Put a new Hankook battery on yesterday as, after 6 years, the old one had decided it wasn't holding charge above 12.5 volts giving various "I'm not happy" beeps and messages.

Now the Alpine radio won't wake up. Power present on the connector and fuse is good. Is there anything else I can easily check or should I assume it's toast. Could have been dead for some time as I rarely use the radio. Likely a year or two since last used.

If it is toast the easy option is a radio from a breaker but not sure that £200 + is worth it for something I use so little.

.I have a brand new Kenwood KDC241 SA kicking about the place that would do for now. Powers up OK from the grey connector but obviously will need the outputs re-worked to suit the P38. Fortunately I have door amps, not DSP complexity, so making the mods is more tedious than difficult. Or can I buy something to just plug'n play. Mrs Google and E-Bay imply that such things might be around from the likes of InCar Tech et al.

If I'm going to do serious messing around the most attractive option is a large floating screen unit for a reversing camera and big navigation display. Pioneer SPA-EVO 950 DAB looks good to me but £600 for name brand reassurance plus a centre dash to rework makes it a serious project. I know the Android screens can work well. But which brand / supplier is good right now. I have never been lucky with affordable import electronics.

Clive

I put a Kenwood in the 4.0SE which had door amps. All I did was take them out and replace them with 6 quid cheapo eBay 2 way crossovers. The most laborious part is having to take all 4 door panels off. The SE had a dead Clarion with sub output on the DIN speaker plug so a 10 way instead of an 8 way. Cut the plug down to make it into an 8 way so that dealt with 4 speaker outputs and connected a short flying lead with a phono plug on it to Orange/Orange/Black sub wires. That way the OE sub works too. Used a PAC SWI ( https://www.amazon.co.uk/PAC-SWI-RC-Steering-Wheel-Interface/dp/B004HKBY8G) so the volume buttons on the steering wheel work but programmed it so the Mode button became an off-hook phone command as the Kenwood I have has Bluetooth with hands free calling and the other two just step through the station memories.

Guess crossover for amplifier swop is the way to go. Something like this perhaps eBay item number:287577890714. Need to find boxes I think.

Descriptions of some superficially better looking ones is spectacularly incomprehensible tho'. In AI days can you really trust sellers who can't begin to get the words right.

Amazon seem to be better value for ones in boxes.
\
Probably a good idea to get the door cards off anyway to inspect lock mechnics and connections. Passenger front handle is a bit stiff and doesn't return properly.without help.

Clive

These 317593124120 are the ones I used and they seem to do the job nicely. I didn't bother with boxes for them, any moisture getting into the door will be inside the door and not behind the door card. I just used one of the mounting points for the amps to attach them.

Thanks for the recommendation and confirmation that a naked board works fine in the RR doors. Looks like next weekends job is sorted!

Clive

If you want to use the factory sub, don't forget to connect the Grey/Black wire in the P38 loom to the electric aerial output from the head unit. That is used to cause the sub amp to power up.

Thanks for the reminder.

I'd forgotten that mine actually has an upward pointing, naked, sub under the rear nearside panel beside the parcel shelf. Dinky little thing so probably not very sub.

Frankly I prefer the extra boot space without then panelling for the sub and CD player to proper sub. Even though the player looks bit untidy sat upright on the drivers side about 3" in from the boot panel.

Clive