Help - -removed radio- - now engine won't crank

[salty1960]

Hi all,

Hope someone can help. My recently purchased L322 3.0 HSE had the radio not operating. I read a fir bit, saw the youtube videos and thought I would pull it out and have a look / plan an upgrade to the head set.

Now the engine won't crank, (the head lights come on instead!)

I mucked around with the gear lever, key, plugged the 'mid' radio panel back in etc, but then the key wouldn't turn.

Pulled some fuses, saw the instruments / steering locations etc all reset, but still no cranking. The headlights look bright and I did try a second battery just in case the volts were low (but I doubt hat is the problem, as the headlights come on very bright)

I thin I have the immoboliser / infosystem / a bit upset, and plan to disconnect the battery in the morning. -- Does anyone have any advice, before I bury myself in this technology nightmare.


Regards,

Stephen from Orchard Hills :confused:

[Homestar]

Did you have the battery disconnected while you pulled the radio out? This should be the first thing you do before touching the electrics.

I would try disconnecting the battery for a while to reset everything.

It may pay to post on FULLFATRR.COM as well, as there is a wealth of info on these things there.

Let us know how you go.

Cheers - Gav

[salty1960]

Gav,

I didn't think the radio disconnect would be to traumatic (not much different to turning it off i thought)
I did the battery disconnect and when I reconnected realised it was now quite flat (9V)
So I got the jumper battery pack I had used last night to confirm the problem wasn't a battery voltage issue and guess what - - It was not fully charged either (11V)

With booster battery, voltage was still too low.

I have been trying to work out how to charge the L322 without;
interior lights stuck on
alarm not going off, etc


I can't believe how hard this was.

I gave up, and disconnected the earth lead. (Even disconnecting the earth lead was new technique I hadn't seen in my 40 years of working on cars)

Then I check the charging voltage of the small charger I was using and it was reading something like 10v - - I was starting to think it will never charge it.

Just read some threads on others difficulty with similar situations, and now I don't feel so bad.

The voltage has come up (under charge) to 12.5V so I think it will work. - -I might have to pick up a faster charger for the future I think.

Also, importantly;
When I was thrashing fuses in and out trying to get the system to reset last night I had incorrectly returned the fuse from 18 to the vacant hole at 14 - - that's why my ignition / steering lock failed to reinitialize the second time.

I think it is all good when it is charged - - I will watch some more racing.

Hard work these RR :-)

Thanks again

[Homestar]

Ah yes, flat batteries do the strangest things to these cars. If your battery is dodgey, I would replace it all together. It seems like batteries only last a few years before they need replacing.

Once you get it fully charged, give it a go, but if the battery doesn't fully charge, I would stuff a new one in. Even if it starts now, you may have other things go wrong, and you may get all sorts of fault codes start appearing.

[jsp]

Seems to have been a few people buying diesel 322's recently.

I bought mine 2 weeks ago.

Whats the issue with your stereo? I bought mine knowing the stereo didnt work, and this was a bargaining point. I had it up and running in an hour or so, and still have to attempt to fix the bad pixel display though on the mid unit.

Its the 3rd L322 I have seen now where the taillights have leaked and moisture has gotten into the amp in the back.

[salty1960]

JSP,

No sound from the Radio.
The whole process (which I can now confirm was started from the battery flattening whilst I worked on the dash all day) was to pull the headset out to have a look.- i was planning on chucking it in favour of a sat nav screen of sorts

I only got to briefly look at the headset, (pulled the fuse, checked the pins in the plug for obvious damage - -what I call Australian content) but could see anything wrong.

When plugged in, the lcd shows that it searches for stations, find them. All volume, bass etc controls appear to work on the LCD. the Disc stacker seems to work, as does the dsic front feed, but no noise from any function.

My L322 is a HSE spec. From what i can read & see their isn't a separate amp(please let me know where it is if this isn't the case.

There isn't an amp in the left rear compartment.


How did you fix the radio?

