Radio issue, done searches to no avail.

[aldred309uk]

Let me first say I don't know much about car radios so please be gentle.

My radio is a Hu655, assuming it isn't the original as the code written on it doesn't match the log book. The issue I have started intermittently but then took my radio out of use until this afternoon.

When turned on there would be no audio from the radio or the connected ipod. There would be a loud pop noise from the front left speakers and when looking at the radio itself the backlight would go off for a split second when the pop noise happened, there would then be a second lighter pop, like an echo, from the front right. This would recur every few seconds whilst it was on.

Upon removing the radio there's a harness extension with a parrot bluetooth kit spliced into the harness extension which then plugs into the radio. Grey and green big plugs into grey and green female plugs which end up back at grey and green make plugs into the back of the radio.

There was also an aftermarket ipod cable fitted into the CD changer socket on the rear of the radio with a yellow wire taking power from the original car wiring, not the extra adapter wiring.

I did a lot of trouble shooting of the problem, fuse in the engine bay, couldn't find an amp under a seat, there's no CD changer or sub in the boot either. Removed the wiring extension and plugged the car into the original two sockets and absolutely nothing was helping the situation.

Finally conceding defeat we refitted the radio with everything as it was, minus the ipod dock because we had removed it during the trouble shooting. We st least knew that the parrot would still work for the phone so that was a consolation. Crammed all the wires back in and made sure everything was connected properly and now the damn radio works better than ever. We always had issues with FM but now it's working great.

Does all of this suggest that theres something on the way out inside the head unit itself? Was looking to upgrade to a double din touch screen unit because the ipod connector has been giving us trouble for a while. Don't want to replace the radio with a Sony unit or something else and that have the same issues because it's actually wiring causing the issue.

Many thanks in advance to anyone who could be bothered reading all of that! Hopefully it's just the head unit!

[pierremcalpine]

I highly doubt it’s the wiring. Ideally a forum member near you will volunteer to switch radios temprorarily so that you can confirm the HU is bad. Or head to wreckyard and get a replacement for testing.

[dralphs]

I used to have a TBH Bury bluetooth unit in my car with a HU655 and some make of harness similar to the autoleads SOT-043. Whenever i used the phone rather than muting the radio it seemed to power it down (the display and lights went off) and put the phone audio through the front speakers. It seemed to use a relay for the switching and wasn't as "clean" as i would have liked.
I got rid of it when the THB Bury failed.
I've currently got a bluetooth adapter that plugs in the CD changer port and have had to temporarily disconnect it as it seems to interfer with the FM signal. Its almost as if you have a disconnected or lowered aerial (didn't help i had a bad connection on the aerial plug)

Once it warms up i'll investigate as suspect its poor earthing or earthed at the wrong point causing feedback loops.

Hope this helps.