HELP - McIntosh Amp issues
Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 8:20 pmHi everyone,
Sorry to ask for help from the community before I've even introduced myself...I'll do that later
I recently purchased an 08 Liberty GT spec.B 2.5t wagon and am not having the best of starts with it. Nothing major, but enough to take away some of the excitement of buying a "new" car. More on that later...
As the title suggests, the specific issue I need assistance with is the amp not working. It's not even powering on...
Background
I installed a Parrot MKi9200 (with help from one of the articles on here, so thanks very much for that!). I used the splitter cabling harness that allowed me to stream music through all 14 speakers. As you know, this means connecting the harness at the amp, and running the extension through centre console to steering column area to store the Parrot blue box of magicness near the stereo itself.
I installed it perfectly first time, with the exception of having to leave it running on constant voltage (the standard setup out of the box) because I had to put car back together to drive the in-laws to the airport. When I wired in the power from the lighter the next day, I was in a hurry and just wanted to test that it worked, so opted to just run cable to lighter without removing the passenger seat again and therefore didn't route cable under the carpet. No big deal.
This was working perfectly with the exception of that annoying issue when you initiate the Bluetooth connection and it starts and stops several times and sounds all broken (like Wayne and Garth at the drive through - Wayne's World reference. Anyone?!). That issue is not unique to me it seems, and is common on iOS7 and Parrot, so I digress...
Today I noticed that the cable was quite visible, and it sent my OCD spinning out of control! I had some time on my hands (oh oh) so decided to "quickly" (famous last words) remove the passenger seat and route the red cable power cable from lighter under the carpet. I also planned to take the opportunity to try and fit the masses of cabling and the mute box funder the carpet too, as I was aware it could be disturbed by the passenger seat moving, or even potentially be kicked by a rear passenger. This appears to have been a mahoosive mistake!
I removed seat and with a bit of fiddling, successfully routed the cable from lighter, under the carpet, to blue bullet connection on harness without problem. Quick test of everything showed it was ok. So far so good.
Next, I delicately pushed harness and mute box under carpet under the passenger seat, and then put the amp back in place. It was really tight, and I knew it probably wouldn't be ok but decided to test it anyway. I put seat in position without bolting it down, and moved the seat backwards with the electric switch. It immediately appeared to catch and squash everything, so I stopped, moved seat forward and tilted up again. I then gently removed harness from under carpet, put seat back in place and tried to put the harness and mute box under the chair in such a way that it wouldn't be visible from back seat, and wouldn't be squashed by chair moving. Not easy!
Another quick check before bolting everything in situ...this is where it gets weird:
First thing I noticed was that the Parrot would no longer power up. Strange I thought, as it should just draw power from the lighter and I could prove that that connection was working because my iPhone charger in the lighter was working fine. Anyway, I decided to bypass that, and revert to original bullet connection meaning constant supply. Still nothing. Hmmmm.
Next test was radio - nothing. So I thought, ok, lets remove Parrot from equation to isolate the problem (even though radio should work regardless of Parrot having power or not). I reverted to stock standard wiring setup by unplugging the new Parrot wiring harness, and just plugging the factory connection straight into amp. Nothing. I can't even play radio.
Touching the amp revealed no heat at all, meaning it was drawing no power.
I visually inspected the factory wiring loom and the Parrot harness wiring loom - no signs of any damage.
I then checked the Audio fuse and it was fine (obviously because the stereo powered on). I then checked lots of other random fuses in the box in case amp had it's own fuse - couldn't find one that was blown. And having traced the McIntosh DIN (round male to male connection) from the amp to behind stereo, I was confident that it's the same fuse (possibly wrong though).
Next stop was to reluctantly check internal amp fuse. I figured at 5 years old (the car/amp, not me!) I was losing nothing by breaking the anti-tamper tape. 23 scews later (WTF?! Seriously WTF is 23 screws all about?!). I found a 25 amp fuse that appears to be permanently connected (again, WTF?! Beginning to wonder who this McIntosh lot are! Clarion btw in case you've also never heard of them!). Anyway, not blown, so guess that's not the issue.
I then started to check the McIntosh DIN connection itself (the round connector that runs from Amp to female round connector in the front passenger footwell, near the stereo). I was aware that this connector felt flimsy the very first time I touched it, and also that it had no slack whatsoever making initial removal of the amp difficult. Having pullet that apart, I can see no damage.
To rule this out, I got in touch with my local stereo expert that I paid a kings ransom to for installation of a Pioneer AVIC-940BT in my Porsche, and he is looking to see if he can source a spare McIntosh DIN cable for me to try and isolate that as the issue. However, I doubt I'll get that today and I'm *really* impatient, and very stressed about this so want to keep troubleshooting.
Also, I now think that cable is a wild goose chase, and that power actually comes from the 16 pin wiring loom - can anyone confirm that?
To summarise, I've got 2 distinct issues I need to troubleshoot:
1-nothing I do will make Parrot power on now;
2-McIntosh amp is not working, even with standard wiring setup meaning no radio, even when you bypass Parrot.
Does anyone else have any magical ideas?
Can anyone confirm if the amp runs off it's own fuse, separate to the stereo?
