The radio stated having issues by intermittently losing radio stations – I would turn the radio on and stations I had programmed either wouldn’t come in or there would be a lot of static. It progressively got worse and worse.
Now, when a radio station, or even a CD, is playing, the radio will make a loud static sound and the sound will completely cut off. The radio works normally – I can change to AM/FM/SAT/CD/AUX – but I cannot turn the volume up or down and no sound is coming from the radio at all. If I turn the van off and back on, the radio will “reset” itself and it will work again for a while … until the next time it makes a loud static sound and the sound cuts out.
Where should I start? Amplifier? Bad speaker? – Thank you!!
Bad head unit or bad external amplifier. You don’t say if this is a factory radio or an aftermarket unit. Car radio quality, in general, has gone straight into the trashcan lately. Both factory and aftermarket units.
I am not sure if your audio system has external amplifiers inside the doors or not, like mine does. I assume both the left and right sides have the same issue. I have to suspect that the something inside the main radio unit itself is bad. If there are separate external amplifiers it is doubtful that both sides have gone bad at the same time. There are places you can send the head unit to for repair.
how old is the battery? I have a 2010 Chevy that was having radio issues (no sound,) and a cleaning of the battery terminal connections took care of my issues.
Good ideas above. It does sound the radio or an external amplifier is on the blink. But good idea w/this sort of symptom to make sure the antenna connection isn’t loose or corroded, including the antenna ground to chassis point. Make sure the speakers haven’t gotten wet and the cone distorted at some point too. I diagnosed a speaker problem on my truck my temporarily hooking up different speakers, which solved the problem so I knew I had to replace the speakers.
It’s definitely not the battery. New battery, same issues.
It is intermittent but only happens when I am using AM/FM/CD
When I use AUX, it never cuts out, guessing this boils down to the actual radio unit?
Since the trouble doesn’t happen when you use the AUX mode that means the trouble is within the main head unit, even if your system uses an external amplifier, though it may not have one in your case. You can have your unit replaced of repaired. “One Factory Radio” is a great place to have yours fixed or purchase another repaired unit. Ebay is a good place to find used OEM units also. If you decide to replace yours make sure you get the proper model number replacement. There are various options in the radios you have to match to your unit. Though some are just plain models.
