When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
My amplifier is an 86280-0W280. I decided to go with UR. The repair cost was $725 as quoted, including shipping both ways. Their communication was good and the service fast, just over a week including shipping time. They did call me to confirm it tested as malfunctioning before proceeding with the repair. I have not yet installed it back in the car as I'm away from home at the moment.If there are any problems I have no doubt they will honor the warranty.
I repaired the ML amp in my 430, so i took a look at the one in my 460...These amps have no way of getting cool air. It has fans but the (very) small enclosed space just circulates hot air. Great amp, horrible placement.
Solution? i used my 4" hole saw and cut thru the panel that sits on top of the amp. on the reverse side of the panel, i glued a mesh grill to make it look clean and almost "factory". Now paired with 2 JLAUDIO 12W7's, I run my factory amp hard and could feel the hot air being pushed thru the new "vent" i made.
LET THEME BREATH!
Where did you pick up the 12 volt source for the fan?
To follow up on the repair - I used these guys above. Cost was $450 plus $20 return shipping. They did the repair and had it back to me in three days. They were also able to tell me that the failure was a dead short across the power supply and to replace the main amplifier fuse in the car as it will have been blow. Without that info I would have installed the repaired amp only to discover that it wouldn't power up.
For the fuse - there are about 6 fuses indicated as associated with the amp, located in 4 different fuse block locations. Pull them all until you find the one that is blown.
i'm dealing with the mark levinson amp issue. planning on sending it to factory repair service, as you did. i've researched them, and found a lot of glowing reviews on some BMW forums. question for you: on the factory repair service form that you need to fill out, they ask you for a description of the problem. did you go in a lot of detail? or is the problem known enough that you were able to keep it general, and they were able to put 2 and 2 together?
just posting this so that if someone visits this thread in the future, they can hopefully use my experience to help them. i sent my amp to factory service repair as well. they received it today. i received an email a little while ago saying that they received it, and another one just now saying it is fixed. $340. i paid, and will hopefully have back in the next few days. i will post again once the amp is reconnected and (hopefully) all will be well.
Bought my 2011 LS460L brand new while working in N.M. Now just a hair shy of 80,000 miles, living outside of D.C. and like so many here, I'm starting to experience issues where my hands free, navigation audio and stereo systems fail to work as they once did. It seems to be heat related as I noticed the issue happens more often whenever I've driven the car, park it, shut it off and then started back up within an hour or so....especially on a hot day. I first noticed the issue when my cell phone didn't connect like it usually does within moments of starting the vehicle. When this happened the navigation was working and updating but there is no audio voice or any stereo features such as powering up. After a long 15 minutes or so of driving my phone connected and the other things began to work too.
The idea of a class action suit which I've heard mentioned seems fair as I usually keep what I buy for a very long time. This vehicle's sticker was $85,000 dollars which is a butt ton of money to spend on a car especially one that has a highly touted sound system that factors into that sticker price in such a big way. My previously owned vehicle that I traded in on the Lexus was a 2004 F-250 pickup with almost 100,000 miles on it did NOT have any audio issues? Nor did any of my other vehicles ever owned?
I was given the listing posted below by a co-worker and thought I would share with everyone in case it helps. If it does or if anyone has used these services in the past please let others know about them. I plan to pursue the Lexus Corp Customer Service route.
Paulison Corp Services
THIS EBAY LISTING IS FOR THE "REPAIR" OF YOUR MARK LEVINSON AMPLIFIER USED FROM 2007 AND UP. THIS IS A FLAT RATE OF $365 THAT COVERS ALL NORMAL FAILURES LIKE NO SOUND – JUST LOW THUMPING NOISE FROM SPEAKERS NO TELEPHONE OR SAT NAV FUNCTION LOSS OF ONE OR MORE CHANNELS BLOWS FUSE IN FUSEBOX HIGH PITCH WHITE NOISE FROM SPEAKERS SHUTS OFF INTERMITTENTLY OR OTHER MAJOR PROBLEMS DUE MOST FOR WATER DAMAGE. COMES WITH 12 MONTHS WARRANTY, PARTS AND LABOR. EMAIL ME IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS.
Bought my 2011 LS460L brand new while working in N.M. Now just a hair shy of 80,000 miles, living outside of D.C. and like so many here, I'm starting to experience issues where my hands free, navigation audio and stereo systems fail to work as they once did. It seems to be heat related as I noticed the issue happens more often whenever I've driven the car, park it, shut it off and then started back up within an hour or so....especially on a hot day. I first noticed the issue when my cell phone didn't connect like it usually does within moments of starting the vehicle. When this happened the navigation was working and updating but there is no audio voice or any stereo features such as powering up. After a long 15 minutes or so of driving my phone connected and the other things began to work too.
The idea of a class action suit which I've heard mentioned seems fair as I usually keep what I buy for a very long time. This vehicle's sticker was $85,000 dollars which is a butt ton of money to spend on a car especially one that has a highly touted sound system that factors into that sticker price in such a big way. My previously owned vehicle that I traded in on the Lexus was a 2004 F-250 pickup with almost 100,000 miles on it did NOT have any audio issues? Nor did any of my other vehicles ever owned?
I was given the listing posted below by a co-worker and thought I would share with everyone in case it helps. If it does or if anyone has used these services in the past please let others know about them. I plan to pursue the Lexus Corp Customer Service route.
