[Coach Steve]

A few days ago, my radio added its own new feature. If the radio is already on (was left in the on position when the car was turned off) when I start the car, it's silent for the first few seconds then it cycles through the radio bands (AM/FM1/FM2) a couple of times then stops on the lowest AM channel. At that point, I can manually select the band I want. If I try to select the band while it's doing its cycling, nothing happens - it just keeps cycling.
If the radio is off when the car is started, I don't have any problem when I turn the radio on no matter how soon after starting the car.

Anyone ever heard of this or experienced it firsthand? I tried searching for this issue but it's pretty hard to keyword it without including the entire symptom and then the number of results are.... well, you know. :devil

 

[bobbo]

It might be time to rename the car to Christine ?

 

[Coach Steve]

It might be time to rename the car to Christine ?

Oh, that's rich, Bob.

:laugh:laugh:laugh

 

[mtts60]

Might be a bad AM/FM switch, the one that selects the bands. It's thinking you're pushing it.

 

[DreaminAccord]

Maybe you're not the only one in the car...

 

[Coach Steve]

Maybe you're not the only one in the car...

Don't even go there, Ben.

My office is adjacent to the living room with double doors. A couple of nights ago, at around 1am, I was the only one up so all the lights were out except for the lights in my office which were bleeding out into the living room. All the sudden, I could hear my cat growling at something - that deep growl cats make when they're about to fight. I got up from my desk and looked toward where the noise was coming from and my cat was sitting on the coffee table in the pitch dark living room focused on something or someone. She had the classic ears back, tail flipping around randomly, hissing, etc. And, she wasn't staring at the ground which I would have chalked up to a bug or something plausible. She was staring up on the wall in the far end of the living room - and there was nothing there! I watched this go on for about 5 mins. but when she stood up and took the pose with the arched back and claws extended, I was about as freaked out as I cared to be so I flipped on the lights and shooed her out of that room. As she made her way toward the kitchen, she stopped and looked back a couple of times still growling the whole time.
Freaked me the f**k out!

 

[BLCKFLSH]

I've heard a lot of crazy things about these radios, like coming on by itself even when the key is out of the ignition. I certainly couldn't put up with a radio that drains the battery, potentially leaving me stranded with a dead battery. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an appealing alternative to the stock radio, that I've seen. It's a bummer. I can't deal with no radio/music in the car, so this would be a real problem for me. My radio doesn't do any of these strange things (at least that I've seen so far), so I'm crossing my fingers, and knocking on wood. I hope it doesn't start doing even crazier stuff to you Coach, good luck.

 

[desertrat]

Have you tried unhooking a battery cable for a few minutes then reconnecting it? probably won't help but at least it's easy to do. Also check battery voltage, low voltage can cause a lot of weird symptoms.

 

[bobbo]

I got really bad (the bad kind - hair on the back of your neck and severe bumps everywhere) goosebumps from post #6 ... which only lends credence to post #2.

 

[crkdslider]

Don't even go there, Ben.

My office is adjacent to the living room with double doors. A couple of nights ago, at around 1am, I was the only one up so all the lights were out except for the lights in my office which were bleeding out into the living room. All the sudden, I could hear my cat growling at something - that deep growl cats make when they're about to fight. I got up from my desk and looked toward where the noise was coming from and my cat was sitting on the coffee table in the pitch dark living room focused on something or someone. She had the classic ears back, tail flipping around randomly, hissing, etc. And, she wasn't staring at the ground which I would have chalked up to a bug or something plausible. She was staring up on the wall in the far end of the living room - and there was nothing there! I watched this go on for about 5 mins. but when she stood up and took the pose with the arched back and claws extended, I was about as freaked out as I cared to be so I flipped on the lights and shooed her out of that room. As she made her way toward the kitchen, she stopped and looked back a couple of times still growling the whole time.
Freaked me the f**k out!

:drink:

 

[Coach Steve]

I've heard a lot of crazy things about these radios, like coming on by itself even when the key is out of the ignition. I certainly couldn't put up with a radio that drains the battery, potentially leaving me stranded with a dead battery. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an appealing alternative to the stock radio, that I've seen. It's a bummer. I can't deal with no radio/music in the car, so this would be a real problem for me. My radio doesn't do any of these strange things (at least that I've seen so far), so I'm crossing my fingers, and knocking on wood. I hope it doesn't start doing even crazier stuff to you Coach, good luck.

It makes me wish it was one of the more common problems, at least I'd know how to proceed - or not depending.... Thanks!

Have you tried unhooking a battery cable for a few minutes then reconnecting it? probably won't help but at least it's easy to do. Also check battery voltage, low voltage can cause a lot of weird symptoms.

First thing I did was disconnect the battery. No joy. Battery is a year old showing the correct voltage and I replaced both cables less than 6 months ago. It's getting great power/connection.

I got really bad (the bad kind - hair on the back of your neck and severe bumps everywhere) goosebumps from post #6 ... which only lends credence to post #2.

You think YOU had goosebumps?! Wait till you read the update below!

:drink:

I opted for an alternative way of calming the nerves but I like the way you think! :wink

UPDATE:

Still doing the same thing but it has added an element that's just plain freaky!
When it was doing the cycling through bands thing, there is a pause on each band for maybe 1-2 seconds - long enough that you could see that the station displayed was the lowest one offered for both am and fm: am shows 530 and fm shows 87.? you get the gist.
NOW, instead of displaying the stations it displays some unintelligible characters... almost hieroglyphic-like! It doesn't do it every time it happens. I sat in the car with my camera for half an hour repeatedly trying to get it to display the weird characters so I could post a pic as proof that I'm not making this up or more importantly, that I'm not losing my mind but no luck.
This is weird, just weird. Maybe the most unnerving thing is the fact that I have been able to find absolutely NOTHING in the searches I've done Internet-wide that remotely relates to this anomaly.
(Insert theme to Twilight Zone here) :laugh

I haven't started making a mountain out of my mashed potatoes yet but....