My Bad Luck :(
 

Yep... My KDCX979 head unit is kaput.

History - I bought a KDCX969 about.... 3 1/2 years ago. It kept breaking down every few months, and was in the shop(s) for warranty service five times over it's two year warranty. It would "lose it's brain" and just do goofy things. Each time it went for service it would take weeks and weeks, I was without the thing for five of the 23 months I owned it. The fifth, and last time, was on the 23rd month I owned it. I wrote a letter to Kenwood asking them to replace the lemon, and so they did, with this KDCX979.

This KDCX979 was a better unit, and proved to be a little more reliable, but not much. After four months of owning it, the flip-out started screwing up on cold mornings, and when it got worse, the flip would freak and shut the unit off, and ya couldn't make it work, till it warmed up.

So I took it to my stereo dudes here in Calgary, he replaced a ribbon cable in the flip out that has a micro-slider (about 5mm) that tells the brain where the flip is at all times. The slider fell apart as he dissasembled. Put it all back together and it was great again. He also said that this replacement unit was obviously not new either, it had obviously been serviced before, loose cables and whatnot.

Also, an unrelated problem that I just live with 'cause no one (not my stereo dudes, not Kenwood, and not Sirius) can tell me why, I added an SIR-KEN1 last June, and if you just shut the deck power off without putting the HU into Standby first, the Sirius tuner "looses it's brain" and will not work the next time you power up. To fix, just place the HU in Standby, power down for 10-15 seconds, power up, and all will be fine again. Ya, weird.

Swell. So it lasted another four months or so.... and started screwing up again three months ago. Almost the same thing, when cold, the flip would freak out. So I set it to it's minimum tilt settings and that, and slight finger pressure on the right side of the flip, would get it to power up, and then driving for a living (I don't anymore, for the last two months), I would just leave it open all day, setting the Source to Standby when I'm not actually in the van.

So the other day I hop in and do the same thing, hold the right side while powering up, and the face came out, freaked out, and then just stopped. No lights, no nothing. Shut it off, the face doesn't close or anything, stuck open. A little fiddling, can sometimes make the flip move a bit, but no lights, el deadski.

So I took it to Rod & Russ. The stuck the new flip out cable it needed in, and now it's still fuxored. It's stuck in some weird tech mode or something... He sez "if you just hit reset, it won't work at all... to make it work, ya gotta hold 1 & 3 and hit the reset button, that'll make it so you have some sound at least, but no faders, eq's, xo's, or anything like that. All we can do next is ship it off to Kenwood and see what they say."

I noticed that if you push the 1,2,3,4,5,6 buttons it'll switch around some weird tech mode, showing "cd hours" and that kindsa thing.

Oy. No... wait wait... Gimme it. I dunno what I'm gonna do, I have no warranty on this one, my warranty ran out on the old one a year and a half ago, even though this one is supposed to be only a year and half old.

So I'm tired of fighting with Kenwood, they never answered my emails or faxes before, I'm thinkin' they'll just try to ignore me again... I was thinking I'd write them and ask for a deal on a new unit, I'll trade this sucker in... but, again... really tired of fighting with them.

So my stereo dudes sell Soundstream, Directed, and Clarion as well. Not liken' the looks of the Soundstream head units, they got all the features but their manuals read suspiciously just like Kenwoods... probably made at the same plant in China or something...

So.. I'm thinkin' I'll ask Tom to gimme a smokin' deal on moving over to Clarion, a VRX765VD and a DVH940 would do the job quite nicely I thinks... I'd have to get a new Sirius tuner (and sell or trade in my existing one) and loose my cd changer (maybe Rod'll trade me back the 12disk one I won and traded him for my Kenwood 6 disk one)...

Ow... my brain hurts that's a lot of typing... Sorry if ya read this far ;)

At least I got a week or two to think about what to do, everybody's shut down for the season.

What....no way....it's not April 1 yet.

i personally posted contact information phone numbers peoples names
so if your failure to contact these people is your own fault
and some of the initial sirus pieces were bad
if your dealer had made a call to sirus [ericson]
who are the ones who distribute the tuners that would have had your problem resolved along time ago
me personally i think its the people you deal with
that are the problem
my service issues get delt with pronto and are repaired right 99.999% of the time
the first time

and i also suggested a service depot to use
so its your fault
not anybody elses

how can you say its his fault the deck kept messing up?
kenwood has really really bad customer relations.
when my amp messed up it went through 3 different certified shops for someone to finally tell me it was blown.
kenwood licks balls! in general. everything about them is junk.

probably has to do with the out west service
as i said i don't have that problem
the only problem i can see you having is who you deal with
if a piece is not repaired properly then problems reoccur
i've seen poor service before
thats why i reccomended a place that does good service
and being a dealer i wouldn't stand for bad customer service
too bad your dealer dosn't do the same

spoken by a true uneducated consumer

My KDC-MP822 died too
 

I know the feeling.. My MP822 also died.. back in april / one month out of warranty.

The MP822 was like your original 969, same front motorized display.. I remember how excited you were with the 979 in replacment.

