P38 Harmon Kardon

My 1999 DSE allegedly has the HARMON KARDON ICE system fitted. Haven't got much of a clue what that means as it looks to my inexperienced eye like any other in car stereo but I guess that's just an indication of my advanced years

Anyway, back to the important stuff, it doesn't seem to have a CD player fitted. Can I pick up a second hand one somewhere and just plug it in, will all of the loom connectors I need be already in there somehwere? Is it just the multichanger unit I need or is there anything else needed, (the in dash head does have a CD button on it)?

Finally, from what I can find with Google, the CD multichangers on the P38 either went under the front seat or in the boot, I can't see any space under the front seat so is it safe to assume that the model I am looking for fits in the boot ?

Thanks in advance for any help forthcoming

Regards, Brian

makes ya wonder if someones removed it at some point,
mines in the boot on the left hand side,up near the top of the side panel as your lookin in but it does have a panel covering it.

If its a true Harmon Kardon system you will have a subwoofer in the boot area along with a CD changer. If its there all you will see is a panel on the LH side when you open the boot with a small openning at the bottom for the CD's to go in. If you remove this panel the sub will be behind it.

Have you checked in the boot??

-Wills

wills said:

If its a true Harmon Kardon system you will have a subwoofer in the boot area along with a CD changer. If its there all you will see is a panel on the LH side when you open the boot with a small openning at the bottom for the CD's to go in. If you remove this panel the sub will be behind it.

Have you checked in the boot??

-Wills

Click to expand...

Only had the car a few days and I know this will sound terrible, but although I've opened the boot, I didn't take a lot of notice of what was there, I do know that there wasn't a subwoofer tho' as the boot was pretty empty.

It's on my list now for first thing tomorrow morning, I'll get back with what I find!

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Just remembered that I do have a picture of the boot if that helps, it looks empty but there does appear to be a slot on the LHS ?

bwarb said:

Only had the car a few days and I know this will sound terrible, but although I've opened the boot, I didn't take a lot of notice of what was there, I do know that there wasn't a subwoofer tho' as the boot was pretty empty.

It's on my list now for first thing tomorrow morning, I'll get back with what I find!

I do have a picture of the boot of that helps

Click to expand...

If that picture is of your boot then you DO have the sub and you should have the CD changer as well. Everything is hidden behind that panel on the left with just a small opening at the bottom for the CD changer so you can put CD's in.

If you didnt have the HK setup that space on the left would be like the one on the right, empty.

-Wills

wills said:

If that picture is of your boot then you DO have the sub and you should have the CD changer as well. Everything is hidden behind that panel on the left with just a small opening at the bottom for the CD changer so you can put CD's in.

If you didnt have the HK setup that space on the left would be like the one on the right, empty.

-Wills

Click to expand...

Yep, my boot and I do have the panel on the left, and a metal bracket/rack arrangement behind the slot where I imagine the CD multichanger would have sat .... Doh!

Looks like I may have the HK support/mounting stuff but with none of the actual electrical equipment fitted.......double Doh!!!

Any idea what model CD changer it would have been and where I could get one second hand, would a Disco or a Freelander one fit ?

Has the sub disappeared too That panel is held on with 4 turn screw thingys, unscrew those and then have the panel off and see whats left behind there, you should be looking for at least the CD changer which would have a round plug with lots of pins in it and possibly the connection for the sub.

See whats there, take a photo if you can and get back to here

-Wills

wills said:

See whats there, take a photo if you can and get back to here

-Wills

Click to expand...

I think the cupboard is pretty bare, just the mounting rack and a rectangular multipin connector



Here's the head unit, there are also volume and mode controls on the steering wheel:

I suspect, and Wills will probably confirm, that the bracket you have is for an aftermarket unit as it looks nothing like what I have in my own HSE. It's likley that someone has added the HK door tweeters to make it appear as though that is what's fitted. I take it that the radio/cassette is standard? Does it have the LR logo on it and the word Diversity?

Yes, Im afraid to say that you most likely dont have the HK sound system - can you take a photo of the head unit so we can see what that looks like??

The bracket you have there is an aftermarket one and the connector certainly is.

Take a photo of the head unit so we can see whats what.

