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VladTepes
10th May 2004, 09:18 AM
I just had a Cd player installed in the Defender (the speakers are boxed neatly into the square section below the B-pillars - photos to come in due course).

Anyway, the installer has hooked it up to the ignition circuit rather than 'accessories'. Is this normal ?

He said that he originally hooked it up to ACC and it worked fine UNTIL the engine was started (ie turned to IGN) at which point the stereo would turn off and not come back on.

How is the stereo hooked up on later Defenders (ie the ones that have it as a factory item) ?

I would really rather have it on the ACC circuit so I can run it while the vehcile is stopped and not just while on the move.

Any ideas ?

Gaz69
10th May 2004, 10:42 AM
Hi Vlad,
Sounds a bit sussed to me Vlad! My stacker works on the acc on my 97 TDI. When cranking on most engines it will drop out the radio due to voltage drop to get the engines cranking. It should resume where it was playing before. What brand of C.D. player? Do you trust your installer or is he telling you porkie pies ? Let us know how you go. There should be a few audio guru's out there?

Gaz.

VladTepes
10th May 2004, 10:48 AM
It's an Eclipse brand - which is very good and unlikely to be the culprit, especially as it works well otherwise.

The installer is one that does all the Landy stuff for M.R. Automotive so they have the experience with Landys, but I don't know whether the particular bloke who put it in has done one before or not.

I do have a turbo timer but I don't think this should make any difference - after all it just continues supplying electricity to the ignition curcuit for a few minutes longer, doesn't it !?

Anyone out there have any experience in this ?
As I recall there is an auto-lecky out there somewhere....

KEV0044
10th May 2004, 01:37 PM
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bigbugga
10th May 2004, 09:08 PM
Just dont sound right Vlad.

Should run off the ACC just fine.

Do your other accesories run ok when you have the ACC turned on???


As Kev said take it back and get it looked at.

VladTepes
11th May 2004, 10:37 AM
Is the fuse for the stereo in the fuse box the one with rthe symbol which looks like qa rectangle a circle inside at either end ? (If you look, you'll know what I mean)

Given my Landy didn't come with a radio, would the harness have included stereo wiring (I wouldn't have thought they'd do different harnesses for different spec levels, but rather that they would use the one harness and just not use the parts not required).

All the other Accessories seem to work fine.

Phoenix
11th May 2004, 11:02 AM
Actually the reverse I believe.

it is cheaper for them to use the one harness, and not use the relavent pins for anything. For example, my subaru has wiring for A/C and seat heaters, but neither is installed.

bigbugga
11th May 2004, 04:17 PM
It is the norm to use just one harness.

KEV0044
11th May 2004, 04:53 PM
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shaunp
11th May 2004, 05:32 PM
I bet you he grabbed the glow plug cct and not the acc.

KEV0044
11th May 2004, 05:51 PM
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drivesafe
12th May 2004, 08:01 PM
Most in-car entertainment systems now days can be switched on with the keys removed from the ignition switch. It might pay you to have a look at the web site for Eclise and see if you model works that way and also check to see if it has a memory feature. If it does then the system is wired wrong as the memory would know what state the system was in ( on or off ) when the ignition was turned on and when the power went back to normal after starting the engine, if the CD was on before, it should come back on again. 8)

LRHybrid100
12th May 2004, 08:36 PM
Originally posted by drivesafe
Most in-car entertainment systems now days can be switched on with the keys removed from the ignition switch. It might pay you to have a look at the web site for Eclise and see if you model works that way and also check to see if it has a memory feature. If it does then the system is wired wrong as the memory would know what state the system was in ( on or off ) when the ignition was turned on and when the power went back to normal after starting the engine, if the CD was on before, it should come back on again. 8)

the reason why they can also be used after switching the car off is they then use the other (constant live) ciruit also used for the radio / cd memory.

This is a bloody good feature, used to on be on the high end tuff - like Becker (installed in most lux German cars) but now copied by all and sundry.

VladTepes
14th May 2004, 11:20 AM
Spoke to them today and they said:


Originally they wired it up to the ACC circuit, but there seems to be a fault with the electrical system.
When key turned to ACC - power to unit.
WHen key turned to IGN - power to IGN circuit but ACC circuit drops out - unit off. ie. with the car running there is no power to the ACC circuit.

They have tapped the wire for the radio into the ACC circuit at the back of the cig. lighter, so apparently the cig. lighter would only work on IGN also.

They told me that if I got the electricals sorted, they'd swap the radio back onto the preferred circuit for me.



So can anyone make sense of this :?:
Is / should cig. lighter be hooked up to constant live or ACC or IGN circuit ?
Should power feed be tapped into somewhere else ?

In the owner's manual for the stereo unit there are wiring instructions which says:
ACC wire - red - connect to where power on in ACC position on barrel
B+ wire - yellow - connect to constant power, regardless of switch position...
and various others of course.

KEV0044
14th May 2004, 03:19 PM
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Gaz69
14th May 2004, 03:38 PM
Vlad,
You must be getting frustrated now? :?: It shouldn't take them long to work out with a volt meter what has 12 volts on when the keys is turned on to the accessories. If they can not sort it out you may have to pay an auto sparky as KEV0044 suggested. You dont know anyone that knows how to use a multi meter or test lamp? Good luck

Gaz

drivesafe
14th May 2004, 04:48 PM
Vlad, going back a few years ago, I used to manufacture and install car alarms. Most vehicles had one or two Accessory circuits and these would take a voltage dive while the ignition switch was in the start position, there was power but at a reduced voltage level. As newer electrical systems were developed, deferent types of operations came along. One of them that I and some of my installer customers started to come across particularly on diesel powered 4WDs, the Accessories circuit was actually disconnected while the ignition switch was turned to the start position.
On some vehicles you can get around the problem by going to the rear of the ignition switch and testing the wires coming out of it.
Some times there is two Accessories circuits and one will remain powered while the ignition switch is in the start position.
WARNING : - If you are going to search for the wires yourself and if your vehicle is fitted with AIR BAGS, use a multi meter to search through the wires.
DO NOT USE A TEST LIGHT.
Using a test light may result in the air bag being triggered and as you will have your head in a low position it could KILL you. It happens a lot.
Regards and best of luck.

landrovermick
14th May 2004, 05:31 PM
hey there - i know this - if i stall :oops: my vehicle i cannot get power from the ignition key unless i turn it fully off again, i know this is a feature of some european vehicles,

i dunno if that has anything to do wif it......

mick

KEV0044
22nd May 2004, 02:26 PM
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VladTepes
2nd June 2004, 06:01 PM
No update yet, Kev.
I'm just back from hols.
Have booked it in with an auto sparky next Thursday so we'll see what we shall see. style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif

VladTepes
22nd June 2004, 05:19 PM
UPDATE time

Took it to Andrew at Betta Car Electrics, Clontarf. (free plug, good fella).

He had a good look at it, discovered there was nothing wrong with the bloody electricals (dewpite what the stero place said) and wired it into the ACC circuit for me. No problems, didn't cost too much.


I don't know if I have mentioned the other drama - the wonderful ECLIPSE MP3 / CD player didn't work with CD's (not very wee) or MP#'s (at all). Anyway, rather than fix it, ECLIPSE are going to replace it with a brand new unit, noproblems. Should only be a couple of days and I'll be rockin away.... at least I'll have something to cover the OTHER noises up with style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif