2005 Landrover Freelander

Hi All,

I'm amazed at how many of the old faces are still on here. It's good to see. If you recognise me you'll know I'm an infrequent visitor and dip in and out alot.

Anyway, upgraded my Freelander. It had a dual DIN so I figured I'd get a new head unit to do the hands free and play through iPhone if empeg not int he car. Here's my latest install attempt. A little neater than previous ones, honest.

Biggest downside is that all of a sudden my buttons don't light up anymore

May have to try a little home surgery although that went badly wrong last time and still not got my 2nd empeg fixed. Maybe I could nick the display off that one.

So, hope y'all enjoy the pics.

Check the Button brightness setting in the Hijack menu -- it might have gotten reset to "off" somehow.

And note that there are different settings remembered for in-car versus in-home.

-ml

You are ...

Indeed ...

THE MAN.

Yep, that was the problem. Phew! Happy again

Looks like when I swapped the empeg from top to bottom it lost the illumination setting and also I may have dislodged a connection as it wasn't retaining the last played track and kept going back to exactly the same place.

So, I was prepared to pull it all out and check all the wiring except it suddenly starting to behave itself keeping the illumination setting and last position played. So I left it. Although I have noticed that I don't get the pulsating light when it is on standby.

The radio reception is also absolutely abysmal. Had the same problem with the empeg tuner in the last Freelander and the Alfa before that and yet the stock head unit radio is perfect. What's all that about?

Anyway, here's latest pics with all (almost) blue lens and buttons to match Pioneer. The plastic on the empeg matches the console plastic really well. Shame the Pioneer is so glossy.

[img]http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/stevenh.rhodes/20100327EmpegInstallFreelander2005#5466266896150485234[/img]

[img]http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/stevenh.rhodes/20100327EmpegInstallFreelander2005#5466266933110285986[/img]

Try reading this thread.

Thanks. Once again you come to my rescue. There is so much on the empeg that I've forgotten how to do.

I've gone back and taken a look at the empeg in the car. I was wrong, the pulsating does come on when empeg in standby but only when the head unit is off. As soon as I turn it on again the light goes off. Must be something to do with the way I have connected up to the same power cables. I may have to check the cabling after all. Rats! I think I have possibly connected the antenna booster cable to the blue wire which may be causing this to happen (and the only change I added when I swapped the empeg and the Pioneer around.

Something is seriously misconnected there.

I _think_ the Empeg FAQ has an entry on this exact issue, somewhere in there.

http://riocar.org/modules.php?op=modload...mp;faqent=88#88

I would imagine that is the problem, need to swap the wires. Not got around to it yet because:

a) I'm lazy and it ain't horribly broke
b) I managed to do my back in and so unnecessary bending and twisting not an option
c) when I was finally feeling up to it didn't want to risk causing more issue just before the 4 hour journey to and from Glastonbury

Stangely, with a fully loaded roofbox the radio recpetion got a lot better. It's a freelander with the aerial on the roof so it was actually trapped under the roofbox. Now I've taken it off, back to poor reception.

Now what do you think that is about?

Finally got around to trying to sort this out. After 1 1/2 hours net result is that I don't think I've sorted it. I swapped the leads. Although, managed to swap red and orange instead of yellow and orange. That was a panic moment when I couldn't get it working at all! I've also snapped one side of the bottom part of the fascia which is a tad annoying.

All wired up and still behaving the same. Oh well, it doesn't actually cause me any probs so will see how I get on with it.

BUT - I may, MAY, have sorted out the radio. Not sure if the wire was getting pinched or something but getting more stations now. The true test will be to take it out for a run and see if I lose reception along the A6.

At any time during all of this rewiring, did you verify that the wires coming from your car were doing the things they're supposed to do? For example, the wire that you think is 12-volts constant really is 12-volts constant, and the ignition switched 12-volt wire really is ignition switched 12-volts? Also, have you checked that you've got a really good ground?

By the way, looking back at the thread, something occurs to me:

You didn't happen to tie the blue wire from your other headunit to the blue wire from your empeg, did you? That's a no-no.

Think the wires from the car are correct to the colours. I may have blue wire connectivity going on somewhere there.

Other things have moved on a little in terms of radio reception. With the empeg out and pushing down on the back of the sled or pushing up on the bottom of the Pioneer gave me much better results (although not as good as I would expect). Not sure if something was getting a bit squashed back there. Anyway, I've now put a bigger spacer between the 2 so see how things go.

Will try and take a look at the blue wiring situation.

Had a delve into the innards a couple of months ago. empeg is currently not installed. I did have the blue wires connected. Is this a no-no as in a Ghostbusters-don't-cross-the-streams stylee 'cos ...

I disconnected them and played with the radio position and improved the reception.

I reconnected the empeg and got loads of interference.

I do have a bit of a rash streak so I reconnected the blue wires again and with the empeg connected got no inteference.

At the moment, I have the radio in and a big hole where the empeg should be so I can get to the radio when I get the occassional loss of signal. Something going wrong at the back there somewhere when sometimes something shifts or touches something it shouldn't.

To be honest, I'm amazed that anything I try to install works at all.

My current plan is to try and do a more 'professional' ISO split solution as the one I have at the moment is well dodgy (see pictures from original post) and I want to make some more secure connections.

Right, finally got around to doing a better job with the adaptor. I've spent hours messing and still can't get a consistent decent signal on the radio. Fiddling with the wires on the head unit seems to give variable results which doesn't seem right at all.

I attached the empeg and (blue wires not connected) got more interference with the radio. So, I connected the empeg radio module and this improved things. Funny, only needs the wire extender connected and not the actual module. All seemed to go well until I put it all in the dash. As soon as the empeg is in place I get reduced radio quality. Aarrrggghhhh!

Oh, and along the way I found the fuse had blown in the yellow wire holder so that explains why no glowing led.

So, what to do, what to do? I'm a bit stumped now.