Mine still worked mechanically - just would not read a CD.. I had the shop look at it, clean it - it started working again - worked great - I gave it to another member on the board cause i already replaced it with another kenwood deck , but the MP822 is now giving the member a mechanical error and not working properly.

If i had kenwoods address i would fire it through the front window of the building, but the website doesn't work for contacting them so i guess i go without..

so im supposed to be dedicated to a company that makes a junk product, and backs it with even worse service?

I had a KDC X979 to it was down all the time. Kenwood sucks. Got a ALpine deck and it is still running. Not saying to go with alpine but throw the kenwood out.

as i said incase you have poor reading comprehension that i provided names and phone numbers to get proper service
thats your problem
your dealer may feel poor service is satifactory i don't
its like anything some places take care of you and some don't
sorry you chose to purchase form a dealer with poor service
i've been a kenwood dealer for 15 years and there failure rate is not what you make it
its not junk
i've also had kenwood service product well after warrany period was over
and you won't see that from any other company

Sorry to hear you're having such a bad time of it, Grizz.....:(

I have had my KDC-X889 for around 6 months now, and so far so good. The 569 I had before that worked very well for a deck that got used for 5,000 hours a year. It needed a new chip after 2.5yrs and is still working fine in a buddy's car.

Not sure where you are located, but if you can get the deck to me here in the GTA (and I might be able to help with that) the Kenwood repair depot here has done great work on anything I have taken in to them.

LMK

I would have to agree with zinger on this one. I have repaired over and over again dead Kenwood product and more so in there motorized HU's that stupid ribbon cable setup that they have used for ages and still fails on a regular basis. If Kenwood still thinks there equipment is great and continues to make the same mistakes in the future they will find alot of good loyal customers jumping ship. And these failures are not consumer related for the most part so to say that its the customer fault for not taking the steps to get them fixed is BS. Why should people have to be without there equipment for so long repairing it all the time. How about just make a good no non-sense BS free product instead of using the same technology that has failed over and over again?

Dude

#1 you do not sell Kenwood - so of course you will slam it

#2 you sell Blaupunkt, probably the second worst brand sold for reliabiltiy and their distributor is not known for being very helpful with warranty (I sold it for 1 year and a half before)

I used proper avenues on my repairs. My dealer is a Kenwood repair centre, and Rod and Russ know what they're doing. Ask the guys around here, they've been around a long time. Rod n' Russ actually discourage me on the Kenwood unit. "Get rid of it!" they say.

But it ain't no cheap $200 Future Shop special. It was the top of the line. The creme de la creme, of Kenwood. I chose Kenwood because I've had good luck with their stuff, an old cassette HU, old amps, and the four 6x9's I have now are/were all Kenwood, and perform rock-solid.

The 969 I bought was great, I loved it, when it worked. And this 979 with it's full 5.1 is unbeatable, I love it even more, I don't want to lose it, I don't "need" any more features (but if I gotta lay out more dough you bet I'm gonna upgrade) but it's such a pain in the ass, it's like... it's like... It's like owning a Ford... ;)

When they do have to "ship it off to Kenwood", it goes right to Kenwood. Whether or not Kenwood Canada fixes it onsite or ship it off again to their own "farmed out" repair centre, isn't my worry. Perhaps that is what's going on and that's why it takes them so long to do anything (ship it to Kenwood? It's gonna be a month, minimum, turnaround.). They fixed the problem(s), and when I requested replacement of the lemon, they complied, even though the unit they replaced it with wasnt' new either. They've never actually spoken to me or replied to any of my faxes or emails though. I'm not complaining about their services, I'm just tired of having to use them.

Regardless, as I said above, I don't want to lose the HU, but I'm tired of all the grief of ownership. However, I am a reasonable guy. So I figure I'll get quotes for both for now; get Tom to quote me on the Clarion pieces, as well as get a hold of Kenwood and ask them if they want to keep me as a... can't say happy... but can say satisfied consumer, and what, if anything, they're willing to do for me.

Look I don't want this to be a pissing match. Your right I don't sell Kenwood and I liked Kenwood back in the day. Before all the flash and motorization. I could say the same you like it because you sell it. And secondly I would love to see proven reliabilty records that backs up your claim that its the second worst brand. This year alone I have sold 62 HU's and 2 have been returned for repair. So if you are talking about old units I can not argue because I only started selling it 2 1/2 years ago and it has treated me well. You also mention that the distributor of Blaupunkt is known to be very un-helpful with warranty issues. Well thats (Erikson) and they are about the best distributor I have ever had when it comes to warranty and its over the counter exchange no questions asked for two years.

Plus this was a thread about Kenwood and its proven un-reliablity nothing was mentioned about Blaupunkt.

I've had an 8011 that I received in hard used condition for a few years now and it still works like a champ. :dunno:

Guess you guys don't want to know what I am installing right now with a blown internal amplifier. Good thing the system has a amp.......

Sure why not.

I've been running a kenwood deck for over a year with no problems... in my closet there's a blau deck, which does work, if you can handle pushing the cd in with a popsicle stick everytime...

