Hello,

The head unit has been dodgy since I bought the Range Rover the other month. It now produces no sound no matter what is selected. All I get is a rough high pitch whine of moderate volume from the speakers whenever the head unit is switched on.
It is a 96 model with the premium sound system so has amps in the doors.
I am hoping the fault is with the head unit with it being all sound channels that have gone as opposed to the amp system.
I will be replacing the head unit anyway. I know I will require an adapter to match the new head unit with the amp setup but if the fault is actually with the amp system then the adapter will be pointless.
Is this a known failure of these head units when they get old or is it likely to be the amps?
Thanks for any help.
Smiler.

I've heard of the amps failing (I have one here on m bench that I'm aiming to see if I can find the fault) but it isn't a common occurance.

It is more likely to be the head unit - possibly even just some dry joints somewhere - if all 4 doors have the same, rather than all 4 amps failing in exactly the same way - I think I've seen 2 faulty amps in the last 4 or 5 years...

Marty

Open up the head unit, lift the tape deck out, remove the little heatsink just to the left of it (three screws through the transistors on it) and resolder the big squarish surface-mount resistor, which will have cracked away at one end.

Thanks for the replies, that's good to know. I will try the fix if nothing other than to prove the amp system is all working before I go to the trouble of sorting an adapter.

I might have some pictures somewhere of the thing Gordon is talking about - but that is probably the problem! My first one had the same issue.

There's some on my facebook photos :-)

Yes yes yes, I need some way of uploading pics to the forum, heeeeard it.

upload pics to imgur then paste the link

i spliced into my radio on my 2000 p38 at the head unit and added a 3.5mm jack. Did it the basic way of utilising the cd changer but nevertheless, works perfect. just have to have a cd in the changer to fool it into thinking audio is playing. Could plug what i liked into it then. You considered doing it?

The earlier Clarion radio in the pre-2000 cars are dead easy to fit an aux in. Auto switches too so if you have something plugged in it plays that, unplug it and it goes back to radio or whatever it was left on before. Have a look here http://www.stockholmviews.com/p38/index.html#clarion with how to add Bluetooth if you want it. Rather than solder to the base of the connector header, I soldered the wires to the other side of the board where the pins are soldered.