Stereo Stopped working

D69stang

Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2013
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Points
1
I have a 2012 Freedom 275 with a Kenwood system. Today while out on the water the stereo turned off and would not power back on. when I got back to the dock i pulled the two fuses in the box labeled stereo (one was a 10 am, one a 15 amp) and both looked fine (ie no visible breaks which usually are the telltale sign). are there any other inline fuses standard, or any other ideas on what could have happened? i may pick up two fuses and replace them both anyway altho they appear fine and hope that fixes the issue, but i have a bad feeling that the fuses are fine (ie i do know what a burnt / blown fuse looks like).

Dean
 

wspitler

GreatGrady Captain
Joined
May 16, 2011
Messages
1,365
Reaction score
318
Points
83
Location
Inglis, FL
Model
Express 330
Buy a cheap continuity tester (multimeter) and learn how to use it to check a voltage/resistance. Put it on the ohm scale and touch the probes, one to each end of the removed fuse and it should read 0 which means no resistance. You will likely have other uses for a meter down the road. It should be not much more costly than the price of the fuses and it's likely not the fuses, if they look good. They can look OK and be blown (open), but more often than not you will see a break in the wire if the fuse is blown. If the fuse is bad (one is power and the other is memory) then you need to find out why it blew and that is a whole different issue, usually caused by a short circuit to ground. If the fuses are good, use the meter to check that you have 12VDC at the end of the power wire by removing the fuse(s) and checking between the power and ground. If there is power to the fuse, focus on the radio itself. If no power to the fuse, then you need to trace wires back to a power source. The memory wire is usually wired direct to the battery itself. If it has a wired remote, like mine, try it from the set itself and take power off the house system and try to reset the radio. Good luck!
 
Last edited:

D69stang

Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2013
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Points
1
well i went tot he marina to try swapping out the fuses. turned on the batteries and the radio came on and was working fine. not sure if thats good or bad as i have no idea what is/was wrong with it. but i suppose i will let it ride and hope for the best.