hey all

i have been running my stock stereo for a good long while again. I had an good aftermarket system, alpine deck, years back- stolen...

anyhow it seems the stock unit can under-power itself quite often. When listening to radio, or tape adapter with windows down, the stereo clips at louder volume ( like it stops and resets the deck). I can notice on normal use, the clock fluctuates its brightness depending on how hard your driving the stereo.

I dont recall having this problem with the aftermarket stereo.
Is it simply the stock radio, or is there something else Im missing that would cause this issue?


99 xj

 

hmm while you may have alot of power loads the only time i had this happen was i didnt have a very great ground and everytime i had a huge load the radio will cut down on power but after fixing the ground it has no longer been an issue on a 20 dollar stero. The stock on the other hand was starting to deteriorate as you heard interference when you revved he engine, got louder as you revved the engine at times and the left channel just stopped working along with the buttons i guess deforming from the heat as they were hard to push and got stuck.

 

The stock stereo is junk, as are the stock paper speakers. Not sure if that behavior is normal, but the factory head unit puts out less than 6w RMS per channel at its absolute maximum.

A modest upgrade would be ANY name brand head-unit off eBay (I scored a Kenwood KDC-X301 for like $30 with the harness for a buddy, got lucky but search comparable models and you should find a few deals), and any name brand low-end 6.5" speakers (Kenwood and Pioneer are both decent).
I wouldn't even bother with rear speakers, just do the front and disable the rear and it will sound pretty good. Could probably get away for $50-80 if you play your cards right (buy used gear off eBay)

EDIT:
There really isn't anything you can do to prevent vehicle break-ins apart from a real alarm system. It's happened to me, about $500 worth of audio equipment ripped out of my XJ and passenger door lock mangled.
You could do a stealth install, but it is going to involve lots of work/wiring. Buying cheap gear helps ease the pain, no attachment = no suffering