XS Pete wrote:

That's a bit odd. Pioneer stuff is usually pretty good. I can't see you'd get two dodgy ones in succession (although I suppose it's not beyond the realms of possibility).

Maybe someone has swapped connections in the LR loom to accommodate a previous radio. Someone (DGardel I think) posted a connection diagram for the pin outs for the dash connectors. Have a look in his gallery. Probably worth checking it's as it should be as a starting point.

Pete

warren wrote:

I have a Pioneer stereo that does exactly the same thing... At first I thought it was just because I'd left the ignition on for a couple of hours to listen to it whilst working outside, and it just ran the battery down a bit. But it's done it a few times when I've just been parked up for five minutes.

Chappy at Halfrauds got his testing kit on the wiring and reckoned it was because the voltage on the permanent feed dropped below 12v when starting, and that was causing it to default back to factory settings. Not sure how true this is as the original Land Rover one never lost it's settings.

Is yours like this by any chance?


Click image to enlarge

XS Pete wrote:

That's bizarre. It sounds as though the radio doesn't have enough internal 'hold up' or 'ride over' time engineered in to be able to survive during 'brown out' conditions. Most sets usually have some large capacitors (or in some cases a tiny battery) built in to hold enough charge to be able to retain settings during these conditions. Some sets you can actually disconnect for a few minutes before they revert to the factory defaults.

I suppose you could connect a largish electrolytic cap in the loom as close to the back of the set as possible, but this is going to make the install a bit tricky as there isn't much room back there when the radio is in position.

Another alternative theory could be that the OEM permanent live is very small diameter cable (I can't actually remember for sure) which would make the voltage drop issue worse. Fixing that would involve running a replacement permanent live via the shortest route possible in larger diameter cable directly to the battery.

Either method seems a lot of effort to go for something which should have been engineered in. Afterall, most vehicles suffer from these condtions during cranking.

Pete