Paulison Corp Services
THIS EBAY LISTING IS FOR THE "REPAIR" OF YOUR MARK LEVINSON AMPLIFIER USED FROM 2007 AND UP. THIS IS A FLAT RATE OF $365 THAT COVERS ALL NORMAL FAILURES LIKE NO SOUND – JUST LOW THUMPING NOISE FROM SPEAKERS NO TELEPHONE OR SAT NAV FUNCTION LOSS OF ONE OR MORE CHANNELS BLOWS FUSE IN FUSEBOX HIGH PITCH WHITE NOISE FROM SPEAKERS SHUTS OFF INTERMITTENTLY OR OTHER MAJOR PROBLEMS DUE MOST FOR WATER DAMAGE. COMES WITH 12 MONTHS WARRANTY, PARTS AND LABOR. EMAIL ME IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS.
You have a 2011, how long should Lexus have to warranty an Amp? Yes, there have been some issues with failure of the Amp, but I fail to see what Lexus should do with a car that is -8 years old and has 80k miles. If you get anywhere with customer service great, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Using information I found in this forum I removed the amp for my 2005 Lexus LS 430 (110,000 miles). I was experiencing many of the same symptoms described, i.e.… Radio worked intermittently and there was frequently a loud pop when turning on the car. I contacted UR by telephone, after providing the model number of the amp I was quoted $475. I mailed the amp to UR with a cover letter... they called me a few days later and said the amp was repaired and I provided payment information. I received the amp back a few days later / yesterday and installed the amp, everything seems to be back to normal. A sincere thank you to the forum contributors. I had no idea what was going wrong until I read the forum which turned an anticipated costly dealer diagnostic/repair into a relatively simple DIY project.
You have a 2011, how long should Lexus have to warranty an Amp? Yes, there have been some issues with failure of the Amp, but I fail to see what Lexus should do with a car that is -8 years old and has 80k miles. If you get anywhere with customer service great, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
I would never hold my breath whenever dealing with any companies these days, especially any product that is outside of a warranty period. However, I have always been a big fan of the old sayings, "You never know until you try." and "Hope for the best, but prepare for the worse." Not to mention it won't cost me anything but a few minutes of my free time to make such an inquiry.
Currently, the issue is only intermittent but I suspect that will change as the summer heat grows and time passes. But before I tear my trunk apart to pull my amp out and then open up it up in hopes of finding an obvious bad capacitor or worse. And long before I shell out $400 dollars or more, I'll give the free phone call a try.
I'd like to say thanks to all of those that posted their experiences with this issue over the years. Because of all of them so many of us including myself are now armed with information that leaves a few options on the table.
I am hearing great things from everyones post about United Radio. I currently do have the ML amp but the other factory one. And before moving forward on sending it to United Radio. I want to make sure that it is indeed my amp. My radio and blue tooth all works. All fuses are good. Everything on dash console works just no sound coming out the speakers and I am unable to adjust any of bass/tremble etc. Any help is appreciated. Thanks
I too was dealing with what you've got going on. When I heard about United Radio I bit the bullet and sent them my amp. The turn around was pretty quick and I just reinstalled it and BINGO !! I was listening to my radio again. When I pressed a dash button I got the little "beep" every time. It was just normal again. But my problem happened again and my amp was dead again. The repair lasted about a year and a half. I contacted UR and asked about their warranty and I was told it was warrantied for only one year. IMO I feel like paying $500 for a repair that lasted such a short time was not worth it. Because of this I plan on trying to install an aftermarket amp to bypass the ML amp. I haven't done it yet and I don't know what the cost will be but I know I will not be repairing the ML amp again.From what I've collected so far it seems to me that heat is what is killing the factory amp. So for now I have a Bose sound system on my LS430. By that I mean I have a Bose bluetooth speaker that sits on the passenger seat. Classy right ?
thank you very much for your response. I actually sent in my amp to United Radio and said it was working 100%. Back to square one. but thank you for your input.
Does anyone know if it's possible to fix the amp yourself? I'm pretty handy with a soldering iron, I've fixed audio equipment before. I just can't find any specific information about what exactly fails, just a lot of discussion about which company to use to fix it.
I have a 2004, LS430, it has 168k on it and I bought it with no sound coming from my speakers. There seems to be an aftermarket phone system in my vehicle , and it comes from front drivers side dash speaker, so I do know I have 1 speaker working. I turned the sound all the way up and intently listened, and I was able to hear a tiny bit of radio reception. I dont have any noises coming from my speakers, and when i select voice commands for my steering wheel, my audio pipes up and asks me for my request. Is it still my amp? I called a car stereo shop, and the guy told me to go and buy a new amp and bring him my vehicle. How does he know it's not an old owner that didnt disconnect stuff to make a better system thru subs? Trunk carpet is too clean, and I believe there was a sub box in my trunk.
Does anyone know if it's possible to fix the amp yourself? I'm pretty handy with a soldering iron, I've fixed audio equipment before. I just can't find any specific information about what exactly fails, just a lot of discussion about which company to use to fix it.
Post if you’re still interested in this. My ML amp quit in Jan and I’m just getting around to it lately. Mine started the periodic clicking that wouldn’t stop, but I’m thinking the problems I’ve found would explain at least a couple of the circumstances I’ve read about here. I’ve done quite a bit of trouble shooting, tracing, reverse engineering, experimenting etc. And I think I finally have a bit of a handle on what’s going in there. Still not sure I’ve found the root problem, but I have some diodes and FETs on the way so I should have a better idea in a few days. I have managed to get it working temporarily and have scope traces of what the power rails should look like. I’m determined to get this working, so let me know if your still interested.
03-08-19, 09:50 AM
It has fans but the (very) small enclosed space just circulates hot air. Great amp, horrible placement.