Stephen

[jsp]

My car has the mid stereo, which is the stacker in the glove box and another cd player in the middle, above the lcd panel for trip computer and radio display. In the back passenger side compartment there is a black box with a big squareish plug, thats the amp. If you have the same setup as me, and you describe the exact same fault as mine, pull that black box out (bit of a bugger to get at some of the nuts) and trace the two power lines and earth, as most likely the permanent 12 volt line has a bad track underneath the plug on the sub-board and you will need to retrace it.

I have fixed 2 units with this fault now.

[salty1960]

Mine just has a lot of wires not connected to anything - - I think it is the poverty pack system! Either that or the amp is missing - that would account for the lack of working!!

I will rip the unit a part and try my hand as a radio tech!!

[jsp]

The amp missing in the boot would sum it up - as I bet the headunit works just fine - as the amp in the boot has no smarts - its just an amp.

You can get the BMW version fairly cheap on ebay occasionally, I assume its got the same pinout.

[RangieBit]

Hey y'all,

Just to add further to the confusion. It is possible to have the MID system without an amp in the LH rear quarter panel.

How do I know this? That's how my HSE was when I obtained it. The amp in the rear is there if you have the DSP or upgraded ICE system. If you have the screen then you definitely have the remote amp. If you have a MID display then you may, or may not, have the separate amp.

In all cases the radio unit is definitely supposed to be there in the rear. If you don't have this large black box with a single multipin plug and single coax connection then you won't have radio reception - duh!
The amp unit sits right next to it (further to the rear) with three multipin plugs going into it. This may, or may not, be there.
The Nav unit looks just like a CD unit in there up high on the LH panel. The video unit for the TV is the one that's most visible, if it's there, and has two multipin plugs going into it. You only have this if you have a screen though.

So, the radio unit is under the shallow cubby box in the LH quarter panel and only partially visible if you take the LH vertical trim panel out. In order to get fully to the radio you need to get the panel with the shallow cubby out.

Hope this helps some.

Cheers,
Iain

[jsp]

There was a basic head unit which had a built in amp and powered the front and rear door speakers.

the only one I have fiddled with personally is the mid system, which only has a black amp in the rear left compartment, which looks like and I would say its a fair bet is the same as this one from a bmw BMW LEAR E46 325i AMP Amplifier 65128383871 | eBay (http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/BMW-LEAR-E46-325i-AMP-Amplifier-65128383871-/270821043905)

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2011/10/1001.jpg

The mid system to my knowledge only has one box of tricks in the back, and that's the above amp, which has no smarts, accepts 5v inputs and outputs to speakers in the doors and the center speaker. For all intensive purposes you could put in a standard amp, as there is 12volts, a power on line, and speaker lines, and 5v inputs, all you need, but you would either have to make up a few cross overs or find an amp with specific speaker outputs to match the low/mid/high range speakers. the aerial for the radio runs up to the front of the car and plugs directly into the head unit.

Once you start looking at the system with the nav screen there's lots of boxes of tricks in the back - I am not familiar with that setup.


I just had a look at RAVE and its a bit confusing, there may be the rear radio unit for the sat nav system, and it might be the same radio unit on the low line radio system. But on the mid system like mine, its incorporated into the head unit.


its easy enough to tell if your car has a mid system and is missing the rear amp, just grab the big multipin plug, look up the pin out in rave, measure the speaker pins and see if you get the correct ohm's values, measure the two 12v rails to see if ones always on and ones head unit switched, then check the inputs, easiest done with an analogue volt meter as like my car you will see the needle flapping about to the music.

[salty1960]

I will test the unit like you suggest, but I have a fivea on it being the poverty pack.
The wiring in the boot looks unused. - - the Powerful RR dude on youtube shows a HSE just like mine and point out that there is nothing in the rear compartment.

See :
Range Rover L322 HSE replacement head unit with Satnav DVD (Type B) (http://www.powerfuluk.com/products/range-rover-l322-vogue-03-interior-accessories/nav999-range-rover-l322-hse-replacement-head-unit-with-satnav-dvd-etc.html)

Sound system aside for now - -hows this for another twist of technology.

I charged the RR battery and tested that it started last night before I went to bed. All seemed well. Left it for the missus to use today. - -I get the phone call (hate those calls after I have been playing with car)

"I stoped to adjust the seats, etc and must have bumped the low range as now its says it's stuck in neutral" she says.

