themetalmaster said:
I'll take better pictures of my connectors. I have both the 2011 and 2013 wiring diagrams. They are different. The 2011 says there is a separate amp to drive the subs in the rear deck. The 2013 says that all the speakers including the sub's are driven off the Sony amp / DSP.
My car for some reason or another has an undocumented change where all the speakers are driven off the Sony amp. There is no separate amp for the subs.
My car has the same wire colors as the 2013 but the pin out is different.
I've got another MS8 on the way just in case I got a bad one.
I really appreciate your help and patience in helping me solve this issue.
That's just crazy that it is wired differently. Something's up, and we need to get to the bottom of it. I strongly feel that the MS8 is just fine. When they go bad, they go really, really bad. Like all-hell-breaks-loose bad, and you'll know it. It also happens extremely rarely, and seems to be directly tied into a possible very low voltage situation when doing tuning, so I doubt you'll run into that. Point is, I think the MS8 is not the issue.
For now, I would advise attaching a simple toggle switch to act as your turn-on. Use a constant 12V, and we'll troubleshoot with the MS8 this way. I would also order up a PAC TR-4, and get ready to install it. It only costs a few bucks and always could be good to have one around. Now, I would make sure that all speaker inputs and outputs are really what they are supposed to be, and later we can pour over manuals to make sure. Then, I would leave alone any remote turn on leads from any part of the system. Use a switch, and test with the MS8 completely off to make sure no pops are coming. Then turn on the MS8 after the whole system powers up. Then the other way. I did a build for a new Flex, and we had a pop when trying to use a certain turn on point. We resorted to using the TR-4 on a CAN signal line. No pop, but the MS8 does power up sometimes when something like a door is opened, or some other CAN signal occurs. It was supposed to only be the CAN Multimedia BUS, but apparently it wakes up more than we thought. That said...NO pops occur on his Flex.
For MY Flex, my new 2013... I purposely wired the MS8's turn on directly to the ignition switch ON. I did this because I was having difficulty with turn on signals and mind you, I installed this a year ago before we knew much about the 2013's vast differences from the one I had before.. That said, the ignition ON is a great place to connect, but I get a turn on pop if I switch to ON, let the system start playing, and then try to start the car. The slight interruption of power when the car tries to start screws it up a bit, and I get a pop. So what I do is when I have the car in the ON position but not running (let's say, while filling with gas), when I get back in I'll move the key quickly to off, and then right back to Start and ON. This tiny change means that there's no pop, the MS8 is happy, the amps are happy, and everything works perfectly. It also means that my MS8 turns off in ACC mode, which for me is a good thing because I'll drain my batt quickly with the system playing, so ACC could be just to open a window or run the NAV, or something like that. I could fix this with a TR4 but honestly, I'm so used to turning the key off and right back on when I need to (like filling with gas while listening out the window), that it just has become automatic. I am explaining this BTW because it may suit you and your build too.
