Radio buttons dying / Effects of aftermarket radio

[bigshowpl]

Hello, Slowly the buttons on my radio have been dying, the biggie is the power button was intermittent when i got the car but works fine for volume, but now it's packed in totally and the battery has been disconnected and now I can't turn the radio on again. I will pull it out soon and have a look but assuming it's dead, what do I lose if I fit a standard third party radio? I still have a Sony MP3 CD Player I used to have in my 306 a few years ago, and two Rovers before, and am assuming the 406 should have standard ISO connectors so should just need a faceplate - not bothered about the stalk controls they're a bit fiddly anyway - what I am concerned about is the functionality of the screen. Will it not work at all with a different radio? I can get by without it telling me the temperature outside, but it also flashes up useful warnings e.g. low fluid levels, and it's also the clock.

Car is a 1999 HDi 90 (so an early D9) so I am assuming not multiplexed. Radio is a Clairon with 6 CD changer in boot.

Thanks,
Paul

[bigshowpl]

Okay, quick update, i've had a look and re-soldered some dry joints, however there is a fracture in the PCB resulting in the power button and "radio/band" buttons not working. I've shorted the pins to get the radio on now, but need to sort this properly. I will try some superglue to fix the board and some conductive paint to reconnect the tracks, but am not that optimistic about that being a lasting solution - does anyone have a scrap clarion head unit? (D9, tape with CD-Changer controls), I only need the removeable front panel/circuit board.

On the plus side, with the radio disconnected the display seems to function normally, displaying date, time, temperature and warning me the door was open on the car.

[bigshowpl]

Hey, I'm talking to myself.
Anyway, rethought plan and got an old IDE cable and used three wires soldered on to connect from pad to pad, bypassing the cut traces. Power button and band button now work fine again, so now have a fully working radio again. Even got an aerial for a £1 from a scrappy after someone snapped mine off - seems to be a lot of this sort of thing going on now. I suspect the original problem was dry joints, and my hitting the power button to get the radio on a few months back probably cracked the pcb resulting in the band button not working along with the power button.

Would still be good if someone can confirm for reference purposes if I or anyone else fitted a third party radio to a 99 D9, the display in the dash would continue to work as normal apart from the radio functions?

[steve_earwig]

Yeah, sorry about that - "if you can't say anything helpful don't say anything at all"

On the plus side, with the radio disconnected the display seems to function normally, displaying date, time, temperature and warning me the door was open on the car.

I'd think if you don't have anything connected to the display feed then the display should act like there's no radio there. There are people who've messed with theirs and have even managed to get a different radio to work with the display (where are you all?). The one in my D9 pi$$es me off something chronic, I don't know if the buttons are up the creek or it's the BSI ignoring me but I'm reluctant to mess with it in case I make matters worse. Maybe I need to give it some grief too...

[muffindell]

I'm 99% sure some of the Kenwood units had an output so that functions are duplicated on the car screen, this would only be a function of the top range units though.