Hi guys,

I have a problem with a car radio in my Magna, wondering if someone can give an insight of where is it coming from.

What’s happened is that over a time (2-6 months) radio slowly stopped responding to control buttons. At first it was occasional that I needed to press a button few times to have a station changed. Currently it is almost impossible to change a station, adjust volume or turn the radio off. It is just not responding to controls. So, once I start my car, radio will turn on and keep playing on previous settings, but it is really lucky to have it responding. Recently I was able to have a response once I turned the engine off. But that's not the case most of the times.

I believe that previous owner had the same problem and was working around it with power cycling. I think he used to unplug the battery for a short while. That will obviously default most of the settings and stats and that is why I am trying to avoid it.

I wonder if someone has experienced this problem and know where it is coming from? Is there a good fix for it?

Thanks in advance!
Rod
2003 Magna Advance TJ Series II

Replace the radio with a Decent Deck of your choice..

That's exactly what I'd do, no point fiddling around the stock unit, its far from great anyway!

Time to go shopping! :D

Just check that no buttons are stuck down.. .. .. I bought a radio-cassette from Clearance Centre to put in my TJ Sports, which is a match for the unit in my Verada. These units have radio memory #3 / #4 button also operate as track forward /track reverse in CD mode. The original Verada radio has this button spring loaded so it self-centres - however the almost identical unit from Clearance does NOT....if I choose to press 3 or 4, I have to make sure I re-centre that "rocker" button OR else no other controls will operate.

I strongly suspect this is not the case with your unit, but thought I'd mention it just in case....

ive found that alot of factory radios suffer from a bad connection betwen the face/mainboard.... if you really love the deck that much then pull it down and un/replug the face

this is a common fix for au falcon head units.... works almost every time

if the face is soldered direct to the mainboard then check for dry solder joints

....or you could just invest in a new head unit

Intersting, and glad to see I'm not the only one afflicted with this issue.

The first TJ AWD I test drove had this issue when I test drove it (none of the functions on the stereo worked ie: no volume, no cd change, no station change, etc), but then when I told the dealer about it, he turned it on and checked, and it worked fine.

Mine has started to do this 'sporadically'. The other day for example, I was listening to a great song and had just turned the volume up when I went to pick dad from a hotel. I turned off the car, went and had breakfast with him, got back in the car, and started driving, and though, hmm... bit loud for conversation, tried to turn it down, but nothing. None of the buttons worked. I couldn't even change what we were listening to or turn it off.

THen dad in his infinite wisdom gave it a few taps from underneath (by sticking his hand in the little pocket under the stereo and smacking the top plastic) and it started to work. This seems to have corrected it on the next occasion it happened. Next time it happens again, I'll let you know (so you can see how sporadic it really is)...

I was not too worried, as I have a few decks around the place and was going to think about changing it, but it got me wondering since I'd seen it in both cars I'd now tried was this a general problem for people, and I really want to get a proper deck with stereo bluetooth etc if I'm going to go to the trouble of replacing it.

Just cause I said I would (althought I'm a bit delayed on it now) it's been happening on and off now for about 1-2 months...

However, it seems to be getting more frequent now in that it will happen every few days. One day it'll work fine, then the next morning, get in to drive somewhere, and be stuck with whatever was on...

I'm assuming by the looks of things that in order to replace the stereo in the TJ I'm going to have to disassemble almost the entire centre console just to pull the stereo out.... *frown*
Not looking forward to that.... :(



Oh...... And does anyone happen to know where I can find the following these days???
http://members.optusnet.com.au/miltonf/car/mitsu/console/stereoremoval.htm

ROFL - I didn't know about this thread, even though it was started around the time I joined.

Interestingly, my 2003 TJ II AWD has been having a stereo problem for the past 2 months. I put it down to hot weather.
First noticed that the radio was on the wrong station - it turns out that when I turned a corner, the #6 button on the stereo would activate. Easy fix, retune my favourite radio station to #6 :)

Then one very hot day, none of the radio controls would work, except the CD eject button and (thankfully, because the volume was very high) the power button.

I've got a new DVD headunit to go in, so I'm doing the install myself very soon.

There's some other threads about how to do this, although that page you linked to has long gone unfortunately.

I've posted up some pics of the first step in my members ride thread (in my sig below) which should help. Apparently the next step is to remove the panel below the steering wheel and there's a strap or something anchoring the stereo in - I haven't done this yet, so that's just what I remember reading. I'll add pics to my page when I do the next bits.

Cheers!