Back at the beginnig of March this year the sound from the stereo and satnav in my 02 L322 Vogue packed up. This was diagnosed as the DSP amp in the boot had failed and was US. A couple of weeks later the satnav packed up quickly followed by the in dash screen. Now as all us Rangey lovers know they're great but Land Rover a theiving b*****ds when they go wrong. They want £700 or more for an amp, £1200 or more for a new screen and I didn't even ask about the sat nav but it's £150 to have it fixed if it's fixable and it's completely out of date anyway. Granted you can get these units used on Ebay but it's very hit and miss if they will work, the amp has to be the right one, satnav compatible and even then may still have to go to LR to be re-programmed.
The best solution is to replace all of this stuff with an aftermarket unit, now in an HSE this is easily done, but a new unit stick it the dash wire it up..job done. In a Vogue things are not nearly that simple because everything entertainment oriented runs through that pesky complicated DSP amp in the boot. I have been told by a Range Rover "expert" on the internet who shall remain namless but they are POWERFUL people that it is not possible to integrate an aftermarket head unit into an L322 Vogue because of the complexity of the amp and speakers.. ladies an gentlemen this is not true if you have a good auto electrician and in car entertainments intaller who knows what they are doing. IT CAN BE DONE!
I had the DSP amp, Satnav unit, and radio unit removed from the boot and the screen removed from the front of the car. I then replaced all of this with a MEOS-MC401B single DIN head unit. This unit is great, it has bang up to date Satnav, Freeview Digital Mobile TV, obviously FM AM Radio will play CD, DVD, MP3, WMA, any movie or sound file from SD card. USB input front and rear, aux audio and video input front and rear integrated iPod cable, plug your Ipod in throw it in the glove box and all your Ipod music is displayed on the head unit screen, you can selcet and play all tracks from the head unit. The head unit is entirely touch screen operated and has a remote control. It is a high out put 70w x 4 unit and sounds amazing through the original Rangey speakers every bit as good as the Harmon Kardon system, but if that's not enough for you then it can of course be hooked up to an additional amp. The cost of his unit.......£239!!
A superb auto electical company in St Neots Cambridgeshire called The Biz installed the sysem for me including remodelling the dash to accept the single DIN unit for £350. I then replaced the gear selector, ash tray, gear selector surround and heater control panel surrounds with gloss Piano Black ones to match. Granted I no longer have the onboard computer screen but I never used it anyway and that information I ocassionaly did glance at such as fuel tank range and consumption is still displayed on my dash read out.
Have a look at the photos, it looks good and sounds fantastic all for £589 installed, £111 cheaper than a new amp alone and way less than half the price of a new amp and screen.
My sincere thanks to Senior Members Manchester Mozz and Matt Stevenson for all their help and advice, to Joe at Emmotts of Colne for all his help and to Neil and Al at The Biz in St Neots.
I'm not a photgrapher and unfortunately the pictures do not do the finished job or the unit justice but you get the idea!
The best solution is to replace all of this stuff with an aftermarket unit, now in an HSE this is easily done, but a new unit stick it the dash wire it up..job done. In a Vogue things are not nearly that simple because everything entertainment oriented runs through that pesky complicated DSP amp in the boot. I have been told by a Range Rover "expert" on the internet who shall remain namless but they are POWERFUL people that it is not possible to integrate an aftermarket head unit into an L322 Vogue because of the complexity of the amp and speakers.. ladies an gentlemen this is not true if you have a good auto electrician and in car entertainments intaller who knows what they are doing. IT CAN BE DONE!
I had the DSP amp, Satnav unit, and radio unit removed from the boot and the screen removed from the front of the car. I then replaced all of this with a MEOS-MC401B single DIN head unit. This unit is great, it has bang up to date Satnav, Freeview Digital Mobile TV, obviously FM AM Radio will play CD, DVD, MP3, WMA, any movie or sound file from SD card. USB input front and rear, aux audio and video input front and rear integrated iPod cable, plug your Ipod in throw it in the glove box and all your Ipod music is displayed on the head unit screen, you can selcet and play all tracks from the head unit. The head unit is entirely touch screen operated and has a remote control. It is a high out put 70w x 4 unit and sounds amazing through the original Rangey speakers every bit as good as the Harmon Kardon system, but if that's not enough for you then it can of course be hooked up to an additional amp. The cost of his unit.......£239!!
A superb auto electical company in St Neots Cambridgeshire called The Biz installed the sysem for me including remodelling the dash to accept the single DIN unit for £350. I then replaced the gear selector, ash tray, gear selector surround and heater control panel surrounds with gloss Piano Black ones to match. Granted I no longer have the onboard computer screen but I never used it anyway and that information I ocassionaly did glance at such as fuel tank range and consumption is still displayed on my dash read out.
Have a look at the photos, it looks good and sounds fantastic all for £589 installed, £111 cheaper than a new amp alone and way less than half the price of a new amp and screen.
My sincere thanks to Senior Members Manchester Mozz and Matt Stevenson for all their help and advice, to Joe at Emmotts of Colne for all his help and to Neil and Al at The Biz in St Neots.
I'm not a photgrapher and unfortunately the pictures do not do the finished job or the unit justice but you get the idea!