Hey guys.

My 1990's stock Bose seems to not be getting any power, not even the clock nor any backlighting, I checked the fuse in the main panel and it looks good, don't have a multimeter at the moment so I haven't checked anything with that. Courtesy lights work, chime does not expect it came and stayed on with a constant tone for day last week. Any ideas?

 

Not sure but I just fitted a new radio to my 89 since it wasn't working. Turned out I didn't have switched power although the fuse was fine. I took a feed from the DIC panel and all is good again

 

Interesting, idea what would cause that? Strangely enough, my DIC doesn't work either, it has backlight but no buttons work. Not getting an error message and the LCD shows instant MPG like it was the last setting. Ideas on that would be nice too.

 

First check your battery and be sure it is fully charged and the terminals are all cleaned. Remove the cover that goes over the battery area. Check the battery open circuit voltage (No loads or chargers) then check the voltage at your fuse panel. Now measure the voltage at the fuse panel . They should be the same or very close to the same. The voltage at the fuse panels will be lower if there is corrosion at the post. If there is no voltage difference between the battery and the fuse panel then you need to test each fusible link that attaches to the post to ensure that the power is getting where it needs to.

On my 1988 C4 there is a post with a bunch of wires going to it. The post on my car is vertically oriented, fastened to the frame rail and has several ring terminals secured with a nut holding them together on the post. There will be a red wire going to this post as well directly from the battery. The power comes Un-Fused to this post so be very careful to touch it with any tools when the battery is connected. I do this operation with the battery disconnected for safety. The seven ring terminals are connected to fusible links that are visible from the post. You test them using pins piercing the outer jacket, what ever you do cover the pin holes with good electrical tape. Don't leave holes in the jacket of the wire or new problems might occur.

The post supplies the un-fused power to the fuse panel. Those fusible links are what feeds the power to the entire car. They are very important and I have had to clean mine twice in twenty plus years of ownership. I greased my terminals and post with battery grease and covered the part of the post that is exposed with a vacuum cap.

For any serious testing you are going to need a good high quality Volt Ohm Meter, a set of Factory Service Manuals for your particular year of Corvette and a fuel pressure tester to verify the fuel pressures are in fact correct and working properly. That is the first couple tools you will need.

Good Luck with your car, the power will be there if it gets by the post.... My Bose Radio was seeing less than 11 volts at the power input. Everything works better with 12 volts going to it on a car with Electronic Fuel Injection. If you have any broken ground straps be sure to replace them. They too are critical for your Corvette to work properly. I had a broken one near my exhaust system and upon repairing it my power antenna stood to attention for the first time in a while.

Lets see where this gets you.... We are here to help you in any way we can. That is the GREAT thing about The Corvette Forum!!

 

Just got my stock Delco Bose Gold Series stereo working on my 90 convertible. Sent some the components to Factory Car Stereo Repair in Florida for rebuild. They have a very informative site, carstereohelp.com, and explain some of the common problems with the Bose stereo in C4 Corvettes. You can also call them and they'll answer any questions you might have.