Supermang

In October my wifes 2012 XV S had it's clutch replaced at great expense and after we picked it up we noticed the audio/satnav unit was not working.

After some back and forth with the service centre they eventually diagnosed the issue as "Audio unit internal failure requires replacement". This was the advice of a prominent Subaru service centre in Adelaide, part of the same service network that originally did the clutch.

I requested  the unit be replaced at the service centres cost however they declined telling me that the failure was random and unrelated to the clutch replacement. They quoted $1400 for a replacement and obviously I wasnt happy but thought I'd wait til we find a better quote or option. Another Suby service centre in Adelaide recently quoted $8000!!!

Fast forward to last week where I bought an (apparently working) replacement unit + SD card from a wrecker on ebay for ~$500. Today I've gone to do the straightforward install and found exactly the same issue. The unit just never quite boots up.. it just does a strange (very dim) screen flash cycle, over and over again. If I remove the SD card and start the unit I get a clear message on the screen saying "SD card not found" or similar which is exactly the same behaviour as the old unit.

What I've tried:

1. replace the system obviously.. various combinations of head unit and SD card

2. check fuses, notably ACC fuse

3. disconnect battery, ECU reset (assume it reset as the car was difficult to start the first time after)

4. let the unit sit with power for 5 minutes in case it eventually starts (read this somewhere)

5. hold the power button for 6 secods (read this on a suby dealer site)

Can anyone please offer any suggestions as to how to troubleshoot this? I'm starting to think there is a problem with the wiring/canbus(?). Maybe a voltage issue. I'm pretty handy but I'm not really a car guy.

Still believe that this was ultimately caused by the clutch service so is there any tips on pursuing the service centre for a resolution?

Thanks in advance