2002 L322 HSE Radio/CD Amplifier replacement success

[Falcon10]

Hi there fellow L322 owners

Just reporting in as I have something useful to say that may be useful for you.
My radio/Cd system failed approx 12 months ago. I was not sure what the problem was, there was power to the display unit in the dash but absolutely no audio from the radio or Cd player. Eventually established by trial and error that the Amplifier was buggered.
So after finding out how much my local land Rover specialist quoted me to get another genuine amplifier..... an incredibly large number of dollars..over $1200 just to get it here....I politely declined the service. However that did not stop me researching all possibilities to find the same amplifier or replace the whole system with an upgrade. I certainly read everything relevant on this forum regarding replacements or Sat Nav upgrade etc...anything to get Pink Floyd playing again whilst driving my beast around.
Well after 12 months of periodic searching the WWW for any relevant piece of info, I finally find an item that maybe had the information I needed. It was an American guy who provided the specific info regarding the equivalent BMW part number. After more research and searching, I eventually found something on the USA EBay that looked like the part I needed. For US $40 plus postage and a bit of faith, I bought this amplifier. It looked the same and the part numbers sort of matched. Today that amplifier arrived here in Mackay and I put it in..and bugger me...it worked. So here are a few pictures of both amplifiers for your viewing pleasure. Its obvious which one has a Land Rover sticker on it and the other one has a BMW sticker on it. One sticker was "worth" over a $1100 more than the other one. (as quoted to me)
Just posting this story for anyone else who may be looking for such a solution.

118889

118890

118891

118892

118893

[Strangerover]

I've been down this road and nearly ordered one, was lucky enough to find one cheap at a local wreckers. Glad it worked for you.

Something else for other members with dead units to try is simply unplugging it for a couple of days and replugging it. It's worked for me on a couple of occasions. I'm guessing it has some sort of short-circuit protection. It would also be worth installing the factory-approved protective piece of plastic over the top of it to stop water dripping into the plug from leaks above and causing shorts.

BTW, those pics are very small, can't read the part numbers.

[Falcon10]

Whoops,
I just had a play with the photos and found that if you right click on them...select "open link in new window or open link in new tab"...Then select that new window or tab and presto.....bigger.

There maybe better ways but computers are not my thing.
Cheers

[jsp]

I have fixed 3 out of the 4 units I have looked at now, all just bad solder joints from corrosion from moisture coming in through the rear light fitting.