I get home and run quickly through the manual instructions for getting it out of some towing neutral techno bable. - -no luck, everytime I put the fuse back in No37 it causes the problem to come back.

I get home and read the threads and see that the fuse shouldn't be in 37!!!
Mia culpa ! I think I put it in last night whilst I was thrashing fuses around the cabin!!!!!!

This is a crash course in RR systems.

Stephen

[jx2mad]

My L322 seems to have the amp in the rear missing because there are a number of plugs floating around loose. However my radio works fine. Jim

[salty1960]

Well i think I lost the bet. The plug in the rear compartment (that wasn't connected to anything) appears corroded. I suspec the amp was pulled out when failed.
The radio works and I can listen to it with my improvised earpiece. So I am confident I just need to replace the amp.- - -But as per post above it has separate outputs to Front L & R, Front(tweeters) L&R, Back Doors Low Range L&R, and Back doors High range)

So I need to make sure the replacement amp has the correct crossovers to suit !!
I am not sure if there would be much difference between the E46 amp and a RR. - -I am guessing that the cross over & balancing of tweeters, etc is going to be slightly different. - -

Has anybody done this swap? - -Would I be better making up the cross overs and using aftermarket amps?

Any thoughts appreciated

[jsp]

I would bet its the same.......

[salty1960]

I might order that sucker and give it a try.

This site below details a similar amp operation - - not sure about the balancing of the different speakers still.

BMW E46 10-Channel Amp (http://www.bmwgm5.com/Stereo_Amp.htm)

It calls pin 10 as Antenna - - I guess that measn Attenna power ?
as the L322 manual calls pin 10 radio on!

The Ebay Item talks about might need reflashing. - -I wouldn't think these are programmable! Isn't it a dumb box?

[jsp]

Well the few I have looked at are just straight amps nothing more

[tebone]

My car has the mid stereo, which is the stacker in the glove box and another cd player in the middle, above the lcd panel for trip computer and radio display. In the back passenger side compartment there is a black box with a big squareish plug, thats the amp. If you have the same setup as me, and you describe the exact same fault as mine, pull that black box out (bit of a bugger to get at some of the nuts) and trace the two power lines and earth, as most likely the permanent 12 volt line has a bad track underneath the plug on the sub-board and you will need to retrace it.

I have fixed 2 units with this fault now.

Hi JSP,
I am not sure if you can help me?

I replaced the amp in the 02 vogue and still didn't work but after a few days the DSP on the front lcd panel appeared and stereo worked fined.
Then it disappeared. The radio/cd only plays for 2 minutes than switches off. Then you turn stereo off/on and it works for another 2 minutes but the DSP will not display on the lcd screen. I've had the battery checked which was ok.

Have you any suggestions?

Regards Paul

[jsp]

Sorry if its the big screened vogue setup with satnav then I can't help you, its a rather complex setup and in my view more complex than it needs to be by a mile.

I got asked about an 05 with fibre connections the other day - again way over my head.

The mid system is great as its like a conventional car setup with low level outputs from the head unit and a bog standard amp in the back.

i believe the one in your car has a digital amp that does all fancy things like digital volume control where the head unit tells the ibus what volume it wants and the amp picks up from the ibus and does so accordingly etc.

[tebone]

Thanks anyway JSP,
Last night I disconnect the battery and waited 20 mins for a reset. I reconnected the battery now the radio doesn't work at all as before it use to come on for 2 minutes.
I been on other forums searching. No one seems to know the direct cause for the dsp not beening displayed. They suggest replacing amp, tv module etc etc $$$$. I already replaced the amp which the dsp did display after a week and than disappeared.

Who knows whats going on?

Regards Paul

[salty1960]

JSP,

Don't call you Master for nothing. I got the Amp plugged it in hey prestos, average sound!
The front low range speakers are a bit tired. Does any one have any specific recommendations for replacing these. I guess I can just match the physical size and ohms.

Thanks for the help:-)

[jsp]

well thats great news!

another interchangable part!