This Ebay seller has 6 for $443 each shipped. I bought one from him and it works fine.

 

Hi Oxybluecoop,

Have you had the chance to install the amp from the eBay seller yet? I just want to know if it's legit.

 

Oxybluecoop, a few questions for you:
>> Did you install on a MC or MCS?
>> What year?

I have a MCS 2004 and the label signage doesn't align with my H/K amp signage.

 

The amps are legit and work fine. I bought a spare and installed it in my '06 MCS for testing.

 

Hello all-

I have Pixel's amp here on my desk at an unnamed TV station (in the maintenance shop). What I'm going to check when I get a moment is the capacitors. I know that's pretty simplistic, but there was a rash of bad capacitors in the late 90's and early 00's. I'm not going to just recap the board but I will do some testing to see if any have lost their value. I'm not great with SMT components but I'm going to try and replace any that seem to be bad.

Here's a great site for reference:

http://www.badcaps.net

Val

 

From everything I've read, those things are a bear to work on. You must be really good at what you do! Good luck! Something interesting I've found, that amp gets really, really hot, even when it's not cranked all the way up. I think I understand the design of the bracket now, keeping it "hovering and away from anything it could melt. Yikes! ANyone else notice them getting hot?

And, I'll have a look at that link now, sounds interesting. THANK YOU!

 

Had a chance to check the caps in Pixel's unit with a quickie capacitor checker here in the shop, and found no bad ones. I thought that might be the source of the problem since Fred indicated that the amplifiers get quite hot when running, and that can destroy capacitors.

The next thing I'm going to try is getting a data sheet on the final amplifier IC's and ohming them out to see if there is any obvious damage to the IC. I could just replace them as they are only $16 each from DigiKey, but I'm going to do a bit more detective work first.

Val

 

I don't think the amps are the problem, at least with my amp the sound will go for a while then one day works for a few minutes and be gone again. I though it was capacitor also but you said you ckecked. I think the problem is the signal that de-assert the reset to the main chip and tells the amp to turn on.

 

Looks like my 03 HK went belly up today.
Have had crazy intermittent popping & hissing through right-front speakers for several months - once started it would continue even with the radio off. Would right itself shortly after & be ok.
Today I lost all sound except or an occasional pop or thump from the right fronts. HK - specific audio presets (spatial, etc.) have vanished from head unit display - HU appears to function otherwise.
Anyone else experience the lack of presets?
One aside - the "driver" setting on mine focuses the audio on the passenger (Brit driver's) side. At least it did, when it made sound..

 

I've been reading this thread with great interest. I have the DPSM system in my MCS, and I have experienced the same pattern with the crazy intermittent popping / hissing when my DPSM amp died a year ago (thankfully it was still under warranty). When I brought my car in for this problem, it took the dealership 4 days to diagnose a bad amp (which then took 3 weeks to arrive from ze Germans) because it was a new problem to them.

 

Even buying a used H/K Amp for $425...it seems it too could crap out for no reason at any time right? Has anyone researched aftermarket AMPS for an R53? I think that's the route I'm going to pursue since my H/K amp died 2 days ago.

 

I too am interested in an aftermarket replacement amp for the R53. My amp died a week ago.

I read on all the posts of whistling, static, and intermittent speaker issues.

Mine just died without notice. Anyone have that issue? Is it truly the AMP? The radio changes stations, changes tracks on the CD, changes playlists on the iPod, just no sound at all.

Thanks,

 

But is it the H/K amp itself, or is it the location that its in? Like I said a few posts ago, my DPSM (non-H/K, but which mounts in the exact same place as the H/K) also had very similar problems.

 

I'm heading to a reputable car stereo place this morning & I'll let you all know what comes of this visit. A freind of mine from REME is also a service manager at a NorCal MINI dealership and that was his diagnosis of my problem.

 

Frankly, I don't care if a new amp is made in China, as long as it works!! I'm getting real tired of the stuff breaking on my car and am close to leaving the ranks of MINI owners!

 

Liquid Yellow.
I maybe join this forum too late but at that time you were struggling with dead HK amp, mine was fine and apparently mine is dead now. :(
HU doesn't recognize HK amp and there is no sound like all others.
From you posting, I got some hint and courage to do my own lab time with it and found that 16MHz XO is periodically dead over some seconds.
I saw your 16MHz is oscillating fine. Did you monitor it using oscilloscope?
Of course, HK amp could fail on multiple reason but from my experience on EE field suggest that always the weakest link breaks first. So I hope we're dealing with same problem. I assume that there is happening either 1) DSP starts and found some abnormality and call reset routine and this repeats over and over again. or 2) XO stops oscillating for some reason after some time and this disturbs the DSP's normal operation.
1) is more likely but I'd try to forcing 16MHz with signal generator to rule out 2). I may try to monitor voltage down spike to correlate it with XO shut off time.
I've observed K-bus as well and there is spike periodically. This is caused by PU switching on K-bus transceiver to switch supply from 5V to 12V, which I don't know exactly why it happens though. K-bus transceiver ELMOS made has simply way too little information on it compared to Melexis one. But both should work same on the bus and interface is similar, I'll look into this after 16MHz issue. Without proper clock input, DSP is simply dead.
Anyway, I had spent a couple of hours only on this. If I found something, I'll keep you posted.

