I think my amp just went. There has been crackling, popping for quite some time, with no problems for months. THen one day nothing. HU seems to be working, turns on, etc, but no noise from speakers. Before I buy new amp, is there anything else to check? Also, do all HK amps fail, or just a good number of them?

 

Lots of them fail. New amp is the solution. Don't know of another issue with a similar failure mode.

 

i'll prob be selling my stock amp/HU.. let me know if you're interested. i'll post them up pretty soon anyway

as a side note - how much do they usually go for? taken from my 06 hk system.

 

Press through the bass/treble/etc on the HU.
If you do not see the H/K options, there's a slight chance that the amp has lost it's connections to the HU.

 

Is there any difference in the components form a HK system from 02-06. I know the later headunits are slightly different in terms of additional function, but are there any differences in the connections, etc?

 

AFAIK, no difference. I've swapped a '04 into a '02, and a '06 into a '04.

 

As you stated, the radios got additional functionality in '05 (text display). MINI also switched from an Alpine head unit to a Siemens unit in mid-2006. The Siemens unit has differently-shaped buttons and they're arranged differently, but they're functionally identical to the Alpine units.

All 02-06 head units are "pin-compatible" (they'll all work in any year MINI and use the same wiring harness.)

As for the H/K amp itself, I think they're compatible across the years, but I'm not sure if the convertible uses the exact same amp as the hardtop. I know it's in a different location in the car (under the passenger seat instead of in the back), but I don't know if the amp itself is the same.