# Ah jeez. Please help!

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/ah-jeez-please-help/128311>\
**Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\
**Tags:** toyota\
**Created:** [November 6, 2018, 9:53am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/ah-jeez-please-help/128311 "2018-11-06T09:53:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 11\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Michael69](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Michael69](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Michael69)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2018, 9:53am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/ah-jeez-please-help/128311/1 "2018-11-06T09:53:36Z")

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Alrighty, so I’ll be the first to admit, I crossed jumper cable wires when jumping my car, it was late and I couldn’t think, so it just went spark like, a lot of sparks when I touched the positive terminal, a horrible amount of sparks. And so I fixed the mistake that I didn’t notice and got the car jumped and running, and that’s when I realized the radio wouldn’t work and I thought ahh no biggie just a blown fuse. Nope. I checked every single fuse my car has (Toyota Camry 01) and every single fuse was fine. so I got to thinking there’s a few problems here, I either blew the radio or something came unplugged. I’m leaning more towards the I blew the radio. Let me remind you, everything still works fine, headlights, dash lights, dome light, everything BUT the radio. Please help me !!

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**Author:** ![SteveCBT](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/stevecbt/32/3192_2.png) [@SteveCBT](https://community.cartalk.com/u/SteveCBT)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2018, 11:42am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/ah-jeez-please-help/128311/2 "2018-11-06T11:42:07Z")

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Before anyone will reply to your post we will ask that you edit your post and clean up the language. We do understand your frustration, but the characters #%@\* are all available to express your feelings.

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**Author:** ![shawn\_kearney](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/22d042/32.png) [@shawn\_kearney](https://community.cartalk.com/u/shawn_kearney)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2018, 11:55am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/ah-jeez-please-help/128311/3 "2018-11-06T11:55:33Z")

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I think some radios have their own fuse on the back of the unit or perhaps on an auxillary amplifier? My volvo had an amplifier tucked up under the stearing column, though I’d imagine it wouldn’t have had its own fuse.

But, if your radio or amplifier is after market, I can see that, and given your degree of stress over it, I’m guessing it might be. I kind of remember my alpine head unit I had did have its own fuse… not sure though.

Might just be time for a new car radio.

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**Author:** ![Michael69](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Michael69](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Michael69)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2018, 1:20pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/ah-jeez-please-help/128311/4 "2018-11-06T13:20:27Z")

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Yea I checked to see if it had fuses on the back of the head unit, not one single fuse in sight lol.

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**Author:** ![shawn\_kearney](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/22d042/32.png) [@shawn\_kearney](https://community.cartalk.com/u/shawn_kearney)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2018, 2:00pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/ah-jeez-please-help/128311/5 "2018-11-06T14:00:28Z")

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Well, if it’s not under any warranty (and even if it is, you prob voided it) you could open it up and follow the traces with a multimeter and see if it’s anything obvious or replaceable.

But, tbh, I think you’re up a creek.

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**Author:** ![Cavell](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/cavell/32/43396_2.png) [@Cavell](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Cavell)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2018, 2:05pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/ah-jeez-please-help/128311/6 "2018-11-06T14:05:12Z")

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nice. you checked for fuse on rear of HU. so you can now check for voltage at the power lead.

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**Author:** ![BillRussell](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/billrussell/32/3179_2.png) [@BillRussell](https://community.cartalk.com/u/BillRussell)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2018, 2:25pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/ah-jeez-please-help/128311/7 "2018-11-06T14:25:27Z")

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You are very very lucky that is all the damage you did. You could have popped several of the computers on your car, **and** on the other car also. Many thousands of dollars.

If you measure 12 volts at the radio power input, the radio is gone.

Your battery probably needs replacement, won’t last very long.

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**Author:** ![TwinTurbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@TwinTurbo](https://community.cartalk.com/u/TwinTurbo)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2018, 4:32pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/ah-jeez-please-help/128311/8 "2018-11-06T16:32:50Z")

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It is normal design practice to have some sacrificial elements at the power input as a final protection to prevent damaging the entire unit in the event of a power event like this. Sometimes, that is a fuse that is readily accessible but more often than not, it is a fuse or diode that is integrated onto the device’s circuit board(s). If you can find someone with a bit of electrical experience or a shop that can fix such things, you could probably salvage the radio without much effort. I wonder just how many electrical devices in a car are needlessly tossed in the trash and replaced at great expense to the car owner because no one can fix such things anymore…

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**Author:** ![wentwest](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/wentwest/32/6073_2.png) [@wentwest](https://community.cartalk.com/u/wentwest)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2018, 7:00pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/ah-jeez-please-help/128311/9 "2018-11-06T19:00:28Z")

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You might be able to find a Toyota replacement stereo unit online because your car is so old. They are pretty easy to install. Or, you could just buy an after market unit.

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**Author:** ![Michael69](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Michael69](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Michael69)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2018, 10:37pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/ah-jeez-please-help/128311/10 "2018-11-07T22:37:50Z")

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There aren’t any fuses on the back

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**Author:** ![kurtwm1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/13edae/32.png) [@kurtwm1](https://community.cartalk.com/u/kurtwm1)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2018, 1:24am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/ah-jeez-please-help/128311/11 "2018-11-08T01:24:20Z")

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get more info on your radio. It may have an in-line fuse, usually located within the wring harness of the radio.
