Wierd Radio Behavior

[Eveready]

When I got the truck I immediately replaced the factory radio (which had failed in the usual manner) with a nice Kenwood so I could have bluetooth cellphone CD and Mp3 play. It worked great until I didn't drive the truck for a few weeks and the battery went flat. I charged the battery and the truck works fine but the radio would not come on. It has been like that for a couple of months.. no radio. I was waiting on cooler weather to sort it out.

Recently the truck had sat not driven for a few weeks and the battery was ALMOST flat when I tried to start it. I finally got it to start and on the way for its annual DMV inspection I noticed the radio was working. It has worked fine since.

The only cause I can think of was the battery going almost flat. Do any of you experts know why the radio would behave that way?

 

[df2x4]

I've seen aftermarket radios do some weird things after a battery goes dead. If it happens again you might look and see if there's a factory reset button under the face plate that you can push in with a paper clip or toothpick. That sometimes will bring them back from whatever issue they're having.

 

[Eveready]

I've seen aftermarket radios do some weird things after a battery goes dead. If it happens again you might look and see if there's a factory reset button under the face plate that you can push in with a paper clip or toothpick. That sometimes will bring them back from whatever issue they're having.

Thanks, I will look for that reset. Of course the proper thing to do is drive the truck enough to keep the battery up. Sometimes stuff happens though and I don't get to it. I may put a solar "maintainer" on it. Sure is good to have the radio working. I had really missed it.

 

[DerekTheGreat]

I've got an aftermarket Sony in my Town Car. Sometimes it just glitches where I can't turn it on until I've given it a hard reset by taking the fuse out. Sounds like yours did something similar.

 

[fancyTBI]

My original kenwood single din was a real lemon. I wired it up correctly, and even had it checked by a friend. It would still pull power with the ignition off, and kill the battery within hours. They wouldn’t warranty it because it was “just the truck computer pulling juice” and it was pulling like 3 milliamperes or something. Anyway, I replaced it with another one, same exact model, and this one works great. Didn’t make a single wiring adjustment.

Bottom line, I think kenwood products are really hit and miss.

 

[DerekTheGreat]

Seems all the single DIN stuff sold today is, even the pricey stuff. I'm surprised you can even find them for sale any more.

 

[fancyTBI]

You’re right. Though my friend has a double din Kenwood touch screen without nav and his can be finicky as well. We are both getting alpines in the coming year. Hope those are better.

 

[df2x4]

I have a 10+ year old Pioneer DEH-P880PRS in both of my '97s, one that I bought new and one that I bought second hand on eBay a few years later. I had a DEH-P8800MP before those, that was the deck that made me a loyal Pioneer customer. The things are built like tanks for the amount of cool stuff packed into them. If one of my DEH-P880PRS died tomorrow, I'd buy the new DEH-P80PRS in a heartbeat.

Alpine is good stuff too, I've owned one of those that came in a used car I bought and I really liked it. Never had any issues.

I have had problems with Kenwood decks, though. I forget the model number now but I had a really trick one over 15 years ago that would fold the faceplate down for button access, and fold up so it looked like a blank piece of black plastic when you shut the car off. That thing had terrible ground loop issues with any kind of AUX input and eventually the gears for the motorized faceplate stripped. I spent around $350 on it (with an employee discount at the time) and never was happy with it. I actually ended up returning it under warranty and paying the difference to upgrade to that Pioneer DEH-P8800MP that I mentioned earlier. What a world of difference that was.

EDIT - I had to jump on Google and find a picture of an old DEH-P8800MP. Just reminiscing about that thing brought back some great memories. It was so damn cool. You could download software from Pioneer when they were released that would allow you to edit and upload your own pictures or a short video clip to the deck via a burned CD, which would play in the background with your display text over it. It sounds archaic and silly now just typing it, but man that was cool stuff 15 years ago. Terrible picture but this is literally the only image of one on Google that can be linked to. I feel old now...

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[Eveready]

Thanks for all the comments and glad to know it isn't just me. The reason I went with the Kenwood is that I already have the exact same one in my Van. The last thing I wanted was to learn all the bells and whistles on a completely different radio. The one in the truck is working great now and I will just make a point of using the truck more and keep the battery up.

It is hotter than hell here and the truck needs a blower motor. I am not about to do that until it cools off some, and that in turn is why haven't be using the truck much. Not looking forward to that blower motor and the clean out of the HVAC that will have to go with it. That will be a whole day of very little fun, tempered only by a beer or three.