-Wills

wills said:

Yes, Im afraid to say that you most likely dont have the HK sound system - can you take a photo of the head unit so we can see what that looks like??

The bracket you have there is an aftermarket one and the connector certainly is.

Take a photo of the head unit so we can see whats what.

-Wills

Click to expand...

Here's the head unit, there are also volume and mode controls on the steering wheel:

What shape connector does the standard RR CD autochanger have, mine's a rectangular connector, is that normal ?

Hi bwarb, you have the Alpine unit fitted to later version of the P38, earlier ones had Clarion units fitted. I'm sure that somone on here will be able to confirm if your square/rectangular plug shown in your earlier picture is for the standard Alpine CD changer.

My Disco allegedly has the HK set up, I removed the CD Autochanger recently and sold it, the cable from the changer (round) was plugged into a square control unit behind the dash it was in turn connected to the head unit with a small square/rectangle plug

where would my sub be?

TWEETS said:

My Disco allegedly has the HK set up, I removed the CD Autochanger recently and sold it, the cable from the changer (round) was plugged into a square control unit behind the dash it was in turn connected to the head unit with a small square/rectangle plug

Click to expand...

I have a black rectangular plug by the CD changer bracket so I am hoping that the standard 1999-2002 RR Alpine CD Changer had a rectangular plug rather than a round DIN one, anyone know offhand?

Like I said, the autochanger has a round plug, which was plugged into a control unit (little black box), it in turn was plugged into the stereo and it has a small square/rectangle connecter, my guess is you will need this control box, ive looked at mine and it says "L/Rover, Discovery 2, Range Rover - Alpine CD Interface" if your head unit is the Alpine unit then you will almost certainly need this control unit, My intention was to find out what this part costs to buy new then advertise it in the forsale section of the site, would take a sensible offer(bare in mind it looks/sounds an expensive part) if you need it

My CD changer was Alpine

TWEETS said:

Like I said, the autochanger has a round plug, which was plugged into a control unit (little black box), it in turn was plugged into the stereo and it has a small square/rectangle connecter, my guess is you will need this control box, ive looked at mine and it says "L/Rover, Discovery 2, Range Rover - Alpine CD Interface" if your head unit is the Alpine unit then you will almost certainly need this control unit, My intention was to find out what this part costs to buy new then advertise it in the forsale section of the site, would take a sensible offer(bare in mind it looks/sounds an expensive part) if you need it

Click to expand...

I'll post a close up shot of my rectangular loom connector tomorrow so you can confirm that it will plug into the interface box and then go from there.

Rgds, Brian

ok, done a little bit of research in the electrical manual. When I saw you had the Alpine head unit I was then swayed back to thinking you had a HK system SO I did a little bit of looking.

In the ETM within RAVE for any vehicle from 1999 on I had a look at the radio connections. That connector you have in the boot is known as C0941 and should be a 10 pin connector with 8 wires going into it.

The bracket you showed is what had me and others confused, it looks aftermarket and certainly on the Clarion HK vehicles there are support pegs for the sub towards the top that poke out of the panel and are attached to the body.

If you look at the picture below you can see on first impressions it doesn't look like your setup, however, if you look more closely you will see that if you remove the bracket thats holding the sub up then the bracket for the changer is a spot on match...




...at first I thought someone had come in and had the sub and changer out but the lack of top fixing pegs for the sub made me think again.

This is my theory, roughly backed up by the ETM, you have a DSE that does have the HK sound system but you have the MID line spec, i.e. it didn't have the sub or the CD changer. The CD changer was either put in when it was bought as an accessory or added at some point later only to be later removed by an owner.

So, I think (99.9% sure this is correct) from reading the ETM you need to get hold of just the CD changer for the Alpine system and you should be able to drop it into the bracket and go. From the look of it it will have a wire coming out the back of the changer that will plug straight into that plug you already have there.

Lastly, just to confuse you even more If you have an Ipod then you can get a device which directly plug into that wire you have there that will not allow you to have a CD changer but will allow you to plug an Ipod directly into your radio. Have a look at roverville.us for more info.

I hope my long winded essay didnt bore you too much. Im pretty sure most of it is spot on but as always if anyone wishes to correct me I am open to hearing what you think

-Wills