So yesterday I was feeling pretty good about my recent workaround to get some sound from my X300 VDP after having gone without for quite some time... We took a long drive yesterday, and for the couple of hours we were out the radio worked perfectly, CD changer was working, and although the quality wasn't the same as the original system, my wife was happy not to have to ride to work in silence..
Then I got "the email" this morning... "The radio was on 106.5, and would not let me change the station, volume, or switch to CD. Then it started seeking most of the way to work. And the volume didn’t work. Then, it finally let me listen to the CD, but then it started switching between tracks! But the volume did work that time."
This is exactly the same thing that happened the last time I swapped out the factory unit maybe 2 years ago.. It worked perfectly when I put it in, but after it sat overnight we had immediate problems...
The confusing thing this go round is that I didn't alter any wiring to install the new Alpine unit... On the adaptor that connects to the original wiring harness, I only used three wires... Two yellow 12V constant wires, and the Red 12V switched wire... The speakers were all wired straight to the radio... The antenna wasn't wired, and the amp was left unplugged. When I wired the speakers, I had used a connector from a parts car to tap into the speaker wiring, so the amp was totally isolated at that point (nothing going it)...
Still, we're almost back to square one... So now the only thing I can figure that is common between the two is the large brown relay in the boot, or the CD changer... Everything else should be either disconnected or isolated the way I have it installed now....
Any ideas?
Thanks
David
shop.EverydayXJ.com

 

But wait! from the pics in your other post, that is an aftermarket head unit, no? And you managed to get it to act EXACTLY like the factory offering! That's truly some special sauce!!! My only suggestion, inasmuch as it is acting like the original head unit....I did have some minor success when one of mine was acting up...if I turned it off at the power button every time before shutting the car down. If I didn't, it would only come on by inserting a cassette tape...and then it would be stuck at fixed volume, not quite loud enough for highway speeds.

Had another one that this trick didn't work on at all....it was stuck "On" could only be turned off my pulling a fuse, and stuck at way too loud a volume - the kid's car - so didn't bother him so much - the loud volume.

 

A wild hunch is the trunk fuse box relay may be floating , this condition is usually not associated with warmed up time dependent variables

Swap the LH engine fuse box relay ( actually only is the horn relay ) with the trunk fuse box relay

Not all fuses in the trunk fuse box come off this relay as they are hot at all times

See page 38 and page 36

Pin 11 on the stereo connector is fuse # 10

http://www.jagrepair.com/images/Auto.../jagxj1996.pdf



Editing