W221 Harmon Kardon amp repair

[Submariner1]

I did try reflowing this one before replacing it.

The board has soot all over it from underneath the fan. Cleaning this soot of the board showed damages to the traces underneath. None of them where broken completely but that probably explains why it worked intermittently.

I agree. Designed to fail.

I see ... not a lot one can do with a naff quality board.
Mercedes should get back to the mfg. and force them to sell replacement amps at a cheap price. But now they have moved on to Burmeister ... there is no leverage.
Guess we are just stuffed.

 

[bembo449]

im just about to pull the trigger on sending mine to Bulgaria but reading this thread has given me second thoughts . . . . . .

 

[cheekybarry]

im just about to pull the trigger on sending mine to Bulgaria but reading this thread has given me second thoughts . . . . . .

Hey bembo449 wondering if you sent amp to Bulgaria and if so how did you get on? In the same boat myself!

 

[bembo449]

no pal I didn't in the end , saving for a new one pal

 

[Botus]

no pal I didn't in the end , saving for a new one pal

this week, I got some junk mail from BBA quoting new stuff they fix....


Linn Amps for Aston Martin £899
Naim Amps for Bentley £899
Merc Amps £325

all saying guaranteed for life... may be life is 1 week ? pretty shocking the Naim (branded) stuff dies in 3 years !!!!

and on similar vein cheap cluster repairs reco on another forum

http://www.clusterrepairsuk.co.uk/repairlist

 

[bembo449]

I bet the merc amps at that money isn't the one that cost an arm and a leg + a kidney from MB

 

[Botus]

I bet the merc amps at that money isn't the one that cost an arm and a leg + a kidney from MB

the price was only to repair

 

[bembo449]

the price was only to repair

yeah pal , I got that but it will be repair to the run of the mill models not the heap of crap 'most' amp in the 216 pal

 

[bembo449]

just on BBA site and at the bottom of the page it says " limited lifetime warranty on all our products " I may email them to see if they can 1. repair the 216 amp , 2.give a decent warranty ??

 

[Botus]

just on BBA site and at the bottom of the page it says " limited lifetime warranty on all our products " I may email them to see if they can 1. repair the 216 amp , 2.give a decent warranty ??

quote on the BBA guarantee I gave was the one on junk email this week,
one guy here tried BBA, went in 3 times lasted a few week's at a time, till they said sorry and gave money back.
Bulgaria only offer 3 MONTHS !!!!


on a positive note when I had to swap out my small amp to fix the same issue you get with the big amp, its replacement (off a facelift car) gives more logical menu colours (third subtle colour tweak) so you know which bit of the screen you are on - also gives individual Treble and Bass settings for each source. Before one wrong setting, did all sources - FM - DAB - TV - DVD - SD Card - iPod.

 

[bembo449]

id gamble on a 2nd hand one but the 4701 ending model number is as rare as !

 

[Botus]

id gamble on a 2nd hand one but the 4701 ending model number is as rare as !

.... I don't think you want the same one..... probably why you can't find it.... they are ALL broken already

they changed part numbers quite a bit and are as far as I know pretty much all compatible.... the last thing u need is one as rubbish as the broken one u have

my later small one was a A221 900 3402 plug and play the original was A221 820 6689 and in between those two they used A221 820 9089

as far as I know the "900" bit in the part number signifies a facelift part

 

[bembo449]

ok pal , I tried one out of an 07 s-class and it didn't work , I need to get it sorted asap

 

[bembo449]

got a reply from BBA today , they , and I quote " the warranty is lifelong while you have the car " 175 quid plus vat and carriage for them to see if they can repair it . . . . . . .

 

[bembo449]

so a bit more exchange of email with BBA , they say if its unrepairable it will only cost 35 quid plus carriage so I think im going to take a punt on them and hope they sort it

 

[bembo449]

spent a few mins trying my hand at reflowing the circuit board and also cleaned it thoroughly with leccy spray , will refit it tomorrow and see if it has done any good

 

[RayL]

Hi, I'm new to this forum but joined as I was reading with interest this post. I have a w221 s500 and my HK amp failed in January, along the same lines everyone else has described (no audio on any of my modules: CD/radio/MP3/TV/linguatronic/nav).
Having read this post, I thought I would have a go at replacing so I bought a used one... alas that didn't work, but wasn't sure whether it was the used amp I'd bought that was faulty or whether it was something else.
I drove down to visit Comand in Surrey (great knowledgeable guys), and they confirmed the HK amp I had bought was not working, so returned it. At this point I still didn't know for sure whether my original amp was at fault or it was something else.
I opened up and inspected my original HK amp, there was a lot of sooty deposit on the circuit board under where the fan is. I cleaned off the soot (WD40 specialist circuit board cleaner) thinking the carbon may have short circuited some components, and reinstalled the amp, but no luck.

