Volume Gone Wild (and then stops working)

[HokieHybrid]

I noticed at school that the volume would just magically change itself while I was waiting to pick up carpool, or driving around campus. Now, I'm 500 miles away from my trusted Prius tech (aka Galaxee's hubby), and my coworker was trying to adjust the volume and the knob doesn't work. It bounces up one tick and then right back. I tried it on two other trips after he did, and still no go. The button on the steering wheel works, which is probably why it took me so long to notice.

Any thoughts other than mentioning it when I go for my next oil change in 1000 miles?

[dumas]

A couple of weeks ago I got in my car and the volume knob wasn't working at all. Turn it either way, nothing. The buttons on the steering wheel still worked, but I use the volume knob a lot.

After 5 minutes or so, it started working again. It hasn't failed again since.

I don't know what was going on. Maybe it was because the car had been sitting in the sun for a while, and once it cooled down a bit, it worked again. Or who knows... if it happens again, I'll have to look into it more.

[HokieHybrid]

Ok now it's all the stereo buttons on the dash, but not the steering wheel buttons. I need to find a dealer where I can drop in when it's doing it b/c if I schedule an appointment for this and my oil change it won't happen.

[ZC1]

Beautiful car.....
but could we look into resizing the signature picture?

ZC1

[Sarge]

My radio started doing this a couple days ago, and this morning it was quite bad. Sometimes pushing the volume knob in and out again gets it working again, sometimes not.

I wonder if blowing some compressed air behind the knob may help?

I really don't want to take this to the dealer, as I know all they will say is that I need a new radio headunit for some ridiculous price. The car is long off warranty (92K KM).

Any solutions?

[auricchio]

I've had this happen a few times. Often the CD LED's will all be orange. Powering off and back on fixes it.

I have the JBL system.

[tachan]

I had the same problem. But I would hear some static or fading out, then won't be able to hear anything.

I took it to my toyota dealer and they took care of the problem under warranty. They said it was my Sirius satellite radio "brain". It was defective and they took it out, sent it to Sirius and Sirius sent a new one for them to install. They took about 1 hour to take it out, then called me back when the new part came so didn't have to leave my car at the dealership.

Now actually, I have couple basic satellite stations for free since my 9 month free subscription was out long before this happened.

[DougSlug]

This has happened to me several times. On two occasions I even had the volume turn itself up...the music got louder and I noticed on the MFD that the volume dropdown indicator was showing the volume value increasing..all without me touching anything! All of these things seem to happen when it is very hot.

- Doug

[windstrings]

I have this problem with "both" of my 06 prius's.

Usually after the car has been on a while, the volume knob will not work "sometimes".. when this happens I have to adjust it on the steering wheel "which always works".

I have found that sometimes "although not always" applying knob pressure to the left will make it work again, but only while maintaining that pressure. Yet other times it works perfect... its almost like the knob itself has a physical problem since it can be manipulated with physical pressure when its acting up.

It would be a hard thing to reproduce if taking to a dealer its so intermittent.. but it must be a problem pretty globally I'm guessing since both of my cars do it.

I wonder how many complaints toyota has gotten on this and whether a recall should be applied?

[kilo watt power]

Same problem-except I was able to reproduce the problem at the dealership on my way home. Appointment is this thursday..we'll see