[Viking]

My factory radio every so often changes frequency by itself. I will be listening to a station like 98.1 and it will randomly jump to a neighboring frequency like 98.3 for no good reason. This is highly annoying and happens a couple times a week. Is this a known problem for the car? Thanks, Eric

 

[nightridermz3]

Doesn't happen to me, I would take it to your local dealership to have looked at.

 

[gramboda]

this HAS happened to me as well...but only a few time that I can remember. seemed to happen when I was driving through town....not sure if that has anything to do with it.

 

[BCZoomZoom]

Does it happen mostly while air-drumming on the steering wheel? Do you have steering wheel controls?

j/k... likely a short in either the HU controls or the steering wheel controls... either way, the dealer should be able to fix/replace it.

 

[Viking]

Thanks, I was meaning to take it in for the driver's window TSBs anyway (it clunks and the auto down doesn't work when it is hot), so this will give me a good opportunity to do that.

 

[mz3frs]

Steering wheel controls only let you change to presets, not scroll through all frequencies; so I doubt they are involved.

Def odd. Not something I've experienced. Good luck

 

[nightridermz3]

the only thing i can think of is it just automatically "stuck" on scan. otherwise it's probably caput.

 

[BCZoomZoom]

[quote author=MZ3FRS link=topic=72399.msg1277853#msg1277853 date=1174361807]
Steering wheel controls only let you change to presets, not scroll through all frequencies; so I doubt they are involved.

Def odd. Not something I've experienced. Good luck
[/quote]

Damn, there goes my air drumming theory.

 

[Viking]

They just wanted to replace the radio, I bet the dealer makes a huge amount of money replacing the radio under warranty. They said, well, we can't replicate it, but we will be nice and do it anyway. That is fine and all, but they didn't fix my drivers window that stops halfway down in auto-down mode when hot (a well known problem) because they "couldn't replicate the problem" Why would they replace a $500 radio (estimate) without being able to replicate the problem and it isn't even common one, but they won't replace a $50 window switch? Bastards... now I will have to take it in this summer when it is hot again so they can replicate the window switch problem. I will just keep taking it in until I annoy them enough to fix it.

The funny thing is, I don't even think the radio was faulty, I think it might be a flaky manual tune knob, I turned it a couple times and it hasn't changed frequencies since (new radio doesn't go in until today).

 

[geewhizbang]

The radio is more like $100. They may charge quite a bit more for it as a replacement part, but most of that amount the ususal rather plush margins dealers get on replacement parts.

The auto companies make about $800-2000 on a most bread & butter cars, and make much more over the years from selling replacment parts.

The manual tune knob is part of the new radio, so that should fix the problem. Modern electronics are easer to replace than they are to fix.

 

[Viking]

My point was that I imagine that it is lucrative for the dealer to replace the radio under warranty, but not for them to replace the window switch, so they were "nice" to me by replacing it without replicating the problem. They just wanted to fill their pocket books, and weren't being nice to anyone but themselves. If they were being nice, they would have replaced the window switch too.

I bet if you called and got the retail price for the radio it would be closer to $300 to $500. Dealer price is probably half of that. Those custom radios aren't cheap as they aren't mass produced in the same quantities as aftermarket stereos.

 

[geewhizbang]

I would think that providing an entire car model line with OEM equipment would actually be a larger production volume than the same model at retail. Most cars already have stereos anyway these days, they last at least several years on average, and any retail model has to compete with fifty other companies for shelf space, so the production volumes on a retail model would usually be less than an OEM model.

In addition, I suspect that all of Mazda's cars use almost the same radios, for even more prodution volumes.