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Author Topic: KENWOOD DNX521DAB UPGRADE - WIRING HORRORS UNCOVERED  (Read 4136 times)

Offline Octoparrot

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KENWOOD DNX521DAB UPGRADE - WIRING HORRORS UNCOVERED
« on: May 09, 2016, 09:23:38 pm »
Hi, if you've read my intro post you'll remember I mentioned I'd upgraded my stereo to the above title, just as well I did as what I uncovered during the process shocked me. You'll have to forgive the lack of photo's in the strip down phase as I didn't have a camera with me and I wasn't expecting any problems. It seems that someone had tried to splice 2 head unit adaptor leads together and there was a general rats nest of wiring stuffed behind the dash. I was changing this;



to this;



and this is the wiring I found, all of it was removed from the car;

























Tracing these wires



 I found this under the back seat;









This was running from behind the dash, down the sill and under the back seat as well





Gps sensor was found tucked behind the dash as well



Thankfully the factory wiring hadn't been hacked into apart from these 2



had been soldered into here



Ultra long ariel cable also found





This microphone was also removed as I had the one that came with the DNX unit



This is the total amount of wiring I removed



Things looked a lot better once I'd ripped it all out,



Thankfully fitting the DNX unit was straight forward with the adaptor loom, gps sensor and microphone that came with it, I just had to buy a new DAB ariel and a fakra adaptor and all was well! Or so I thought, it soon became obvious that the main passenger door speaker wasn't working so I removed the door card to investigate and found this;







Note the nice use of countersunk wood screws to hold the speaker in,



My car only had the 8 speakers, the original tweeter was missing and as this replacement was positioned loosely where the mid speaker would be presumably because whoever found out it couldn't be made to fit in the original tweeter position, it wasn't even held in with anything! just positioned and then the door card placed back over the top!



The drivers side was just the same except the original tweeter was still there, just unplugged. Guessing that the speaker was fubar, I ended up getting the rainbow set up but fitting that is a whole other story.  :doh:

« Last Edit: May 09, 2016, 09:26:40 pm by Octoparrot »

Offline r5gtt

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Re: KENWOOD DNX521DAB UPGRADE - WIRING HORRORS UNCOVERED
« Reply #1 on: May 10, 2016, 12:09:44 am »
Talk about a perfect wiring job  :signLOL:

nice speakers  :smiley:

Offline RetroRaz

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Re: KENWOOD DNX521DAB UPGRADE - WIRING HORRORS UNCOVERED
« Reply #2 on: May 10, 2016, 09:18:09 am »
Holy crap!

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Offline pudding

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Re: KENWOOD DNX521DAB UPGRADE - WIRING HORRORS UNCOVERED
« Reply #3 on: May 11, 2016, 05:24:54 pm »
Some people shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a car. That's the sort of thing I used to see in 90s Ford Escorts.  That was a potential fire hazard waiting to happen!


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Offline Octoparrot

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Re: KENWOOD DNX521DAB UPGRADE - WIRING HORRORS UNCOVERED
« Reply #4 on: May 11, 2016, 06:48:13 pm »
Some people shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a car. That's the sort of thing I used to see in 90s Ford Escorts.  That was a potential fire hazard waiting to happen!

Tell me about it! I'm glad I never actually tried or tested the stereo before I decided to upgrade it. Whoever did it obviously didn't really have a clue what they were doing, they seemed to make a more thorough job of hiding the wiring than actually wiring it up (fairly understandable given the state it was in). I'm guessing one of the previous owners had a sub in the boot or something as one of the luggage tie downs on the rear panel had been hammered flat and the trim placed back over the top.

Offline sanj

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Re: KENWOOD DNX521DAB UPGRADE - WIRING HORRORS UNCOVERED
« Reply #5 on: May 18, 2016, 05:52:53 pm »
Bloody hell, yeah really did take me back to the 90's!