Alright Ags,

I have a 2014 Chevy Cruze that has some weird radio issues. I have already replaced the necessary negative battery cable known to be faulty with these vehicles with no luck. When the volume is higher, the aftermarket radio will turn itself off automatically and then restart itself. It specifically does this especially with songs with more bass!

At low volumes, it never does this. I purchased this vehicle used and believe the previous owner probably has a sub/amp setup but took it out when trading it in if that's helpful.

Any ideas?

Bad ground connection

Im pretty terrible at wiring related stuff, but I'm fairly mechanically inclined. How would I go about tracking down that ground connection?

Could be a bunch of things, my first suspicion is you don't have a big enough gauge wire to the head unit. Cheaper vehicles wire everything where it's just enough to power the factory head unit not a good head unit, so it's trying to draw too much power for the size wire it has. Rather than chasing wiring, I'd just install a cheap little $30 amp to drive the head unit, the wiring kit that comes with the amp should have all the proper sized wires. It could also be you've got too many speakers hooked up and have an impedance problem, a powered amp would most likely cure that problem as well. If your dash lights or headlights are flickering too when the stereo shuts down you might have an undersized alternator for what you are trying to do, in that case you need some reserve power somewhere, you can install a cap or possibly even a second battery or upgrade your alternator.

Is there an aftermarket amp or subs?

WHeres the aftermarket radio grounded to?

I haven't dived into it too deeply quite yet. I plan on checking the wiring from the factory amplifier this weekend and also the guage of wire from the back of the head unit. As far as I know, there aren't added speakers/subs. My guess would be the wire isn't producing enough power for the head unit.