HiFi Control Set Pad Doesn't Like The Heat

[awj223]

Interesting thing I've been noticing with my HiFi Control Set: it doesn't like the heat. I mounted it on my instrument panel bezel, just underneath the instrument panel. The bezel is black and the HiFi Control Set control pad is also black. It becomes very hot if the Sun strikes it directly and the car is closed and it's warm outside. When this happens I notice that the LED on the control pad does not illuminate. The external LED lights up green, like normal, but then the external LED flashes red and stops flashing. It does not ever turn blue, even after I cool off the control pad and press POWER.

This first happened to me last weekend when I parked in the Sun; even after the control pad cooled off, it would not boot. It didn't boot until I killed power to the ALP entirely and then reapplied power (by turning the key to the OFF position and back to ON) with the control pad cooled down. It happened again today.

I never saw this issue with the standard control set pad through last summer. Is there some thermal protection circuitry in the HiFi Control Set pad that's activating now that it's getting warmer outside?