Stock Radio Broken

[Ebil]

I have a 96 es300 with a stock stereo.

The battery light started coming on last week. Yesterday she wouldn't turn over without a jump. I took a quick trip to the auto parts store and buy a new battery. Everything is perfect again, at least for a while. I took a quick drive to a restaurant playing my ipod through a cassette adapter. I went into the place ordered and waited for the food and when I got back to my car, maybe 20 minutes later, fired her up and my stereo was dead. No text or light on the lcd, couldn't get it to eject the cassette adapter, nothing. So I figure I must have blown a fuse with the new battery and I probably was playing my music a little too loud. I get home and sure enough I don't have any spare 15 fuses, I run back to the auto parts store and pick up a pack of fuses and swap the old one out with the new one and still nothing.

What could be wrong with my stereo?

[Lexucan]

If your stereo hadn't been working at all after replacing the battery, I would have said it was the anti-theft security system (which is triggered by disconnecting the power to the radio) that disabled your stereo. But you said you were listening to your iPod through your car stereo's speakers just before it died, so I guess that can't be it. Does ANYTHING show on the display when you start the car? If the anti-theft system is active then "SEC" should show up on the radio's LCD display.

[Ebil]

If your stereo hadn't been working at all after replacing the battery, I would have said it was the anti-theft security system that disabled your stereo. But you said you were listening to your iPod through your car stereo's speakers just before it died, so I guess that can't be it. Does ANYTHING show on the display when you start the car? If the anti-theft system is active then "SEC" should show up on the radio's LCD display.

Nothing shows up on the display as if the radio was off.

When I press the volume knob to turn the radio on it doesn't do anything.

The cigarette lighter plug has never worked as long as I have owned the car, could that be related?

[Lexucan]

If your stereo hadn't been working at all after replacing the battery, I would have said it was the anti-theft security system that disabled your stereo. But you said you were listening to your iPod through your car stereo's speakers just before it died, so I guess that can't be it. Does ANYTHING show on the display when you start the car? If the anti-theft system is active then "SEC" should show up on the radio's LCD display.

Nothing shows up on the display as if the radio was off.

When I press the volume knob to turn the radio on it doesn't do anything.

The cigarette lighter plug has never worked as long as I have owned the car, could that be related?

I doubt that the cigarette lighter plug has anything to do with your problem since the stereo WAS working until very recently. It sounds like your stereo isn't getting power for some reason. Are you sure you checked the correct fuse/s? There may be more than one that is associated with the stereo system.

[Ebil]

If your stereo hadn't been working at all after replacing the battery, I would have said it was the anti-theft security system that disabled your stereo. But you said you were listening to your iPod through your car stereo's speakers just before it died, so I guess that can't be it. Does ANYTHING show on the display when you start the car? If the anti-theft system is active then "SEC" should show up on the radio's LCD display.

Nothing shows up on the display as if the radio was off.

When I press the volume knob to turn the radio on it doesn't do anything.

The cigarette lighter plug has never worked as long as I have owned the car, could that be related?

I doubt that the cigarette lighter plug has anything to do with your problem since the stereo WAS working until very recently. It sounds like your stereo isn't getting power for some reason. Are you sure you checked the correct fuse/s? There may be more than one that is associated with the stereo system.

hmm. It was dark when I swapped the one fuse out. I will check the other fuses in the morning when I have better light.

Thanks.

[added]

I got out there this morning and pulled all the fuses none of them were bad. So there I was, laying under my steering wheel in a most uncomfortable position and I hear it. The motor in the cassette player is spinning. I hit the eject button and nothing. I hit the power button, again nothing So I grabbed the cord from the cassette adapter and pulled it upwards and the radio ejected the tape. I hit the FM button and the lcd screen lit up.

so now it works, and I still don't know why.

[Lexucan]

Well, glad to hear it's working again. You'll probably never know exactly what caused it to malfunction but obviously the cassette adapter thing had something to do with it. I tried one of those once so I could listen to my Sony Walkman during an out-of-town trip. I wasn't impressed so I never used it again, and after reading about your problem, I'll definitely never use one again. I've now got a sweet bluetooth enabled Samsung P2 and a Motorola Motorokr T505 bluetooth speakerphone with a wireless digital FM transmitter. The P2 stays in my shirt pocket, and the T505 clips to the sun visor, so no more dangly wires or wacky cassette adapters, and the sound through the stock stereo and car speakers is really quite amazing. It's as clear and as clean as listening directly to a CD :)