Sorry to ask for help from the community before I've even introduced myself...I'll do that later
I recently purchased an 08 Liberty GT spec.B 2.5t wagon and am not having the best of starts with it. Nothing major, but enough to take away some of the excitement of buying a "new" car. More on that later...
As the title suggests, the specific issue I need assistance with is the amp not working. It's not even powering on...
Background
I installed a Parrot MKi9200 (with help from one of the articles on here, so thanks very much for that!). I used the splitter cabling harness that allowed me to stream music through all 14 speakers. As you know, this means connecting the harness at the amp, and running the extension through centre console to steering column area to store the Parrot blue box of magicness near the stereo itself.
I installed it perfectly first time, with the exception of having to leave it running on constant voltage (the standard setup out of the box) because I had to put car back together to drive the in-laws to the airport. When I wired in the power from the lighter the next day, I was in a hurry and just wanted to test that it worked, so opted to just run cable to lighter without removing the passenger seat again and therefore didn't route cable under the carpet. No big deal.
This was working perfectly with the exception of that annoying issue when you initiate the Bluetooth connection and it starts and stops several times and sounds all broken (like Wayne and Garth at the drive through - Wayne's World reference. Anyone?!). That issue is not unique to me it seems, and is common on iOS7 and Parrot, so I digress...
Today I noticed that the cable was quite visible, and it sent my OCD spinning out of control! I had some time on my hands (oh oh) so decided to "quickly" (famous last words) remove the passenger seat and route the red cable power cable from lighter under the carpet. I also planned to take the opportunity to try and fit the masses of cabling and the mute box funder the carpet too, as I was aware it could be disturbed by the passenger seat moving, or even potentially be kicked by a rear passenger. This appears to have been a mahoosive mistake!
I removed seat and with a bit of fiddling, successfully routed the cable from lighter, under the carpet, to blue bullet connection on harness without problem. Quick test of everything showed it was ok. So far so good.
Next, I delicately pushed harness and mute box under carpet under the passenger seat, and then put the amp back in place. It was really tight, and I knew it probably wouldn't be ok but decided to test it anyway. I put seat in position without bolting it down, and moved the seat backwards with the electric switch. It immediately appeared to catch and squash everything, so I stopped, moved seat forward and tilted up again. I then gently removed harness from under carpet, put seat back in place and tried to put the harness and mute box under the chair in such a way that it wouldn't be visible from back seat, and wouldn't be squashed by chair moving. Not easy!
Another quick check before bolting everything in situ...this is where it gets weird:
First thing I noticed was that the Parrot would no longer power up. Strange I thought, as it should just draw power from the lighter and I could prove that that connection was working because my iPhone charger in the lighter was working fine. Anyway, I decided to bypass that, and revert to original bullet connection meaning constant supply. Still nothing. Hmmmm.
Next test was radio - nothing. So I thought, ok, lets remove Parrot from equation to isolate the problem (even though radio should work regardless of Parrot having power or not). I reverted to stock standard wiring setup by unplugging the new Parrot wiring harness, and just plugging the factory connection straight into amp. Nothing. I can't even play radio.
Touching the amp revealed no heat at all, meaning it was drawing no power.
I visually inspected the factory wiring loom and the Parrot harness wiring loom - no signs of any damage.
I then checked the Audio fuse and it was fine (obviously because the stereo powered on). I then checked lots of other random fuses in the box in case amp had it's own fuse - couldn't find one that was blown. And having traced the McIntosh DIN (round male to male connection) from the amp to behind stereo, I was confident that it's the same fuse (possibly wrong though).
Next stop was to reluctantly check internal amp fuse. I figured at 5 years old (the car/amp, not me!) I was losing nothing by breaking the anti-tamper tape. 23 scews later (WTF?! Seriously WTF is 23 screws all about?!). I found a 25 amp fuse that appears to be permanently connected (again, WTF?! Beginning to wonder who this McIntosh lot are! Clarion btw in case you've also never heard of them!). Anyway, not blown, so guess that's not the issue.
I then started to check the McIntosh DIN connection itself (the round connector that runs from Amp to female round connector in the front passenger footwell, near the stereo). I was aware that this connector felt flimsy the very first time I touched it, and also that it had no slack whatsoever making initial removal of the amp difficult. Having pullet that apart, I can see no damage.
To rule this out, I got in touch with my local stereo expert that I paid a kings ransom to for installation of a Pioneer AVIC-940BT in my Porsche, and he is looking to see if he can source a spare McIntosh DIN cable for me to try and isolate that as the issue. However, I doubt I'll get that today and I'm *really* impatient, and very stressed about this so want to keep troubleshooting.
Also, I now think that cable is a wild goose chase, and that power actually comes from the 16 pin wiring loom - can anyone confirm that?
To summarise, I've got 2 distinct issues I need to troubleshoot:
1-nothing I do will make Parrot power on now;
2-McIntosh amp is not working, even with standard wiring setup meaning no radio, even when you bypass Parrot.
Does anyone else have any magical ideas?
Can anyone confirm if the amp runs off it's own fuse, separate to the stereo?
