Radio buttons failing

Well, if pEEf's or mine breaks, we will figure it out and post it here. In the mean time, as pEEf said, if someone sends him (or me) one, we will do the failure analysis. I guess another question is, is it worth the trouble if the steering wheel controls still work?

 

The stock radio dash power button in my early 04 Prius has just “stuck†in the on position – but the audio is still off. Any ideas on how to safely advise me on removing this radio from the dash so I can get at the offending button to fix it?

 

This issue is happening to me now almost weekly. Usually tapping the dash on or near the radio restores the button control.

I am outside of the warranty and not willing to pay a "Stealership", just so they can tell me they can't reproduce the problem and that they have never heard of this issue before. Nor do I want to buy a replacement radio head unit, only for the issue to come back down the road.

What I want is a real fix.

 

I can now repair this problem, and for the life of the car. I will offer a lifetime warranty on the repair. If interested, please PM me for details.

 

I am mechanically inclined and would like to be able to fix it myself, if anyone could explain the cause of this issue.

 

Your time is WAY too valuable to be doing radois. You'll never find time to convert our RX-400h into a PHEV with these teeny jobs

 

Could you maybe explain to me or show pictures of your fix? At this point it doesn't seem cost effective for me to remove and mail you my radio unit for repair. As I said, I am mechanically inclined and would like to repair it myself, if you could be so kind as to explain your discovery and how to correct the issue.

 

No help? Guess I have to rip out the radio out of my Prius and figure it out all by myself.

 

Sorry, I don't have any pictures. Send me your unit and I'll repair it and take pictures for you! :-p

I am probably the most cost-effective solution, unless you are prepared to invest the time needed to learn. I have spent much of my life learning electrical engineering and have a huge amount of experience, including these particular problems and how to repair them effectively. The first one or two is usually not "worth it" time-wise for me either, but after I gain all the knowledge needed then it becomes worthwhile.

You don't grow your own food, because it's more cost-effective to buy it. Otherwise you'd be out in the dirt right now instead of reading this! =)

 

As I said, I am not willing to send my radio unit away for repair. And again, I am very mechanically inclined if told what to do. All I want to know is where within the radio unit is the problem. But if you don't want to help me, then just say you don't. I'm not trying to take business away from you or steal your secret, I just want to be able to repair my own radio.

And I do grow most of my own food because it is way more cost effective for me to do this than buying it. This was something I had to learn thanks to the economy.

 

Recently had a complete 12v battery failure and then a few days later had the problem with unresponsive buttons on Radio. 2007 T-Spirit UK version.
Tapped/hit around the console a few times and radio now responsive again.
Changing car tomorrow to 2011 version - uk 10th Anniversary version - hope same problem doesnt follow me

 

Mine radio controls just quit working and I have CD's stuck in the CD player. They just replaced my radio about two months ago. Guest I'm going back to the dealer.

 

Hi Guys
I have held off posting to just see what happened, my radio packed in on Thursday, coming home I looked down at the CD button lights , they were all amber, including the cd that was playing, when I got home I start to have a look round, the volume button done nothing, could not switch over to FM radio, I could change the CD with the round buttons on the audio page, could not change the track, also could not eject the CDs,I then remembered what I had read on this site, and tried the steering wheel buttons these seemed to all work ok, so I reported this to the local dealer, as I wanted to wait to see the out come they booked in for the Tuesday morning at 8am.
Since Thursday when it first went out, Friday it started working again, Saturday it was out again, when we finished the shopping I went straight to the dealers, so they could see what was happening, showed, the guy, ok I will log it, he said, I showed him what was happening, going through the motions, I then pushed the track button, it started working again, so he told me to keep the appointment on Tuesday (today) Sunday the radio was ok, I get in the car this morning not having touched any thing, out it went again, so I drove to the dealers, again not touching anything, park up leaving the car running, after ten minutes it righted its self again, so it was booked in, then I think the service manager came out,WE CANT FIND ANYTHING WRONG,I cut him short say one of his Tech guys had seen it and relate this story to him, ok, off he went, an hour or so later he came back with my keys saying they had fitted a new radio. So a resault.

MGnut.

 

Congrats your persistence paid off. Dealers want to see the problem "in action" and you gave him what he needed. 

 

The buttons (but not the knobs) have stopped working in our '08. Since the JBL was a retrofit that I did the radio itself actually came out of an '07 so it's a bit older than the car. I disassembled the radio and found nothing obvious. There is a connector between the face and the chassis and the contacts all seemed to be fine with no corrosion or weak pins. I reflowed the solder joints on all the connection for both sides of the connector with no change in the problem.

 

Add me to the list. I bought a certified 2007 Prius last week with 24k mileage. On the ride home from the dealership, none of the radio buttons/knobs would respond. Steering wheel buttons work however.

I believe with Toyota certified vehicles, there is bumper to bumper coverage for one year, right? I'm going to video tape the problem and take it in to the dealer.

Other than that, loving my Prius!!! Wow! What a great car.

 

A little update on the problem: I purchased a beat up but fully functional JBL 6 disk head unit and swapped the face panel circuit board into my malfunctioning head unit. This fixed the problem with my unit so the problem can be localized to the circuit board for the face plate. Unfortunately that board is quiet complex and I see no obvious faults with the board itself.

 

Sounds very similar to my GE dishwasher control board (made in Japan). I was hoping to find some corrosion or bad soldering joints but it looked perfect under microscope. A new control board fixed it. Maybe the micro fired itself for some reason. Auto self destruction after 10 years maybe?

 

I'm 99% sure that it is a mechanical failure since most people can use a little "percussive engineering" to get it to work again for a little while.

 

I see I hadn't realized that the switches are also on the board.