Sl3ipner wrote:

Thx, good info and sugestions Roger! 

I have the Option 1 activated, will go 0>1 again, fingers crossed. To be continued.

I can promise you I will not open anything on the Beolabs...

Alas this didnt bring succes. 

It might be worth mentioning that the faulty BL5 unit answers the Option changing with lights accordingly, as do the non-faulty unit. So: still no sound what so ever.

Steve at Sounds Heavenly wrote:

Hi Sl3ipner,

Are the speakers connected to a B&O system via Powerlink, or to a non-B&O source via Line or S/PDIF please?

PS. Your avatar looks familiar - is that an M96 Porsche 911 engine by any chance? ❓

Kind regards, Steve.

Hi Steve.

Speakers connected to a non-B&O source via Line (cables bought by you btw 👍

The avatar is indeed a M96/1 engine 😎 Bought the 1998 996er some 5 years ago. As you know they come dirt cheap, have nicasil upgraded the engine plus much (much!) more. End result is a wonderful “analog” small car that drives like a dream on twisty roads, no traction control and what not. 🤗

Hi Sl3ipner,

Thanks for your reply, just a quick thought before you go down the route of getting the speakers repaired.....

If you have the Sync cable between the two speakers then they should both "wake" from the remote, even if one speaker doesn't have line of sight from the remote.  However, if this cable isn't in place, it may be a simple issue caused by one speaker not seeing the remote control signals.

If you would like me to lend you a Sync cable to test, please drop me a line via my sponsor link below.  Another thing that is worth testing is whether the remote is putting out a good, strong signal - this guide explains how to check your Beo4 remote with a camera phone:-

So, after fiddeling a bit extra and taking my time, I have submittet the problem to B&O. I will keep you updated.

Steve: Thx for the kind offer, but problem hardly lies with the sync cable. Also the BL5s respond fine with the current Beo4 remote.

And yes, those older small Porsches are a blast. Makes you smile every time you start the engine  :)  For the worried: its my only car, I usually commute by bike, bus or train. So with a 20 year old car Id say my ecologic footprint is acceptable ;)

Yup, I bought a 996 with the M96.1 engine for the wife a few years back. Engine went bang after a some months and needed a complete rebuild at Hartech in Bolton for the princely sum of 11K.  Was a nice enough car but sold it pretty quickly after the rebuild.

Brian wrote:

Yup, I bought a 996 with the M96.1 engine for the wife a few years back. Engine went bang after a some months and needed a complete rebuild at Hartech in Bolton for the princely sum of 11K.  Was a nice enough car but sold it pretty quickly after the rebuild.

Sorry to hear your story Brian. 

However.. 1) There is a reason these cars come cheap. One is a mechanical mismismatch ins the IMS bearing, the resulting engine failures, and the negative hype around these. (mostly was carried by the air cooled segment of porsche, keeping quiet of their own engine rebuilds). 2) The negative spiral: when high performance sportscars gets affordable to people who dont want to use the money for maintanence, you get even more engine failures. We are talking15-20 year old cars here.. 

Other failures because of D-chunking and cylinder ovaling is common by other models as well, and manly a product of age + service intensity. 

So if you buy you should either get the engine IMS and nicasil upgraded right away, or have the money ready. I upgraded with larger sump and thermostat as well. Plus a total upgrade on suspension, roll bars, bearings, gear change, differential (mechanical) ++. End result is a car better than new, that will last for many years. And it can hold its own, especially off the autobahn.

That was a lot of off topic, sorry guys. But Im pretty hardcore on this subject :)

Am fully aware of the issues now of course. However, it was a snapped valve stem that caused the havoc in the end at 80,000 miles. Nothing to do with the ‘known issues’

What annoyed me the most was that I had put 100,000 miles on my own Ferrari 360 without a single issue ever and in the end it was the ‘reliable ‘ German that was the problem child.

Sounds as the old blues song “If it wasnt for bad luck I would not have no luck at all”.

Overall the engine quality for the 996s is sound, but again: low second hand prices increases risk. The 996 GT3 “widow maker” and 996 Turbo, both from 1999-2000, have a good reputation  - in spite of increased output, but with some modifications to the construction. Here of course the secondhand prices have never been remotly close to the standart ur-996,

A quick google on Ferrari 360 UK imply that one wont get much under 60k. My guess is that the service books are filled up (:

It was of course just pure bad luck what happened despite the 996 having been looked after by 911 Virgin for most of its life. Given the subsequent large outlay for a decent nikasil rebuild etc I should have just bought a Turbo with the Mezger engine from the start!  However, the experience did leave a slightly bad taste in the mouth and I swapped the 911 out for an Alpina B5 Touring for the wife and what a beast that is - a 317 km an hour estate car that stays with a V10 Lamborghini Gallardo all the way to 300 comes as a surprise to most people and because it was debadged I promptly stuck a 520d badge on the back of it :-)

Appologies to fellow Beoworlders for the off topic petrolhead talk.

Greeting all!

Time to close the thread with a happy ending :)

As Roger suggested it was indeed a “main chaissis swap” (I would have liked to show a picture, but a bit more complicated than anticipated). All is good now :)

Id like to use a few seconds to hype the B&O Customer Service. From the moment I lifted my ass it was alle smooth sailing, from BeoCare, to Sandvika B&O, to Dalens Eletronikkservice to Oddbjørn who was the service technician at my place. This is customer service in the absolute elite division, no less.

Oddbjørn (an extremely pleasant man, who has worked on Beolab 5 since 2003), suggested a final test that I could have done: simply trying calibrating the BLs. Total failure (no sound when calibrating) would strongly suggest the main chassis failure.

Thx to all participants in this thread, including the petrolheads. Me like :)