I modified the cd changer in my 1998 xj8 to allow me to connect my iPod, and it has been working great for the past 6 / 7 months, however just recently I have been having some issues with the left channel dropping out.

The changer was modified from the inside, and I added plugs and sockets to the audio lines on the ai-net connector board to allow me to reconnect the audio from the changer when I wanted to listen to that.

I then ran an extension lead to the front of the car, and added a dock connector with true line out for my iPod to plug into.

It has worked great until recently, when I noticed that the left channel had dropped out, and was not producing any sound.

So I checked all the cables, checked the dock connector, tried a spare connector I had, tried a different iPod, tried the connector by plugging directly into the changer plugs bypassing the extension lead, and also checked the connector by plugging into my home audio system and the leads all worked as expected.

If I reconnect the audio from the cd changer, it works fine, consistent left / right channel audio.

However when plugging in the iPod, either directly to the changer / via the extension, I get, at best, intermittent audio from the left, whereas the right works perfectly.

I have also tried swapping the left / right output from the dock connector into the right / left channel input, and I still get the same issue on the same side of the car.

Am I missing something obvious here, as it seems strange it would work fine, then just suddenly play up ?