[JustJeff]

The HU has gotten buggy since I put the gauges in. It'll do random odd things. Yesterday it started scanning thru the CD track. Then it took time to respond to buttons. Then it got stuck scanning and I couldn't power it off without turning the car off. I took the HU out and it might have been warmer than it should have been...though I've never compared heat levels. With the HU out but wired in it no longer was buggy. Today on the way home from work it again got buggy. I didn't give it much time and powered it off for fear of doing heat damage.

I think what's going on is that the spaghetti wires combined with the 3 gauges isn't giving the HU enough air to breath and cool. What is strange is that the HU shouldn't be using it's internal amp for anything...well unless it's always on/off with the HU. I have the speaker outputs wired into the factory harness. BUT the only output that is being used is for the headrest speakers and they are powered by the OEM amp and controls. I have an external amp for the door components. I haven't added any other speakers or amps yet. So all the HU for speaker power should really be doing is providing an on/off for the OEM headrest amp.

None of this happened until I put the gauges in. So it's either ironic timing for the HU to give out, or I need to move some of the wiring around. I've got the antenna relay in with the rest of harnesses.

First thing I'll do is get that out of there and mount it under the dash somewhere.

After that my next option is that one of the models of Eclipse came with a fan. My heatsink on the back is machined for a tiny fan complete with screwholes. I'll measure and get a fan and simply have it always on/off with the HU.

One other thing didn't hit me till I was on the way home from work. This vert has a history of creating LOTS of ambient heat from the drivetrain. It was my father's vert before I bought it from him. While my father owned it we've needed to replace the shifter boot 3-4 times. And you can feel the heat coming from the shifter opening, the transmission tunnel and in the lower dash. Much more heat than my previous two verts, or his current vert.

What I'm thinking is that he must be missing some of the heat shielding under the car. Though it's 100% OEM except for a RB exhaust and the HU that I just recently installed. Only thing I can think is that it's got a Mazda reman'd engine. Perhaps the dealership, for whatever reason didn't put heat shields back on the transmission tunnel?

It can't be a previous owner because my father has owned the car since 1991ish. The only thing done to the car other than routine maintenance is the reman'd engine and a paint job.