Highline Gremlins

[Bullnose75]

Highline in the Tourer is driving me mad,it seems to have a mind of it's own ! Have had niggles with it ever since I got the Tourer earlier this year.

When it works,everything works perfectly,radio,sat nav,cd changer,casette player,trip screen,even the tv lights up and would work if the analogue signal hadn't been turned off ! I recently found out why the previous owner had fitted a rocker switch with an inline fuse in place of the audio fuse in the fusebox to be able to turn all power to the Highline off. I'd tried removing this and replacing the audio fuse in fusebox and all was ok for a few months until one morning car battery was flat. Odd as battery is brand new Exide and car is used daily,charged up battery,alternator charging ok,next morning battery flat again (11.3volts) Hmm,oh rhubarb I said,or something bit naughtier ! Removed battery pos cable and checked battery drain with multimeter between battery pos and battery pos lead and got 3.3 amp drain ! Removed audio fuse (no 33in fusebox)that i'd replaced and drain reduced to something like 0.3 amp,bit more like it's supposed to be. So,something audio related is causing a drain on battery overnight but only once in a while not all the time ! Think i'd run car with no 33 fuse back in place for four months or so before battery went flat,most odd !
Anyway,went back to using the rocker switch with inline fuse to turn power to Highline off at night but to cut out risk of me forgetting to do so,and end up with flat battery again,I wired it up through a four pole relay that only has power with ignition key turned to first or second position. Don't know which part of the Highline system is causing the drain once in a while but guess it might have been happening off and on in this car for a number of years as previous owner was fitting brand new good quality batteries to this car every two years or so,maybe after they were going flat on him even though I think the car was his daily driver too ! Think I read on forum somewhere that sometimes the satnav unit in rear of car doesn't power off properly causing small fan in one of the other rear mounted Highline units to carry on running thereby causing the battery drain but don't know if that's what happens with mine as you can't get it to cause the drain when you want to to be able to check that !

Anyway,rocker switch through relay has meant peace of mind knowing there is no way any part of Highline system can stay on with ignition key out so no flat battery anymore,but have other problems with it too !


Have always had problems with the CD changer sometimes working sometimes not,no discs message even with six in it etc. Even got another working CD changer from another member on here that worked ok for a while then had exactly the same issues as the other one,it actually started working again this morning for first time in a week or so.

Also,the right hand knob often doesn't do anything,even when you wiggle it about,push it,pull it etc but other times it sort of works.

Ditto with the orange triangle power light next to it,sometimes it works etc.

But this week the Highline has really started playing up ! Black screen,no matter what you do,cassette tape loads but doesn't run,cd changer loads but can't get it to work,mode switch just turns radio off and on,most other switches don't work but radio works ok and can change stations with preset buttons,volume knob on Highline works as does volume control on steering wheel.
While it was like this I turned it on so I could see blank,black screen with radio on and I uncovered the Highline units in rear wheelwell and wiggled leads about to see if bad connection but no change to blank screen. Units in rear bone dry by the way. Also checked satnav unit behind side panel in rear,no power to it and couldn't eject disc.
But this morning on way home with radio on and blank screen I suddenly saw two thin white horizontal lines appear on the screen and a short time after everything started working again,screen works and all other functions work fine too apart from the right hand knob,which sort of works.
Other times Highline has worked ok for a week or so at a time before either the CD changer would stop working or it would turn radio off and on on it's own while you were driving it.
So,at last I get to my question - what should I do now ?
Do you think,like me,that the fault is in the dash mounted Highline unit itself ?
Am happy to replace that with one of these new,old stock,never used units on ebay at mo if that'll cure all these ongoing problems
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MGZT-ROVE...:pf:0#shpCntId

MGZT ROVER 75 HIGHLINE (New Genuine MG) SAT NAV RADIO TAPE PLAYER YIE000310PUY | eBay
www.ebay.co.uk
Genuine MG ROVER Alpine Legacy part unused. GT MG SPARES LTD. Fitted to the rover 75 MGZTHigh Line Models. UNIT 1 OLD HALL INDUSTRIAL ESTATE. | eBay!
I know,for not much more,I could get one of those touchscreen units to replace the Highline but i'd rather keep the dash looking original and am happy with the factory fitted Audio system in my Tourer,when it works like it's supposed to !

But is the fault in the dash mounted Highline unit ?

Paul