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High Temperature = Audio Failure?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by nengelbe, Aug 16, 2007.

  1. nengelbe

    nengelbe New Member

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    Hey, new to the forum but have been reading for awhile - thankfully I haven't had to post a problem until now...

    We have a 2007 Prius and have noticed this week with the very high heat that our audio does not seem to be working after the car has been in the sun for awhile. It works great everyone morning and evening if we have had the car in the garage, but after it has been sitting at work all day we get no sound from our speakers!

    If we drive for a little while and the temp goes down in the cabin the sound will come back in little bits, improving over time. It seems to occur as we go over bumps in the road. In essence, as the temp drops, we hit a pot hole and a little spurt of music comes out. This happens more and more frequently until it is back on consistently.

    I figure it has to be heat related as there were no issues before this week and it gets better once the cabin cools down. The "system audio" (back up beep, button presses on the MFD, etc) work no problem, just audio from the radio (FM, AM, CD, Satellite) doesn't work immediately.

    Has anyone experienced this or have any ideas?

    Thanks!
     
    #1 nengelbe, Aug 16, 2007
  2. kohnen

    kohnen Grumpy, Cranky Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jun 13, 2007
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    Location:
    Fullerton CA
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Nate E @ Aug 16 2007, 01:28 PM) [snapback]497079[/snapback]</div>
    Short version - take it back to the dealer when it's good and roasty-toasty and show him. Make him replace your audio equipment to fix it.

    Longer version - The fact that a bump will cause it to work suggests that it ISN'T some sort of built-in thermal protection. It's probably a hairline crack somewhere in the system that opens when it's hot, and gets pushed closed when it's cold. Bumping it causes it to rattle closed for a while.

    By the way, this is one of the worries that the electronics industry has about going to RoHS compliant production. Lead based solder is much better at resisting microcracks than the RoHS stuff. You have to be much more careful to match thermal coiefficients of expansion so that stress cracks don't develop, because the new solder is far more likely to crack than the older Lead-based stuff.

    I fully expect flames now. Sorry.
     
    #2 kohnen, Aug 16, 2007
  3. nengelbe

    nengelbe New Member

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    Thanks for the reply - and I hope you meant flames towards your post, not flames out of my Prius :).

    Also, we were planning on taking it to the dealer this weekend if it didn't "magically fix itself" in the mean time - hopefully they will be able to track it down. I'll make sure not to run the A/C on the way over there!
     
    #3 nengelbe, Aug 16, 2007
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