Kenwood sucks..damn speed deck

[icourtnage]

I turned on my 'speed yesterday only to find that the display on my kenwood wasnt working. I still had audio, and was prepared to listen to whatever was on during my drive to work until the audio stopped working. Then the damn thing folded down like it was going to eject a cd and froze there. No audio, no display...nothin. I turned off the car and held down the reset button for five seconds, then turned it back on. nothin... then i reset it while the car was running.... still nothing. I tried everything you can imagine...checked the cables in the back to make sure something hadnt come loose.
I had to go to the dealer (which meant i had to leave work early because the dealership service dept closes at 430....like that does anybody any good....jackasses)....they said it was an internal problem with the head unit and they would order me another one.
I'm praying they dont have any more of them so that I can get something else....but I'm guessing that won't happen. So here is a big(bird) to kenwood for making a crappy deck and ensuring that you have enough to replace the ones that fail.
anybody else have this problem

 

[ND4MSP]

mine finally crapped out on me about two weeks ago. Just after I got through spending 600 bucks on new tires. My speeds out on warranty also

 

[icourtnage]

that sucks!! im sorry... write a letter to kenwood and talk about how you are dissapointed and that the stereo is fairly new. Maybe they will offer to help you out? Just tell them that you are thinking about switching to Alpine because they have better repair records and they offer better product support, or something like that. say you have been a loyal kenwood customer....that might move them to actually do something for you. Its worth a shot...

 

[peepsalot]

yeah, it's a common problem, happened to me. Some people are on their 3rd hardunit. Replacing the headunit with another defective headunit doesn't exactly "fix" anything. It will die again, it sucks.
When the warranty is up, I'll probably just get a new unit that doesn't suck.

 

[ChopstickHero]

yep, same thing happened to me... less than 2 weeks ago.

 

[CasopoliS]

same thing happened but I just pressed the reset button once and it flipped right again.

 

[ChopstickHero]

same thing happened but I just pressed the reset button once and it flipped right again.

mine flipped back after pressing reset... but flips down again after 10 seconds...

question: is the kenwood deck only covered under the overall car warranty, or does the kenwood deck have it's own warranty?

 

[mopiko]

I got a used deck from a fellow member here. Only worked for 6 months and it crapped on me. Not the seller's fault that's for sure. Crappy Kenwood deck, and my Sirius radio still have his satellite subscription, now I have to get another satellite radio player to get it to work.... sucks....

 

[icourtnage]

How many of these things did they make? They must have made two for every car produced....good job kenwood, way to make extras because you knew they'd crap out

 

[mopiko]

At one point I think Kenwood sold these "rejected" units to Mazda... I can't believe that they have such horrible quality....

 

[1sty]

THis isn't a problem with just this deck. It was a problem with all kenwoods of that generation and it continues to be one.

Buy nothing kenwood

 

[Porsche]

DANG! I was hoping there was a fix for this.
I have an MP3 but the person before i got the car said that the mp3 headunit crapped out so they put the next model in. I think he meant the Speed (I am going to double check.) I have had the car almost a year now and the headunit did this to me today!
I can not believe this.......... oh well. guess I will be me something else.

 

[k-lea]

funny thing is, is that i know exactly what you guys are talking about.

 

[ChopstickHero]

i bought a Pioneer Premier DEH-P770MP to replace it. that Kenwood our cars come with suck.

 

[Porsche]

I already started looking at Pioneer head units yesterday.
Guess I will have to wait to get one in and listen to the sound of the engine until then. LOL

 

[mspdfreak]

For those who don't know, it's the ribbon cable btween the faceplate and the HU. After the deck flips a few hundred times, the wires start breaking from all the flexing. That's what happened to me. First I lost the display, then the whole thing altogether. The thing is, you can't keep the faceplate from flipping closed when you shut off the car, so it WILL crap out again. Oh, and when you get the unit replaced under warranty, you're getting a refurb. Kenwood quit making them long ago.

 

[ChopstickHero]

For those who don't know, it's the ribbon cable btween the faceplate and the HU. After the deck flips a few hundred times, the wires start breaking from all the flexing. That's what happened to me. First I lost the display, then the whole thing altogether. The thing is, you can't keep the faceplate from flipping closed when you shut off the car, so it WILL crap out again. Oh, and when you get the unit replaced under warranty, you're getting a refurb. Kenwood quit making them long ago.

that's true. i may buy the ribbon cable and attempt to fix it myself.... and then sell it to get rid of it.

 

[pb4ugoout]

i'm on my 3rd one and each time it's taken 3 months or more for a replacement both times. you can buy the parts from best buys repair website for about 15 bucks and fix it yourself if you want

 

[CitizenPro]

Mine failed on me last month......got it replaced last week, and the new unit failed yesterday. Im very ticked off about the whole situation.....and when Mazda replaced the first failed unit, they scratched up my dash.....they dont know about the new unit that failed, but ill be back tomorrow to get another radio and dash

....gawd i hate these Kenwood Units.

 

[Pmpkinhead]

I'm getting my new (refurb) unit installed Wednesday (10-12-05). I lost my spectrum analyzer. The unit works fine otherwise.

Please provide a few more details on the "Do It Yourself" repair. Has anyone actually done it. Is it diff for someone with some electronics knowledge?