 

merongi,
Good ideas. Please do follow up the clocking. My 04 is intermittent failing now and I'd like to get it back in shape. You and Liquid Yellow are providing good analysis and evidence trail. I've got an eBay "parts not working" amp coming soon so I can do off-vehicle hacking and hope to contribute to the situation.

 

Long story short forcing 16MHz clock is not working.
Even with continuous clock feeding through XO, it seems turning on and off periodically suggesting that 1) is more likely. I should have done this analysis at least before it's completely dead. It used to generate pop sound sporadically a couple of weeks ago.

Looking for other options to repair/replace this without fortune, viable option is either 1) after market 4 ch. amp or 2) E46 HK amp.

For 1) I don't want to cut wires of MINI and don't like to handle mounting issue of new amp. The smallest amp in the market is Sony Slimline which is still bigger than HK. (in that sense, HK amp might worth its price, 4ch vs 8ch + DSP in compact size) I may utilize the interface board of original HK amp so that I don't have to cut any wires but still I have to deal with mounting.

For 2) E46 HK amp (many available in eBay for ~$100) has been tried by some MINI users and according to them, it's either "doesn't work correctly" or "only left channel is active". I've compared its pin diagram with MINI one and their speaker mapping is a bit different but basically both are 8ch with DSP and have the same power/control mapping. So the only way it doesn't work I can think of is, they have different firmware and have different K-bus protocol. So MINI's K-bus command from HU screws up E46 HK amp. I have thought about to design a small board that maps MINI HU K-bus protocol to E46 one but I don't have working MINI HK nor E46 car. If board design is exactly or almost the same, I might try to swap EEPROM.

 

So has anyone found installed a aftermarket Amp to replace the HK amp ? Surely there must be a good alternative to the HK amp, and i sure as hell am not gonna pay over $1000 for a new HK amp !

 

No such amp exists! I figured I'd do the same thing but found out that we're not the only German cars with this problem. Turns out Mercedes Benz & Audi among others are just as screwed whern the HK amps give up!! I wanted a sound system that worked and wasn't going to cost me an arm and a leg to keep running. You're still stuck if you opt for an amp out of a wrecked car 'cause they still cost $500 and there is no guarantee that it won't crap out.
I opted for a total replacement of the system substituting a Pioneer DEH-P5200HD complete unit that was connected to the stock wiring back where the amp used to be with an inexpensive adapter. I also had them put in another $150 adapter that keeps the steering wheel controls funtional. I got the whole package plus installation for about $650. It has HD radio, is Satellite through the stock speakers...

 

I think thats what i may do as well. I mean, for the price of a new HK amp, you can get a whole new system, new speakers and all in the MINI. Maybe even less. But im really surprised you cant get just an amp. I thought i read here somewhere someone bought a replacement Alpine or something. Ill keep researching

 

I have bought BMW E46 HK amp and equipped into my MINI.
Haha. You DON'T want to do that.
It makes
1. you have hood/hatch door open light on.
2. signal indicator on dash board not work (signal itself works!)
3. all buttons on handle except honk won't work
4. as you speed up, all the lights get dimmer
5. navigation doesn't accept any button command
...

But,
It works on
1. all left channels
2. volume control
3. base/treble control
4. fade/balance control
in a sense that 3 and 4 changes only for lefty though.

Based on the facts above, E46 HK amp in MINI corrupts K-bus communication and mess up MINI system. HU recognizes it as normal amplifier and HK amp doesn't recognize the HU neither. I guess that's why it has only left channels (or i.e. 4 channels, their speaker mappings are different)
As a fun project, I'm thinking about "translator" board that receives MINI's K-bus command and sends to E46 HK amp and vise versa with some 'translation' and 'filtering'.
Since I don't have working HK amp nor BMW, the primary object of this project would be simple like follows.
1. E46 HK doesn't screw up MINI system
2. Remap speakers
3. Able to control vol/bass/treb/fade/balance
4. Able to control through handle buttons
I guess it's pretty much doable with some investment of time.
If somebody around bay area is willing to show me his K-bus traffic for E46/HK and MINI/HK in some time, I might be able to recover all the functions of HK but that would be really long shot.
I'd be satisfied with just music in the driving car for now.
If anybody interested in this project, I'll keep it posted the progress here but it will take long time as I'm a father now.

 

Have read just about every post and interested in following. One early post suggested bringing a class action suit against HK. Did that go anywhere? I would also be interested in any knowledge on bypassing the amp. This would at least get me some sound (...the wife has really shown some patience!). Thanks to you all for your information. Last but not least - have there been any other after market installs to recommend (have noted the Pioneer DEH-P5200HD from another post).

 

You might see what these guys have to say. They are MINI experts and work on all kinds of exotics including the Bugatti Veyron. I got my interface cable from them for my Driventalk KlaT7 bluetooth kit for my HK stereo. They are great at responding to email and the amp listed in the link will do 4x75 watts at 2 ohms. It is at least worth an email.

http://www.newministuff.com/new/shop...uctshow&id=571

Jason

 

Quick update
I've studied E46 HK amp and it's somewhat disappointing.
Unlike MINI HK amp, it doesn't have DSP, so it wouldn't be able to reproduce HK function of MINI, where I don't care much though.
It has 4 of two channel Philips PA making it 8ch amplifier.
Ordered all the components to filter K-bus traffic.
With Ibus monitor program available, I would be able to analyze MINI's K-bus traffic from next week.
More update will follow when I have all the parts and hooked up.