using the tape deck, but I HAD to have it when I bought the truck brand new. Ha!

You couldn't have gotten the cd player without the tape player too in 96 anyway. So don't feel too bad about it.

Mr Dave · August 25, 2004

I'm going to pull the radio out this weekend and look for any obvious bad connections. If I don't see anything I will try another head unit from the local salvage yard for $50.

Mr Dave · September 5, 2004

Well, I gave up on the used radios since the only two that the local salvage yard had were bad. I installed an aftermarket Pioneer head unit and it worked fine yesterday. Today it did the same thing. None of the wiring looks to have ever been tampered with on the factory harness and all of the wires I installed were soldered and individually taped. The factory harness is still intact because I put an adapter harness in. I find it strange that all of the speakers go dead with both head units. Any ideas?

99-2door · September 6, 2004

Well, I gave up on the used radios since the only two that the local salvage yard had were bad. I installed an aftermarket Pioneer head unit and it worked fine yesterday. Today it did the same thing. None of the wiring looks to have ever been tampered with on the factory harness and all of the wires I installed were soldered and individually taped. The factory harness is still intact because I put an adapter harness in. I find it strange that all of the speakers go dead with both head units. Any ideas?

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So you have a 4 door?

There is an amp module under the driver's seat like someone mentioned earlier. I thought it only operated the rear speakers though.

Mr Dave · September 7, 2004

Yes, it is a 4 door. Someone mentioned that it was only for the rear door speakers, so I thought the problem had to be somewhere else since none of them work. I'll take a look tomorrow and see if I can see how many wires are coming and going from it.