"Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo" (akioohtori)
01/08/2020 at 14:22 • Filed to: The Hot Mess
2
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"Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo" (akioohtori)
01/08/2020 at 14:22 • Filed to: The Hot Mess | 2
| 19 |
So... As expected there are some problems with the Jag that I neither anticipated nor expected to be this difficult or expensive to repair. In this case, it is a problem with the radio. Specifically, with the audio cutting out.
“ELECTRICAL PROBLEMS!? IN A BRITISH CAR!?” I hear you exclaim. First ever recorded event of them, I know. Next thing I’ll tell you is my Alfa has all sorts of weird electrical problems.
Annoyingly, the radio didn’t act up during the test drive or on the drive home, though once I left Saint Louis I switched to a Bluetooth speaker. In fact, the first time I noticed the problem was after I removed the amp and changer in an attempt to fix the changer. Naturally, my first suspicion was that I’d messed something up when reattaching/ reinstalling the assembly. However, after checking all the connections and fiber cables, I don’t see any problems. Furthermore, I giggled everything with the audio going and couldn’t make it mess up.
The plot thickened when, after giving up on the CD changer, I noticed the problem would occur with AM, FM, and the in dash CD player. So... that narrows it down to the head unit, fiber loop, or amp.
The only thing I could do to replicate the problem is to unplug the fiber optic cable from the amp in the trunk.. This mimics the problem pretty well, actually, down to the non-functioning volume knob when the audio is cut.
Since the problem seems to be worse at high volume or when it is warmer out, my conclusion is that the problem is heat related. Poking around the internet there seem to be a smattering of these problems with no real solutions. Some people have had corrosion that was fixable, but overall the solution seems to be grab a new amp.
So I did that.
I headed to my local LKQ today before going to pee in a cup for the new job (overshare).
“What are you looking for today?” asked the forced-friendly counter attendant.
“Jaguar X-Type, but I think I know where they are.” I responded, knowing they didn’t have any S-Types, but the X-Type has the same amp.... I think.
“Oh we don’t have any of those,” she responded.
“No, you have two. I’ll look them up on my phone on the walk up. Thanks!” I replied, annoyed at the entire exchange.
To be fair she probably isn’t used to someone showing up in khakis and a teal shirt, but it was what I was wearing and the job isn’t a dirty one.
Yes, I recycled the photo from my last LKQ visit....
Four 10mm nuts later I had an amp in hand and the first thing I noticed is a little cooling fan on the side. I could totally see that little bastard being the source of all my troubles!
But it wasn’t...
I plugged the “new” amp into the car, witnessed the fan start to whir, and immediately heard the audio cut out. Now, in a lot of ways this isn’t a bad thing. The problem has never occurred with the car not running before, so this really helps my troubleshooting!
That said, additional jiggling, prodding and probing didn’t really make the problem go away or get worse. It just... was.
So, I figured why not tear about the “new” amp and see what I can see.
So I did that.
Unfortunately, with the amp apart I saw a very little in terms of smoking guns, at least on the front.
I couldn’t look at the back because the amp is actually soldered to the rear shell!?
Looks a little gross, I guess?
I unsoldered the tab and, again, no smoking guns.
I cleaned off some corrosion, touched up some solder joints, touched up the grounding pads, but ultimately didn’t find anything I could point at and say “well there is the problem!”.
The blue is some form of conformal coating and looks semi-intentional. I did not remove it.
Fully disassembled, I realized to get this thing back together I’d need thermal paste. No matter, apparently Best Buy actually sells it for a reasonable price!
On the way back, an additional development! The audio cut out all together and didn’t come back! Well if nothing else I may have finally let the smoke out of this thing! Why am I excited? I need to re-examine my priorities in life...
Anyway, I the remembered that I can talk to the audio controller via OBDII. I plugged in my scanner and...
Huh. Well the internet is still pointing to an optical networking problem. Unfortunately all the stuff in the trunk that I can get at appears to be OK.
The next morning I cleaned off the old thermal paste and put on the new stuff. Then I tightened the hell out of all the heatsink screws, and tried the amp again. Well actually I tried the “old” one again to confirm it still wasn’t working.
It was still not working! I don’t know why failure excites me, but it does.
I tried the “new” self-refurbished one and...
Sound! Noise! Volume! NPR!
Ok... so that is somewhat of a result. Now I guess I need to finish reassembling the “new” one and install it into the car. Then I might tear into the old one and see if I can make it work too and either have a spare or, more likely, sell it on eBay.
Fingers crossed this is the end of my issues!
MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
01/08/2020 at 14:40 |
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I giggled everything with the audio going and couldn’t make it mess up
I’m not sure what laughing at the wiring is supposed to accomplish. Are you trying to shame it into working?
MiniGTI - now with XJ6
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
01/08/2020 at 14:41 |
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Nice work. I mean reliable failure is GREAT. My Jaguar has awful speakers, I really need to get some better ones.
