My 8000NEX has a ghost in the machine

[indiix2]

This is more of an FYI...

I have had the 8000NEX  installed and working perfectly since late march when i purchased it. I bought it on the release date and received it 3 days later and immediately installed it that night. 2 weeks ago it started acting odd. It died in the middle of driving. After i arrived home i checked the main Audio fuse in my car and that was good, but i changed it just in case. I pulled the unit out and checked it's fuse and it was perfectly fine, tested with another exactly the same and still no function, then i put the original fuse back in. Put the until back into the dash so i didn't have a hole in my dash and decided to contact Pioneer the next day. The next day, the unit randomly turned on would start at the installation wizard and i would go through those few screens and then i could listen to music and everything seemed to work. Except that the buttons at the bottom were now all messed up. The MODE button became the EJECT button, the MAP button became the mode button and the Volume + or - button would just shut the until completely off. Then randomly it would come back on. Sometimes in the middle of listening to music, without any button pushing, it would just turn off. Then a random amount of time later (minutes, hours or days) it would turn back on. After a few days of this. It started getting worse. It would randomly lower the face panel and act as if i was ejecting a CD (that wasn't even in there), then it would close back up. Sometimes it would turn off while the face was lowered. I managed after several attempts to get it to turn back on by pressing the buttons in a random order while it was off and the face was down. It powered on and still the face was down. I mashed the MODE button (which is now the Eject button) and managed to get the face back up. I decided to pull my Audio fuse in the car's fuse box once the face was up to stop it from totally freaking out. At this point i need to return the until and have it repaired or a replacement unit sent out. Other than this odd machine going haywire i have absolutely loved this unit. Best feature set, and usability of any in dash system i've ever used. Hopefully this ghost in the machine behavior is just a fluke and not something worse.

 

I've contacted Pioneer to return this until for repair or replacement. I'll keep you updated if anyone is interested in the outcome. Hopefully it won't take too long as i don't want to be without a radio in my car. 

 

Does anyone have history with contacting Pioneer and getting a replacement issued or a repair? I emailed them as the phone number was always busy. 

[duaneellison]

Wow that's a real bummer. I hope pioneer takes care of you. Where did you get your unit from?

[Shackleton]

Bummer Good luck, glad I got the 4000

[olevelo]

That's not a ghost in the machine. That's f****d.

[tekki]

I've spoken with pioneer tech support twice to ask questions when it was first installed, be prepared for a 30 minute wait. I would call put speakerphone on and watch some tv.