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Navigation & AudioBring your GPS and favorite CD or MP3. This is where navigation and audio options for the Cooper (R50), Cabrio (R52), and Cooper S (R53) MINIs are discussed.
So I have an r53 with hk, previous owner changed the headunit to a Kenwood without a CD player. Hk enabler and steering wheel buttons were hooked up as well. Everything has worked great until recently. the drivers speaker no longer work and I also believe the rear speakers do not either, only the passenger side works. If I max out the volume(Kenwood will not turn up passed a certain volume number) I can hear faint music from the drivers tweeter.
I’ve been wanting to revert to the stock stereo head unit which I got with the car, because the volume doesn’t go passed a certain number with the aftermarket Kenwood.
So the questions are:
1. How do I take this Kenwood out of here and put the stock head unit back in? Is it going to be plug and play?
2. Is the speakers for the drivers side blown or is the amp dying? Could that lead to the issue of only the passenger side working and no other speakers?
From your first question, it sounds like you have never changed out a head unit. Corect? It's not difficult and particularly easy with the R53. First step will be to remove the silver vertical side pieces. There are two screws on passenger and driver sides, you will need to drop down the glove box to access the passenger side, and pull down the panel under the driver wheel to access the driver side. Once those have been removed you will have access to the screw holes you will need to re-install the factory unit. I'd google what ever head unit you have to remove it if you have no experience, or any single DIN video, since single DIN units pretty much all come out the same way. It should be a plug and play process because you said the steering wheel switches still work, so most likely there is an aftermarket wiring harness connecting the current unit. Just unplug the connectors and plug the car's wiring harness back into the OEM radio. screw in the radio, and I'm assuming you don't have the original screws for this so you'll have to figure out the screw size.
Nope I’ve never removed it before it’s already been switched to an aftermarket one. But thanks I figured that’s how you did it but I wasn’t sure if the system was going to freak out once I put the factory one back in.
I took a look undet the passenger side dash and they have ran black and yellow wires down the side of the floor board that appear to head to the amp so I have no clue what that is. I don’t think they’re factory wires since they’re poorly routed and loose
The HK amp dying is a common problem and could cause your problems. To check for speakers blown, you could swap the left and right side speakers. If the problem doesn't move to the other side, the issue is probably a blown HK amp. Were the rear speakers working previously?
Swapping in a stock headunit would be plug-and-play, after removing the HK enabler, which looks like this: https://newministuff.com/hk-enabler-465-p.asp
In addition to the HK Enabler, you'll probably also find a separate aftermarket adapter for the steering controls. Basically you'd want to remove everything so that the factory connector plugs directly into the back of the radio.
Yes the two front speakers were both working. The rears never worked for some reason. I got up close the the drivers side speaker and there is indeed sound coming from the tweeter and the speaker it’s very faint though so I faded the sound all the way to the drivers side and you have to get really close to hear it but the speakers work so I don’t think they’re blown. The speakers on the drivers side just don’t work at full capacity.
Would that hat be the amp causing that? Or maybe faulty wiring with that aftermarket Kenwood?
11-21-2018, 07:13 PM
