W221 Harmon Kardon amp repair

[RayL]

Hi, yes that's the stuff I used on my original amp. When I opened up the amp, there was a lot of 'soot' on the circuit board, directly under the fan. I first used an aerosol can of compressed air thinking it only needed a dusting, but the 'soot' appeared sticky. That's when I went to buy the WD40 contact cleaner (same as in your photo) and gave that a go... with some cotton buds... it came up looking quite good afterwards, but there was some contact cleaner residue that I had to clean up using the cotton buds.

Sorry I didn't take any photos of the opened amp.

I was then quite hopeful that it might just work, so reinstalled my original HK amp in my car... alas it didn't work... that's when I sent it to BBA reman to get it fixed.

 

[Submariner1]

Hi, yes that's the stuff I used on my original amp. When I opened up the amp, there was a lot of 'soot' on the circuit board, directly under the fan. I first used an aerosol can of compressed air thinking it only needed a dusting, but the 'soot' appeared sticky. That's when I went to buy the WD40 contact cleaner (same as in your photo) and gave that a go... with some cotton buds... it came up looking quite good afterwards, but there was some contact cleaner residue that I had to clean up using the cotton buds.

Sorry I didn't take any photos of the opened amp.

I was then quite hopeful that it might just work, so reinstalled my original HK amp in my car... alas it didn't work... that's when I sent it to BBA reman to get it fixed.

Thanks Ray.
Please let us know if it fails.
I think I will try them, just making sure it is the amp.

Today it was working perfectly, then it stopped and the tweeter kicked off with its distorted garbage. So I gave it a good hard slap!
Yeah as you may well think, I am a tad ****ed off with it.
And blow me, it instantly sounded perfect! And continued to work both ways on the journey.
And is still working. :-/

Go figure that one!
Some Coincidence!

To me that is more indicative of shorting wiring to the Tweeter speaker, or a failing voice coil in it, than the amp??
Any decent amp has short circuit speaker protection, but do these??

Oddly its on the same side, that had the delaminated window replaced, so the door card has been taken off by the main Dealer. Did they catch a speaker wire ??

With all these illogical manifestations, I am a bit loathe to shell out £1300 until I get a Star report (when its acting up) pointing to a failed Amp.

Just got an email today saying another C216 with very low mileage lost its amp! They replaced it with a new MB unit, and fortunately its all working now.

 

[RayL]

One week on since I refitted the fixed HK amplifier... covered 200 miles (stop start commute and a few motorway miles), and left car sitting on driveway most of the weekend without moving it, weather has been sunny, rainy, frosty... the amp is still working with CD, MP3 card, iPod, TV, linguatronic, sat nav voice all working.

Bit concerned I'm now tempting fate!

 

[Botus]

Mine only has the baby amp, I had mine play up a few odd moments over a year or so ... then one day there was no writing on the display..... when I asked the experts his view was get on ebay and buy an amp its gone.... the MOST plays up losing the fibre optic ring, it'll just get progressively worse. Losing the ring is why the graphics / writing vanishes alongside the noise. After a key on off cycle it was normal again

when I plugged in my diagnostics it did have a stored fault for comms on MOST.... I just bought a new amp... then pulled the old one out, looks like new... they are just designed to fail trash... stop stressing and bin it

mind you the other issues with a shrieking tweeter sounds like you blew it up. Get a new tweeter and be done with it.

these days NOTHING is repairable, they spend 5 years at design stage to ensure it'll break and can't be fixed, then run it on buggy software... own for 4 years then put it in the bin and stop stressing, that'll kill you before the money runs out.

 

[Submariner1]

One week on since I refitted the fixed HK amplifier... covered 200 miles (stop start commute and a few motorway miles), and left car sitting on driveway most of the weekend without moving it, weather has been sunny, rainy, frosty... the amp is still working with CD, MP3 card, iPod, TV, linguatronic, sat nav voice all working.

Bit concerned I'm now tempting fate!

Great news Ray
Very pleased for you

 

[houseboss2]

Hi Peter (Sub1)

3.10 AM Do you ever Sleep ???

Michael

 

[Submariner1]

Hi Peter (Sub1)

3.10 AM Do you ever Sleep ???

Michael

Hi Michael
I Often work late, especially lately trying to finalise my requirements for this Barn Conversion.
Being tight , I prefer to have all the details sorted for the Architect and Engineer than pay their fees.

I also dont want to end up with one one these Grand Designs, (or not so Grand) that overun budget and timeframe!
Never understood the p.p.planing these airey fairy architechts are allowed to get away with.

It ain’t rocket science. You have a specificatiion, then a quote .. (money and timeframe) and then a fixed priced contract.
And a payment schedule, based on milestones. Always in arrears!