Having read this post, I gave BBA reman a try (I didn't fancy spending £2k on a new HK amp from a main dealer). I was concerned whether BBA could repair it and how long it would take.
So... I sent my amp to BBA reman (£175+VAT was quoted plus postage, with lifetime warranty for as long as I owned the car). Amp returned a week later. I fitted it last night. All working well so far, and all audio functions back up and running.

I'm not in the trade, but OK with basic DIY... I removed the amp and reinstalled the fixed amp straightforwardly (using a video tutorial on a well known website), but be careful not to damage the audio leads and optic fibres on the sharp edges of the audio modules and brackets. The amp didn't need coding (but then again, it was my original amp to begin with that was fixed).

Hope that helps.

 

[Submariner1]

Hi, I'm new to this forum but joined as I was reading with interest this post. I have a w221 s500 and my HK amp failed in January, along the same lines everyone else has described (no audio on any of my modules: CD/radio/MP3/TV/linguatronic/nav).
Having read this post, I thought I would have a go at replacing so I bought a used one... alas that didn't work, but wasn't sure whether it was the used amp I'd bought that was faulty or whether it was something else.
I drove down to visit Comand in Surrey (great knowledgeable guys), and they confirmed the HK amp I had bought was not working, so returned it. At this point I still didn't know for sure whether my original amp was at fault or it was something else.
I opened up and inspected my original HK amp, there was a lot of sooty deposit on the circuit board under where the fan is. I cleaned off the soot (WD40 specialist circuit board cleaner) thinking the carbon may have short circuited some components, and reinstalled the amp, but no luck.

Having read this post, I gave BBA reman a try (I didn't fancy spending £2k on a new HK amp from a main dealer). I was concerned whether BBA could repair it and how long it would take.
So... I sent my amp to BBA reman (£175+VAT was quoted plus postage, with lifetime warranty for as long as I owned the car). Amp returned a week later. I fitted it last night. All working well so far, and all audio functions back up and running.

I'm not in the trade, but OK with basic DIY... I removed the amp and reinstalled the fixed amp straightforwardly (using a video tutorial on a well known website), but be careful not to damage the audio leads and optic fibres on the sharp edges of the audio modules and brackets. The amp didn't need coding (but then again, it was my original amp to begin with that was fixed).

Hope that helps.

Great to hear your good news.
Did they say what the problem was? And what components they repaired/replaced?

Please keep us updated as to the repair holding

 

[RayL]

Hi, I too was curious about what had failed in the amp, but when I spoke to BBA reman, they simply said that they had to "replace a few components that had failed", and they said they had seen quite a few of these HK amps with the soot. There were no itemised components on the invoice, just the total repair. Also for the warranty to remain intact, they've put some security stickers onto the amp so I can't see what they have done inside the box. Sorry I couldn't help.

Day 2 since the re-install and repair holding up so far!

 

[Submariner1]

Hi, I too was curious about what had failed in the amp, but when I spoke to BBA reman, they simply said that they had to "replace a few components that had failed", and they said they had seen quite a few of these HK amps with the soot. There were no itemised components on the invoice, just the total repair. Also for the warranty to remain intact, they've put some security stickers onto the amp so I can't see what they have done inside the box. Sorry I couldn't help.

Day 2 since the re-install and repair holding up so far!

Thanks Ray as you can imagine being in the same position you were in and faced with a £1,300 part. I am delighted it seems you found a reasonable fix.

Albeit they may have just replaced a blown output MOSFET chip costing £20! Locking it down with security seals does make one wonder, but then in fairness if they are guranteei g it for your lifetime seems reasonable they dont want anyone fiddling with it.

Also if it saves us £1200 who cares

Did you by any chance take any pics of the opened amp?

Was this the WD40 cleaner you used?



Thanks Peter