kenwood dpx500bt randomly loses power

I installed this unit in my 2003 Ford F150 two weeks ago. The double-din unit only required minor trimming of the plastic around the unit. Installation was smooth, wiring harness was soldered for each joint and the heat shrink tubes went over each joint. Everything was fine, the unit was all set up and then it began having complete power losses.

The result is that a unit that was left on appears to be dead. The next time it happens I'll try pressing the SRC key to power it back on, but I have yet to turn the unit off. It goes off when I turn the truck off and therefore is expected to come back on. Each time it happened (about 5 or 6 times now) I remove the unit and check the wires. Everything is good. I even used an ohm meter on my voltage tester and checked each wire. All good.

Today it happened again. Thinking that the wiring is good, I thought that I would try something different. I pulled the 10 amp fuse, waited 2-3 seconds and put it back in. All this time the key was in the ACC position. The unit came right back on.

I have another head unit that I believe has the same plug. I may test that for a few days and see if that loses power.

Do I have a bad unit? It was purchased through amazon.com through DiscountCentralOnline.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Hunt4Fun

chances are good that you bought a refurbished model and its having internal problems.

if its not defective then it sounds like the kenwood is going into thermal protect and it just takes time for it to cool down before it will allow itself to turn on again. what exactly did you test for using the ohm meter? how many speakers are wired directly to the radio including any additional tweeters, horns, or anything else hooked up through the speaker channels? what is the resting ohm load of each speaker wire at the back of the radio?

kenwoods are picky when it comes to the ohm load of the speakers so if you have multiple speakers on the same line or maybe one speaker is reading too low and it will make the kenwood heat up while you play it even at a low volume and cause it to shut off.

I am leaning toward a internal issue as well. I has been in the 90s here in Indianapolis but it never comes back on until I disconnect the power or fuse. It died again yesterday and I've tried several times to turn the unit back on with the SRC button.

The testing I did with the ohm meter was just to check my soldering and make sure that I had current through the wires. The speaker setup is from the factory.

I think I'll switch back to the factory head unit. I wasn't having problems with it other than that the radio is the only part that worked.

Thanks for your reply. I'm going to return the unit on Monday for a replacement.

I am having the same problem with my DPX500BT unit in my 06 f150. I have been getting the run arround and was woundering if changing the unit solved your problem.

It sure did. New unit from Crutchfield works like a champ.