Intermittent Radio and Blinkers until driven a while

[spurscar]

Like the title says, the radio and blinkers won't work at all at first and then will slowly come up on the screen then back off... then on for longer but cut off... then finally play a blip of music and then back off... blinkers act the same, won't work, then will work a little longer...


After driving around it improves and improves until the point where it all works as it should 100% of the time after around 5-10 miles. And it can then sit for even a few hours at work and start right up with everything working. Then after sitting for a few days or a week or two (doesn't get driven as much now) it'll be right back to the intermittent behavior.


Figured the 12 year old OEM battery was to blame, replaced it with a Duralast Gold, same issues.


Any idea on where to start troubleshooting? Keyword searches on this forum for this either are too generic or return nothing because they're too specific.

[spyderbuddy]

If you have the Bose system or the Standard Radio, it will go bad just replace the radio


This is what mine finally did

[spurscar]

Originally Posted by spyderbuddy

If you have the Bose system or the Standard Radio, it will go bad just replace the radio


This is what mine finally did

This is so much more than the radio though. I should probably grab a video of it and link it here too. The blinkers won't work right until it's driven 5-10 miles and all the light up rings around the HVAC dials flash in time with the radio flashing too. Affects rear defrost as well from what I can tell.


It's almost like everything isn't getting quite enough power to fully operate at first and then after everything warms up it's all fine again.

[gtstorey]

I would try pulling the trouble codes with a scanner that can read all of the modules, but especially the BCM. Or a scanner with the controls for the functions that aren't working and see if they will work with bidirectional(scanner) control.

[spurscar]

Here's a video of what it's doing. Notice no sound on the blinkers.. Also if it sits for more than a couple days (was driven yesterday) the blinker light on the dash won't even come on let alone the sound.


I've also cleaned up the battery terminals, tightened everything down well, cleaned up the body ground screw just in case it was a bad ground causing it. And I put a meter on the battery while idling and it was reading between 14.9-15.2v DC... not sure if that's too much and should be around 13.9-14.2 instead and maybe the alternator is screwy?


Unfortunately only have a simple ODBII scanner - I'll have to see if I can track down somewhere that can scan it.

https://youtu.be/YI_tPZldtrs

[spyderbuddy]

I'm Sorry, but Again That is definitely the radio,
The blinkers sound is generated from the radio, Mine did the same thing.
My blinkers did not sound
My Door Chimes did not work
All interior sound are generated from the radio.
That is the reason I went to a MyLink (Plus I got real Navigation)
It was almost a Plug & Play, But if your going to upgrade get something Nice
I like the Stock look

[spurscar]

Originally Posted by spyderbuddy

I'm Sorry, but Again That is definitely the radio,
The blinkers sound is generated from the radio, Mine did the same thing.
My blinkers did not sound
My Door Chimes did not work
All interior sound are generated from the radio.
That is the reason I went to a MyLink (Plus I got real Navigation)
It was almost a Plug & Play, But if your going to upgrade get something Nice
I like the Stock look

Okay that looks nice enough to get it regardless of whether it's the issue or not. Very clean.


I'll check it out, thanks!

[robbyd93]

It's usually the receiver behind the faceplate, or both. I have a good scanner, and its always Code U0184 but will have a dash and another number behind it, to specify if its open, grounded,etc. BTW, volts being up to almost 15 is no big deal, and if your windows malfunction when this happens, point to the bcm. More than likely its the radio, they are junk Panasonics and are worthless. One thing you can try is cut the white wire on faceplate plug. Didnt help me, but have read it has helped alot of others. I know once I put a huge amp and subs in mine, once volts drop to 12.5(not charging) the first bass note turns it off, but always comes back on. Hope this helps, and if you change the stereo and it still does it, then only one answer-BCM

[bottletalk]

good excuse to get the idatalink maestro cam1 faceplate and an rr1 or rr2 then u can run a aftermarket quality 7" display and keep all ur factory chimes and control.... get quality sound, run NAV from ur cell,etc.there are other integration brands like pak and metra which make quality units too just don't buy something you can't find at quality stereo shops, lots of rebranded garbage out there with heavy markups and no support.

[bottletalk]

Originally Posted by spurscar

This is so much more than the radio though. I should probably grab a video of it and link it here too. The blinkers won't work right until it's driven 5-10 miles and all the light up rings around the HVAC dials flash in time with the radio flashing too. Affects rear defrost as well from what I can tell.


It's almost like everything isn't getting quite enough power to fully operate at first and then after everything warms up it's all fine again.

that sounds like a bad ground. u should grab a meter with long extensions and measure the resistance from battery ground to the ground on your stereo(and alternator ground to your batt just to make sure it's good) and panel lighting/controls. there are points on the car that develop poor continuous body ground so jumpers are added to continue a solid path.
the service manual has the ground locations for devices in it so it would be ez to find the stereo ground and see if it shares the same connection with the other devices your having problems with.

[bottletalk]

pm'ed u a link for the service manual