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radio/electrical problem in '04 Forrester?


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Good day.

I usually leave the radio on when I turn off the engine, but this happened yesterday, and I am puzzled.

started the car, radio came on, as expected. drove around a bit. stopped, turned engine off; radio went off. did my errand, restarted the car: the radio is silent, as if no electrical power is getting to the unit. pushing and pulling the dash-mounted controls has no effect. drove about 1 hour, radio always silent. stopped, run another errand, restarted the engine and the radio came back to life.

email to SofA got no result, except a suggestion to take the car to a dealer.

has anyone seen this happen before?

it is a 2004 Forrester, with factory-installed, bottom-of-the-line radio+CDplayer unit.

maybe I jiggled the ignition key just right (3 turns to the left, 4 to the right, stand on your toes and sing "happy birthday") to trigger an unusual response in the on-board computer, or maybe it is time to go and demand for a replacement while still under warranty (3 months and less than 3000 miles)?

Any help/hint will be appreciated.

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Good day.

I usually leave the radio on when I turn off the engine, but this happened yesterday, and I am puzzled.

started the car, radio came on, as expected. drove around a bit. stopped, turned engine off; radio went off. did my errand, restarted the car: the radio is silent, as if no electrical power is getting to the unit. pushing and pulling the dash-mounted controls has no effect. drove about 1 hour, radio always silent. stopped, run another errand, restarted the engine and the radio came back to life.

email to SofA got no result, except a suggestion to take the car to a dealer.

has anyone seen this happen before?

it is a 2004 Forrester, with factory-installed, bottom-of-the-line radio+CDplayer unit.

maybe I jiggled the ignition key just right (3 turns to the left, 4 to the right, stand on your toes and sing "happy birthday") to trigger an unusual response in the on-board computer, or maybe it is time to go and demand for a replacement while still under warranty (3 months and less than 3000 miles)?

Any help/hint will be appreciated.

Personally I would be doing what SOA said to do, it is a Warranty issue that requires fixing.

Don't muck around with it, it may also be a wiring problem and you don't want it going up in smoke if it is.

Sorry for the possible doom & gloom bit but it does happen sometimes.

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yah.. just take it back and get it fixed. My radio prob wasn't that bad... sometimes it likes to eat my CDs.. not give them back. And when I finally get them out, it won't take another one in... fickle... instead of mucking with it and fiddlefartin i'm just keeping my eye out for a stereo i like..

 

but thats me with an 03 w/ 50k

 

good luck

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  • 4 months later...

Yes, take advantage of your warrenty....no point messing with it. They can probably fix it within an hour or two. BTW, the subaru's are very "aftermarket radio" friendly. I just replaced the stock radio in my '04 forrester with an alpine unit which supports an additional ipod interface. Not only do I have better sound (yes, the difference IS noticable) but now I can use my ipod in the car and it works great! :banana:

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