Hello all,

Just trying to collect some data points as to how far people have cooled/heated their empegs before things go bad. The reasoning behind this is that due to a piece of botched repair work (Don't got anywhere near Wyn Thomas Jaguar in Epping, if you want your empeg unmolested), my empeg is now stuck in place in the dashboard. It's almost certainly fixable, but I'm wondering how soon I need to get out and sort it, as I'm quite busy at the moment. Basically, unless lots of people come back saying "leaving it in the car overnight killed my empeg", I may leave it like that for a month or two as the temperatures in the UK at the moment aren't that extreme.

As an extra point of interest, the player has survived two weeks in the south of France (50 degrees plus temperatures inside the car, until it gets driven and the air conditioning kicks in) with no apparent ill-effects. Having all our music in the car with us made the 1,800 mile journey much more pleasant!

Cheers,

Gavin

I thought that might be mentioned. However, the unit is impossible to remove without removing the entire centre console, as it is with all Jags. Even if you were to destroy most of the surrounding fascia in order to release the unit, you still can't pull the device out of the mounting hole without putting the gearbox in Drive, which you can't do without the ignition on. I know potential thieves might not be aware of these issues, but on the other hand they might know that Jaguar radios are normally pretty hard to remove.

Still not 100% happy with it, mind you.

Cheers,

Gavin

My empeg has survived 100+ F temperatures. I've been a little concerened about it at times, but so far it has withstood the heat. I can't really speak about cooler temperatures, though.

I once left the empeg in the dash on a hot day, and it got to 64 degrees by the internal thermometer. No problems, but a bit risky day in, day out maybe.

I don't think its temperature so much as sudden temp changes like going from a cold car to a hot room. This does evil things to solder joints, condensation etc.

I'd not advise day to day hot or cold temperatures anyway - it can't possibly be good for it.

I have a Miata (as wel ALL well know) with two HU in the dash, the empeg being the one on thop of the clarion. There is essentially zero wiggle room in the dash for ventilation.

Leaving my car in the sun all day..with the empeg in the dash, upon removal it is VERY hot to the touch...

on these occasions i would imagine the in car temp to be 100F+

also..this is where i get the dreaded HDNF message...when the unit cools, however, it will boot up

i am sending the unit off to get the IDE header resoldered...after 3 years in the extreem cold (single digits) and heat, maybe it needs a little TLC

I recommend making sure that your MP3s are all backed up, because leaving the empeg in the dash in the hot sun *will* kill its hard disk eventually.

how far people have cooled/heated their empegs

I have attempted to start my empeg when it had been sitting overnight in my car at 20 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (what would that be in Centigrade? About -29, is that right?) but the hard drive wouldn't spin up until the temperature of the player warmed up by about 10 or 15 degrees.

I have started my player when it (and the car) had been sitting outside in the sun in temperatures approaching 90 degrees F, probably 130 degrees inside the car, and it started up and ran just fine.

That said... it is probably not coincidental that my hard drive failed after two or three years of this kind of abuse. But I had all my music backed up on my home computer, and I wanted a bigger hard drive anyway.

tanstaafl.

That's a pretty good effort (2 to 3 years) given that sort of abuse (-29C to +55C starts). Most laptop drives are +5 to 55C rated only. Of course rated means the manufacturer guarantees operation over those ranges so they will definitely work outside that range.

/me takes notes regarding thermal tollerance for lit buttons. Pretty much on check with what I was expecting. -30 to 130. Haha, doesn't the metal frame start to melt at those temperatures?

What metalwork do you have the melts at 130F or 130C??? Making it out of tin foil doesn't count.

Just kidding around, goofing on the (somewhat) indestructable empeg metalwork.