There are a few problems with things that are electrically operated in mine, but really no odd wiring glitches.
LR window dead - probably mechanical or the motor
RR dome light switch - sticks a little
Cruise control - dead, probably needs the servo rebuilt
Gas gauge for the right tank mostly dead
That’s really it. All lights, central locking , auto climate (even the AC), all engine stuff (crispy EFI harness be damned - even it works fine!)
Manwich - now Keto-Friendly
> MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s
01/08/2020 at 14:42 |
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Well you know, shame can be a very powerful motivator!
Future Heap Owner
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
01/08/2020 at 14:49 |
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I’m crossing my fingers for you too! Though if the problem resurfaces, the first thing that jumps to my mind is failing capacitors. Hopefully that’s not it because finding a capacitor that’s failing — but not so badly that it’s visually obvious — is a very annoying process (or so I’ve been told).
This makes me want to resurrect project RAUX Box (my attempt to retrofit an AUX input to my 2005 Volvo’s audio system, which has a similar fiber-optics communication bus ). I never figured out why the ADC chip I bought seems to be outputting a very dirty I2S signal (lots of random noise in the clock signal it’s generating).
jimz
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
01/08/2020 at 15:03 |
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That’s an Alpine-made amp; I recognize it from when I worked there. IIRC that D2B optical link is a ring network, so any faulting module in the ring can cause a no-audio condition. also a compromised or degraded fiber cable can cause all sorts of maddening issues.
GoodIdeaAtTheTime
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
01/08/2020 at 15:23 |
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I always hated diagnosing the S-Type audio systems. It basically went: test fiber optic loop with special tool. Check for corrosion. Replace random parts until it works again ;) until it doesn’t again and start over. Lots of corrosion problems from what I recall. A few broken loops, but it was easy to find broken fiber optics visually. It really was a stupid system.
Censored
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
01/08/2020 at 15:34 |
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I had no idea that any car had a fiber network in it. Seems super smart to install a cable architecture
that is not good with vibration in a car.
TorqueToYield
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
01/08/2020 at 16:36 |
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Seems the car might be from the right era to suffer from cap plague
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague
Lots of electrolytic caps there. Not all of the bad ones bulge or burst either.
Years ago I had to scrap like 9 monitors at work that randomly stopped working with weird symptoms and the guess was cap plague.
HoustonRunner
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
01/08/2020 at 16:39 |
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If all you got was NPR, was it really "fixed"?
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Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
> HoustonRunner
01/08/2020 at 16:39 |
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It is a Jag. I assume the radio only tunes to NPR and conservative talk radio so.... yes?
NYankee1927
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
01/08/2020 at 17:52 |
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I’ve been having amp problems in my BMW. I think the IC on the board is dead so I have some amps on a daughter board coming. I should be able to splice those in with hopefully no loss in audio quality
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Future Heap Owner
> Censored
01/08/2020 at 18:43 |
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It seems to be an affliction specific to European cars. My 2005 Volvo V50 also has one for the audio system.
someassemblyrequired
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
01/08/2020 at 23:06 |
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I miss the feeling of victory after mending a random Jaguar issue. Not enough to buy another, but I do miss it.
AMGtech - now with more recalls!
> jimz
01/09/2020 at 01:33 |
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I believe all automotive fiber optic networks are rings. Also, technically, this isn’t D2B, as that’s an older variation. This would be MOST, which is much much better. But yeah, you are otherwise completely correct. Well, I mean I can't comment on the Alpine part
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AMGtech - now with more recalls!
> Censored
01/09/2020 at 01:40 |
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Been around since the 90's! Many many euro cars run a fiber optic system for in car entertainment and have for about 15 years . They actually all run the same system/protocol, and it’s called MOST, or media oriented system transport. There’s an older variation called D2B, which is much more finicky. MOST is actually pretty decent and not too bad to diagnose. They majority of it’s issues are failed modules (often due to water or other external influences) and not the fiber optics themselves.
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Censored
> AMGtech - now with more recalls!
01/09/2020 at 09:49 |
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Still crazy to me. The fiber would likely be pretty impossible
to diagnose for the at home mechanic without a fiber test kit. Not something I’d ever think of needing for a car. I understand the benefits that it is really fast over long distances, but a car is at most 20' long. Why not use something more robust in an automotive application, what’s the benefit over wire?
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jimz
> AMGtech - now with more recalls!
01/09/2020 at 10:47 |
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when I was there they had just switched over from Ai-Net/analog to D2B. by the time they switched to MOST I was probably off working with a different customer.
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AMGtech - now with more recalls!
> Censored
01/09/2020 at 16:19 |
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Weight and resistance to electrical interference are good reasons. There’s more, but I could write about it for days. So I find a thing someone else wrote:
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Censored
> AMGtech - now with more recalls!
01/09/2020 at 16:34 |
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Good read, thanks.