Headunit doesn't work on rainy days - possible ground issue?

[ed3120]

I have a Kenwood DNX7160 installed in a Ford Escape. Every now and then, the head unit would not power on with the truck, and I'd need to go into the vehicle fuse box, pull the fuse (not burned out) and put it back. Then it would work for several months without issue.

One night, my wife left the sunroof open and it rained. The headunit had visible water inside the face. I removed it from the vehicle, and let it dry out. A few days later, it was working again. This happened over a year ago.

Now, it works without issue, but every now and then its into a mood where it randomly reboots. I did some troubleshooting and it seemed me like the ground was poor and possibly causing the issue. I took the ground wire on the unit and connected it to several ground wires to different points on the car, figuring if one became weak for some reason, the electricity would take the best path. That seemed to help the situation and it made the random reboots happen much less often.

But it sometimes still has issues, where it just powers off and won't come back on. It seems to happen if is raining out. Rain will make the unit not power on for several days, and then a few days later, it just comes back to life.

Another clue is that a couple of times recently, just before the unit powered off, the radio (FM) started to get very hissy. It was like the radio was being affected by something for 5 seconds and then the unit turned off.

I'm very confused by the issue. I can't totally blame the ground, as I believe it has several good ground points now. I can't totally blame rain damage to the unit, as it had some random reboots before it got rained on. It's hard for me to blame the rain itself, because the rain isn't leaking into the vehicle.

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[bradl79 10+ year member]

Maybe it's scared of the rain now. Thank u r wife

I would just get a new head unit. Probably just a faulty HU or if it's under warranty

 

[RoYALbLUE08 10+ year member]

Get new head unit problem solved

 

[UsAmpsFreak]

There's no warranty needed to be mentioned, it's not under warranty anymore once it gets wet. The warranty was voided as soon as it got rained on.

 

[bradl79 10+ year member]

He could get lucky

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

next time something electronic gets wet, let it sit in a bowl of uncooked white rice overnight - it draws out any moisture.

water and electronics are not friends. sounds like an internal issue affected by humidity.

 

[argenis69 10+ year member]

Blame your wife, and I believe it's best to get a new hu and solve the issues.

 

[CrossoverOre 10+ year member]

You will need to verify voltage levels at the back of the deck when the problem happens. Chances of it being ground related are slim and you tend to get better readings of ground when the vehicle is wet. Water conducts electricity. I would look more at the power side of things. If you were having issues with the deck, able to pull the fuse and re connect it and have it work that might be a good place to start. Depending on where you live and what year the vehicle is there may be corrosion issues going on. make sure that the fuse panel doesnt have corrosion where you insert the fuse. After that I would lean towards the deck itself, as to a possible why it could be that the humidity from the rain is shorting the deck internally from the water incident in the past.