Audio won't power on
 

So over the last few weeks, I've had an intermittent problem where when I start the car, my audio system is powered off (even though it was on when I last shut the car off). Then I try to turn it on, and it won't let me. It is stuck off... but every time it has done that (maybe 3-4 times thus far), it has turned itself on within 30-60 seconds.

Today on the way back from work, however, no such luck. It was off when I started the car, and it would not turn back on for the whole 20-min drive home. I stopped to get gas on the way, and it still did not power on after that. It was an exceptionally cold day today (for Texas), so I wonder if that may have something to do with it?

I'm going to try disconnecting the battery for 30 seconds soon to see if that fixes it, but does anyone else have any other ideas? Anyone seen this before? Could it have something to do with my iPod adapter? Also, when I disconnect the battery, I should disconnect ground, right?

Very frustrating problem to say the least, and I don't think it will be cheap to fix if I can't figure this out myself...

EDIT: Forgot one other question -- when the audio is off here, none of the lights on buttons below the climate control buttons are lit. Is that normal? The seek buttons, CD, AUX, etc buttons are all unlit.

Yes, negative battery cable is easiest; wait 15 minutes versus seconds too.

Now about the main issue; do you have a touchscreen NAV unit?

Yes, I do. The touch screen still works fine, though.

My problem right now is the exact opposite! Radio works just fine, but nothing on the NAV screen works. :(

I'd have you start by making sure your amp connections are all tight. If good, perhaps checking the connectors for a proper voltage.

Do you get an Audio Off message when you hit the "audio" button ? Have you checked the Radio fuse under the passenger side fuse cluster?

Never heard of this issue and it honestly sounds to me like it could be an issue inside the factory HU. I can however say with certainty that a fuse issue would not be intermittent. If the fuse were blown, you wouldn't have power and it wouldn't turn itself on with any sort of "delay".

Thanks for the help guys. Frustrating problem for sure... And I don't think it will be cheap to fix if I can't figure this out myself.


That's strange... Does your touch screen work? Damn these buggy electronics!

But no, I haven't tried any of that yet. I'm not too familiar with the car's electrical system. I was planning on installing the Vaistech Android kit at some point soon here, though, so at that point I was hoping to take a look and see if I could figure anything out.

Incidentally, I tried powering on the car in accessory mode this morning, and was able to get the audio to turn back on. I put extra pressure on the power button this time... not sure if that had anything to do with it, though.

One other thing possibly worth noting is that I hit a pothole a while back at a high speed that jarred the whole car pretty hard. At that time, the radio turned off for a couple seconds and then turned back on... The problem didn't really start until several weeks later, but I still have a suspicion it may be related.

It still seems strange, though, that the problem only seems to occur upon starting the car. It doesn't happen while driving.


Yeah, my feeling is that IF this is a hardware problem there is some loose wiring inside the HU... But if that's the case, some of the symptoms the car is having are very strange. I think (and hope) it's just a software issue that I can fix by disconnecting the battery.

So is your audio back on or was it ONLY on while you had it in accessory mode that one time?

I couldn't deal with having no audio, so I feel your pain. At least my HVAC is working in Auto mode and it does have heat. But I'm afraid of when it gets really cold in the winter and I'll need to defrost my windows. I won't be able to. :(

I would double check all your amp connections. I remember when I was first hooking up my sub, I shorted a wire and none of the speakers would work at all. Took hours to find and fix.

Wait, what does you problem have to do with the HVAC? That sucks if you're having problems with nav and climate control.

And yes, audio is back even when the car is on... Although I have a symptom update from this morning. When I started my car to drive to work, all was fine, but then I saw a low tire warning, so I filled up my tires with a compressor I have that powers off of the in-car 12V power supply. After I finished doing that, I noticed audio was no longer working again (the car was running with audio on during that whole deal). Eventually it started working again by the time I got to work. Also, while it was acting up, the voice command button on the steering wheel apparently wasn't working, either.

So... yeah, weird and annoying problem. :sad: Maybe this has something to do with when there's certain drain levels on the battery? Can anyone think of another reason why using the 12V DC power would cause this along with starting the car on a cold day?

If this persists, and I can't figure it out... maybe I'll look at it as an opportunity to upgrade my head unit to one of those fancy aftermarket ones with new features.