Look all brands have there down falls and issues. And yes just like everyone the brands I carry have had some issues in the past i'm sure. And there are people that would live by Kenwood and some who don't. And every brand has their cheering squad and loyal users. (*Thinking to self, should have not said a word*) Anyways sorry to hear about your deck Grizz hope after all said and done that you come out pleased and back-up and operational.

yes the first generation mask did have the ribbon cables go
what do you exspect for a radio that flips 180 degrees
every time you turn it on and off
how many times does it flip in a average day
but its not like they broke every other day
most of the units i seen broke after 2-3 years
and ya put a new cable in properly and away it went again

the deck gizz has is not the same version and i have not seen 1 in for a cable problem in that generation of deck

i have serviced jvc and sonys for cables too
don't see everybody jumping on the its junk wagon when they break

i already posted how to fix his problem
contact info that would provide him with a relable repair and timely service

along time ago

unfortuantly not all dealers service there customers the same
and brand suffer from that

lets see why is the amp blown and who makes the ic's
its not kenwood so whats your point
beside proving that you did'nt know that

I think you need an Alpine or Clarion deck...

i think my kenwood amp just blew up.
mmm the 7252 is so solid it will last forever a kenwood rep told me.
um no... going on 6 months of running the amp at low volumes more often then highs and its done.

Well, I gave it to them and they're going to ship it off to Kenwood for an estimate. Maybe I'll try faxing something over to Kenwood too so that they know it's me, yet again.

And I got him to quote me on replacing it with Clarion stuff... If I wasn't so broke right now, I probably would have done that, but... I might get off with just a couple hundred or less for the Kenwood repair, if I'm lucky.

And they gave me a loaner to use for the next month while it's out, so I'm not tune-less in the van for this weekend's trip to the lake.

So now, we wait... again.

Robmar, my real point was to see what lengths you would go to to show us all how stellar of a brand it really is in your eyes regardless of what other peoples issues and experiences may be. All brands have issues, no exceptions. I was not aware you say... that is quite the ASSumption you just made. Please keep me out of your personal views in the future, especially when you do not know me or my background.

GrizZz, lets hope for the best here for you. Nice of them to give you a loaner.

so what was the point of your post or was there even a need to add to besides to be an ASS

i didn't claim it was a stellar product but to have two units with problems
and some seem to crop up after repair
all im saying is that finding a good repair depot makes all the difference
its like going to a ford garage for warranty service
do you think that they all provide the same work at the same level

i don't think so


so my point if you can understand this is that there are problem service depots
im offered my help and experience to a good place that had quick service
did he take my advice no
why not
i guess he like the service he's getting now
i also provided contacts at kenwood
names and numbers
so that he could contact the appropriate people to fix his problem

what offends me is his inaction to use this information to resolve his problems

but he then comes on here to complain about it
the way i look at it its nobodys fault but his own

My Spidey senses tell me this thread is going to get locked.

kenwood did not give a when my amp blew the first time. 4 emails and none came back, eacu using a different account. shawmail, hotmail, yahoo, and gmail.

you phone raymond kong
the number is 1-905-670-7211

pick up the phone and that way you know your getting through to the right person
repair depot i use is dave
905-564-3282

Well I gots it back, pretty darned quick for Kenwood too... Seems to be workin' well, let's hope it holds up for a while this time :)

Glad to hear it.......I'll keep my fingers crossed for ya....:smilie_da

Guess you're going to have to edit your sig. again now....:cheeky4:

Y'know, all the bullshit aside, this 979 is one deadly head unit.

They gave me a loaner while it was out for service, (sorry, can't remember it's part #)... A decent head unit with dual pre-outs, internal crossovers & 3-way eq. Over the past month of using it, I had it dialed in as best as possible, and it sounded pretty good.

But then I switch back to my newly repaired 979 (Full XO's, EQ's, DTA, SRS WOW, burrbrown doodad, etc.) and holy crap... What a difference. Not just a slight difference but a "holy crap!" difference... Capable of going way louder, and sounding a LOT better at any volume.

Which is why I blew the dough on the repair. It really is a kickass sounding head unit. Colour me happy :D

:smilie_da

Just curious....now that i've read 4 pages of posts....these repair depots in question. Are these kenwood certified depots? Or are they just random repair shops?

There's only one in question, there's no "these".

Yes, they're a Kenwood service centre. And when they have a problem that they can't fix, they ship it to Kenwood.

Like, this latest visit, they fixed the flipout cable and that cured that, but the eprom was kablooey, so it had to go to Kenwood themselves.

Right, I understand you only dealt with the one, while Robmar suggested another. If these are kenwood service centers, meaning approved or backed by kenwood, then you cannot blame the end user for not using one depot over another.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with Grizz's depot, as he seems fairly happy with the folks there, but I see where you're coming from robmar in that some places do better work than others. If a depot is consistantly doing bad work and essentially giving kenwood a bad name. Kenwood thats Kenwoods fault and problem. You can't blame the end-user for using one approved depot over another. They SHOULD all be consistant. If not, thats Kenwoods fault.

Now that my two cents have been added, I hope you have better luck with your next deck.