Volume Gone Wild (and then stops working)

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.

 

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

ZC1

 

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?

 

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.

 

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.

 

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

 

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?

 

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

 

LOL!... cross your fingers for reproducing it again!!!...
Mine did it just this morning twice on the way to work, but was intermittent.

Let us know what they say it is if they fix it!

 

Replacement install next week by dealer

 

Good for you!... inform them that there are many of your friends that have the same problem and ask if he can provide you with something that Toyota has released to show its a recognized problem and its ok for the dealer to fix it, or whether its a total case by case issue.

 

Add me to the list.. i have had this same exact thing happen to me probably 6 or 8 times now. So i decided to look and see if any others were having the same problem. low and behold!! Not that big a deal.. but it is annoying some time. Especially when you go to turn it down and nothing happens.. guess I will mention it to my dealer next time I am in and see what they say.

 

I know from experience that the radio, at least the JBL system, is _very_ sensitive to humidity. A couple weeks ago, I accidentally left the windows in my car down all night during a heavy fog. The next day, as I was driving around I noticed that the radio (not the amp) was staying on even after the car was turned off. It took about a week for the radio (once removed from the car) to function normally again.

I'd be willing to bet that it's dirt or humidity related. The volume knob is a [three contact] rotary encoder (K0N130C00020) that makes a contact through two 330 Ohm resistors for Vol -A and Vol -B before making it to [what looks like] the main uController (C2CBKH000072).

Since volume knob and the tuner knob are rotory encoders, like those found on old computer mice, some compressed air will either make the problem much worse or much better.

If the volume knob, or tune knob (same part), stops working try compressed air. Hopefully it will dislodge some of the dirt or water vapour that's collected on the contacts.

 

Thanks for the info.. that makes more sense than anything I've read on this subject!

 

So, uh, did it work?

 

I haven't had to mess with it anymore on both of my cars... maybe its a dry dusty summer thing, but until it starts messing up again, its hard to troubleshoot.

Maybe the extreme hot summer days is the culprit.

 

Mine does this intermittently. Interestingly, when it occurs, the only thing that fixes it is powering off and on. When it's stuck, it's stuck for the entire power on session. If I power on and it isn't stuck, then it never becomes stuck until powered off and then back on at which point there seems to be about a 1 in 10 chance of it now working.

 

I noticed today that I had the same problem.

08 Prius, JBL Stereo.

Volume buttom worked, but there were no CD lights and none of the hard buttons on the unit worked. The steering wheel buttons worked.

It wasn't a major issue, until I wanted to remove a CD and put in a new one. The Load and Eject buttons also did not work.

I tried the old 'on / off' and even left the car off and locked for 2 hours. Problem still existed.

So. I had a good look at it, and started gently pusing the unit and parts of the dash around it. Magically, the lights came back on and the buttons now work. I must say that I am dissapointed now for two reasons.

Firstly shonky build quality, and secondly now I can't 'prove' it to my dealer. So, do I hope it happens again or not!?!? I think the answer is 'yes' so that I can get it looked at under warranty.