If they fail, then one needs to be in a position, that they desperately need you to be accomodating!

My view is if they do the job properly and on time they get paid instantly. I actually even like giving a bonus for higher quality and being on time.

But if they fail ... I guess I become their worst nightmare.

 

[MercMart0802]

I had mine done with BBA reman couple of months ago too, fSt and efficient lads

 

[RayL]

I had mine done with BBA reman couple of months ago too, fSt and efficient lads

That's great, glad you got yours sorted. My amp is still going well after the fix by BBA. Best wishes.

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

 

[Submariner1]

That's great, glad you got yours sorted. My amp is still going well after the fix by BBA. Best wishes.

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

Good to hear that Ray.
My BBA Reman fix is also still working fine.

 

[icedillons]

Hi Guys,

On my 216 2008, everything just stopped working I can navigate through the screen on comand but nothing is available. In quick test it comes up with a fault on command ( short to ground on wake up line) and it can’t talk to tuner (I’m guessing that’s the fault?) but how do I test the wake up line? Is it the fibre optic one? And is the radio tuner and tv tuner all in one?

Is the tuner the amp or the kombituner im confused

 

[alexanderfoti]

Hi Guys,

On my 216 2008, everything just stopped working I can navigate through the screen on comand but nothing is available. In quick test it comes up with a fault on command ( short to ground on wake up line) and it can’t talk to tuner (I’m guessing that’s the fault?) but how do I test the wake up line? Is it the fibre optic one? And is the radio tuner and tv tuner all in one?

Is the tuner the amp or the kombituner im confused

The tuner and the amp are one unit. Wake up is on the canbus. If you unplug the amp, see if the short to ground disappears, I would suspect the short to ground is internal to the amp.

 

[icedillons]

Right, this is where I’m getting confused. I thought this was my tuner:


And I thought the wake up line was optical but then you can’t have a shirt to ground on an optical line! I think the main 40amp fuse in the passenger side dash supplies to the main 14 pin plug - pins 13 and 14 are the live and earth, quite thick which appear fine. So if I disconnect this 14 pin plug won’t I lose everything? Also I’m assuming I will lose the optical also so I can’t test the component in question?

 

[alexanderfoti]

Right, this is where I’m getting confused. I thought this was my tuner:


And I thought the wake up line was optical but then you can’t have a shirt to ground on an optical line! I think the main 40amp fuse in the passenger side dash supplies to the main 14 pin plug - pins 13 and 14 are the live and earth, quite thick which appear fine. So if I disconnect this 14 pin plug won’t I lose everything? Also I’m assuming I will lose the optical also so I can’t test the component in question?

No that is the TV Tuner.

The FM Tuner is in the amplifier in the boot

Disconnected the the multi plug to the amplifier in the boot, not the comand processor unit in the front.

 

[icedillon]

Have you a part number for it? The ones on Ebay look massive. I’m sure none of my units in the boot aren’t that big

 

[alexanderfoti]

Have you a part number for it? The ones on Ebay look massive. I’m sure none of my units in the boot aren’t that big

There are very many depending on which type you have. Its underneath the tv module I think.

 

[Botus]

they go wrong just like the bigger much more expensive HK ones...

post 52

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

the later one allows different tone settings between each source and has another menu colour to differentiate which bit of the screen one you are playing in

as far as I know the "900" bit in the part number signifies a facelift part (from late 2009, as in 2010 model year or newer)

 

[icedillons]

No that is the TV Tuner.

The FM Tuner is in the amplifier in the boot

Disconnected the the multi plug to the amplifier in the boot, not the comand processor unit in the front.

Right, I took the orange plug pictured off from the unit and did a quick scan/test and the short circuit to ground fault went away. Although a most open ring fault came up I’m guessing it’s referring to the optic part of the plug which is open

So, with all this in mind I’m assuming that I have confirmed that the fault is with this tuner/amp unit. So where am I sending, bba or softronics?

 

[icedillons]

Just had a call from bba they said there’s nothing wrong with the amp but it has a lot of carbon on it. They said the short to ground must be elsewhere and offered to clean and reflow soldered connections with the lifetime warranty. I said the shirt can’t be from elsewhere as the fault goes as soon as I disconnect the wake up line. He said he will speak to tech and call me again in the morning.

Maybe the carbon has dislodged in transit and not causing a short now?

 

[Botus]

there was no carbon on mine, a small amount of dust and "dirt" the fan sucked in and gently wafted over an inch of the circuit board. the rest look brand new, where's this magic "carbon" supposed to come from?
they operate with inadequate ventilation in what at times will be a damp environment, in the summer cooking at 75C and are designed to die... and they do exactly that