2004 Prius, no sound from stereo

Found one for $115:
2004 Toyota Prius Hybrid JBL Amplifier Amp Radio OEM 86280-0W240 | eBay

 

I went ahead and purchased this one. Will try to install it myself and will take photos since i haven't seen any of anyone else doing this previously. other than getting the seat out (which I dread) it seems a pretty simple project.

 

You may be right, but I've driven the car on FAR colder days than it was yesterday without any issues, but the first time it happened and yesterday the temp was in the 40s range but quite rainy/humid.

In any case, I'm still convinced it's gremlins and am currently researching the best gremlin capture and storage methods.

 

My EBay package arrived today--bare 24 hours after ordering! That's the good news.
The bad news, they sent me the Denso DVD-GPS unit that goes under the driver's seat instead of the amp that goes under the passenger seat. I called and am waiting to hear back on how they want to deal with the exchange. Too bad, it would have been a perfect weekend project.

 

Hopefully this will be the last post in the saga....
The new amplifier arrived early this afternoon (huge props to the Ebay seller for fast shipping!).

Only 3 bolts and 2 connectors on the amplifier (sorry, didn't do photos, but you don't need them). All accessible with just moving the front seat fully foreward or back. I first took out the front 2 bolts (hidden under a carpet cut out), then the back one. This made it easy enough to move the amp around to get easier access to the electronic plugs/connectors. There are catches on the top middle of both of those that must be depressed before it will allow you to pull out the plugs--that was, by far, the hardest part and it just takes maneuvering the amp around until you can get a proper angle on things to get the right pressure on the tab while simultaneously pulling outward on the plug.

Once disconnected it slid right out from under the seat. I connected the plugs/connectors on the new/replacement amp. Tested (worked fine), then redid the bolts. I do recommend doing the front left (driver's side) bolt/bracket first as there is a little tab on it that goes down into the floor of the car, so you'll want to be sure that's lined up right. So I did the front two bolts, slid the seat forward and did the back one.

Total time including getting tools (all you need is a ratchet wrench and a 12mm socket), testing, and putting things up... 15-20 minutes.

Total savings.... $700 (what the dealer estimated) - $115 (what I paid for the salvage amp) = $585!!!

Anyone can handle this DIY!

 

The gremlins are baaaaccckk!
The stereo had worked flawlessly until this morning when I noticed that it didn't start playing for about 7-10 seconds after I pulled the car out of the garage. It was delayed more than normal, but often there's a slight delay b/c the garage blocks the XM signal sometimes.

But after work, and during another cool RAINY day (notice every time this has occurred it's been associated with at least mildly wet/rainy and cool weather), there was no sound. My drive home is about 20-25 minutes and I was without audio as described previously in this thread for all but the last few minutes of the drive. This time it briefly flickered on after a hard left turn, then about 20 seconds later it came on again and stayed on for the duration of the trip home.

So, I'm convinced there must be a loose or broken cable connection from the amp to the head unit. The odds that my second amp has the exact same problem as the old one are minuscule. No idea how to track this down without ripping up the carpet and pulling the dash apart.

So, anyone want a used JBL amp that's perfectly good?

 

The gremlins are baaaaccckk!
The stereo had worked flawlessly until this morning when I noticed that it didn't start playing for about 7-10 seconds after I pulled the car out of the garage. It was delayed more than normal, but often there's a slight delay b/c the garage blocks the XM signal sometimes.

But after work, and during another cool RAINY day (notice every time this has occurred it's been associated with at least mildly wet/rainy and cool weather), there was no sound. My drive home is about 20-25 minutes and I was without audio as described previously in this thread for all but the last few minutes of the drive. This time it briefly flickered on after a hard left turn, then about 20 seconds later it came on again and stayed on for the duration of the trip home.

So, I'm convinced there must be a loose or broken cable connection from the amp to the head unit. The odds that my second amp has the exact same problem as the old one are minuscule. No idea how to track this down without ripping up the carpet and pulling the dash apart.

So, anyone want a used JBL amp that's perfectly good?

 

Thanks Dog,
I have no doubt that's a good plan, I just don't know if it's within the scope of my skills to know what wires I'm checking the continuity of or how to access the entire cable without ripping up the entire dash and carpet.

I think I may try replacing the fuse, that's a decent thought--or at least cleaning the connections...gotta sort out which fuse it is though.

FWIW, in the past after the car has been in my garage (heated) for a while the stereo seems to work better (usually), but this morning, even though it had been working when I parked it yesterday, it was dead again. Really annoying.

I've given up on the Toyota dealership, they've had a crack at it twice now, I'm wondering if the local car stereo installers do trouble shooting...

 

And, on the way home it worked fine...I'm gonna start wearing a tinfoil hat.

 

Maybe so...Darn frustrating. I have no idea where the ground would be. I look at those electrical diagrams and get nauseated.

 

I'll poke around, but the car's been pretty tight up to now. And often it seems that it's not really the heavy rains that do it, but the high humidity/light rain conditions.

 

I'm baaaaaccckkk!
We've had some pretty steady and occasionally heavy rains again over the past couple of days, and right on time after about 24 hours and the car sitting in the rain for ~6 hours a went out to find the radio again not working in the car. It still wasn't working almost 48 hours later and I have about 7 hours of solo highway driving coming up this weekend, so I started my search for a cause again.

I checked and wiggled the cables at the head unit--no change. I checked and wiggled the cables at the amplifier--no change (the amp was warm, so I know it was getting power). I had the thought that even though none of the radio functions were working that I should check my self-installed XM unit (installed ~8 years ago, when I got the car). I have it sitting against the side wall on the passenger side of the vehicle in the rear of the car when you remove that small storage pocket you can see a gap there. There is also some sort of vent that runs into that gap.

Sure enough, as soon as I lifted the XM unit out the radio came on again. And it was somewhat positional. Rotated vertically and the radio stopped, horizontal it started...kind of odd...the cable seemed secure.

The problem, however, is that there was some moisture in that pocket. I don't know if it's coming in through the vent or from somewhere else, but the XM unit had been sitting on the floor on top of some absorbant cushioning material and there was actually a bit of rust on the outside of the XM unit. I removed the damp material, dried out the pocket, used some aluminum foil to create some space b/w the floor and the XM unit when placed back in the gap.

So far it is working fine. I presume there's a feedback loop from the amp or head unit (probably the head unit since that's what the XM cable plugs into directly) and that somehow the moisture was creating a short of some sort in the XM box.

I did notice the car smelled musty this morning (my daughter noticed it too), so I'm not too happy about moisture getting in and, further, I'm not really sure where it's coming in from. The XM antenna is under a shark-fin, so it's possible that some moisture is getting in under that and running down the wire to that pocket, but it didn't look like that, it looked more like it was leaking in through that vent in the gap, but I don't know where that leads or how it would leak into there.

Will update if anything changes, but for now, at least I seem to have identified the location of the problem, if not the complete solution to the problem...at least now I know where to go and what cable to jiggle to get things working again.

 

minor update. There's some odd positional thing with the XM reciever unit. As long as it is laying semi-horizonally it works great, some vertical positions and it shorts out again. Suspect I might end up having to replace the unit at some point if it starts shorting in the horizontal position.

Still concerned about how all the moisture is getting into the car too...that can't be a good thing. There's even a little rust on the traction battery case.