Well gang, it looks like I screwed the pooch when it came to doing my research and am now biting the bullet. I was looking for an easy way to hook up my iPod, but instead of going ahead and buying an easy-to-install AUX input and hooking it up to my stock head unit, I went out and bought an entirely new offering by JVC; since then, there has been blood, sweat and tears spent a-plenty trying to get the dadblasted thing working right.

I've got the Harman Kardon system and it's gotten to the point where even typing the name does strange and terrible things to my blood pressure - I installed the aftermarket head unit, and was puzzled as to why I was receiving power through the live wire but couldn't get the thing to turn on. After a bit of googling, I found out that the H/K system is, to be kind, a mean son of a gun to work a new head unit into and decided to call a cease-fire after a day or three of fooling around with the thing.

All's well and good, said I - I'll rewire the speakers a bit later on when I've restored my wallet and patient to their pre-installation state. I pull out the aftermarket unit and pop the stock unit back in. Lo and behold, the stock unit refuses to turn on - I confirmed I am getting power and the wires are all good (I had a seperate harness to plug in the aftermarket and didn't have to splice originals, thank God), but for some reason the accursed object won't turn on. I have googled around and searched in the forums a bit, but thus far have not found anything of use - stats are as follows:

2004 R53 w/ stock H/K sound system and (probably) some sort of inferiority complex from being cursed at for an extended period of time. Wires test as positive for power when the key is in the ignition on accessory, but the unit itself will not power up - d'oh!

If anyone has come across a solution to this before, I'd definitely appreciate some help here - in the meantime, I'll be sparing whatever time I can for it, and will post up a solution here (should I be lucky enough to find one) should some other poor soul later find himself in the same situation.

 

Have you checked the fuses in the fuse box? It may be that you popped one fitting it back in.

H/K is a huge pain the in backside to fit. However, there is an adapter that you can buy that will trick the HK amp to turn on with an aftermarket HU.

http://www.newministuff.com/new/shop...uctshow&id=116 (the adapter is made by GBMINI here on the site).

Mike owns the newministuff site and completely trustworthy. They have been doing MINI business for a long time now. I highly recommend this route if you want to keep the HK stuff.

 

Yup, a blown fuse was my first thought as well - unfortunately, all of the little buggers check out green, and all the wires are solid as well. I checked the fuses in the drivers side kick compartment, the main box up front, and on the radio itself - I am going to see if I somehow activated an anti-theft feature when I yanked it, though from what all I can find, there is no such thing on the stock H/K system..I had the batteru (negative terminal) disconnected when I was working on the thing, so I can't really think of anything else to go on, at the moment.

@daflale - thanks for the recommendation - I actually ran across the box when I was first browsing around here, and it is definitely on my list to buy if I don't wind up having to replace my entire head unit.

 

I know this is an old reply...but I've just bought an R53 and am doing my research and what happened to you would likely be what would and will happen to me. Thanks for the laugh...hope you got it fixed...it's been (5) years now, hell you probably have a different car, but PTSD from this event.