Had a previous mentioning this yesterday but I just completed the full fix/install and things are working out great. Let me preface this with saying I am not an electrician and I am not responsible if any goes wrong if you try this, attempt at your own risk.

My Symptoms: My H/K equipped R53 radio started to sporaticaly cut in and out over a few days, especially under louder music. Eventually the entire head unit went lost power. I checked all fuses in isde panel and under hood and nothing was blown.

My Diagnosis: I pulled the head unit and tested the voltage across the battery supply (pin 15) with the harness still plugged into the headunit. The battery supply was only 2-3 volts. I unplugged the harness from the back of the radio and tested the wire without being in the headunit and I got the full 12-13 volts. Not sure why this is (maybe has something to do with the amp controlling the entire sound system and the board not supplying enough power?) Anyway, on a whim I ran a wire directly from the battery terminal under the hood to pin 15 battery supply and the whole system came alive!

My Fix: Bought a Fused 10 amp 16 gauge wire for $10 and ran it from the battery terminal under the hood, neatly through the engine bay and to the back of the head unit. Connected the wire inline with the existing power wire and my radio is working great. All speakers work, OEM iPod kit works (now that it's jailbroken with NoSplashScreen hack I can play Spotify through my system), steering wheel controls work, everything!

I hope this helps anyone with symptoms like mine for their H/K system. I would stress testing with a volt meter to see if your having a power supply issue before you go and take your interior apart.

Since I am not an electrical engineer, if someone reads this and thinks to themselves "Holy **** this is going to fry his car" please let me know. I cant see why it will cause any harm to anything but again I am no expert.

Cheers

 

jail broke the oem ipod kit? Where can I get info on doing that?

 

I don't think this is the major issue that people are having with their H/K systems. Most of them have issues with the AMP (myself included). When you say that the head unit lost power, you mean that you had nothing on the display at all or was the radio "on" but nothing through the speakers?