Intermittent Stereo.!!

[nick275uk]

I've had a small problem which has persisted since I've owned my Chim - 2 months.....

When I start the car, the stereo works fine. I can drive over as many pot holes as I like, but when the car has warmed up, any small undulation in the road surface renders my stereo temorarily dead.

It then springs back to life (sometimes) if I accelerate hard or hit another bump in the road or just on it's own - sometimes it dies completely.

If I pull over and swith the ignition off and back on again, the stereo bursts into life straight away - maybe for the duration of my journey, or until I hit a bump - depends on the mood of my Chim I suppose.

Any clues as to what's going on, and how maybe I can sort it out.

PS. Also my nearside headlight sometimes just remains dipped when turned on to main - only happened a couple of times in two months - bit of a lottery. Again, any ideas.??

Thanks.

[GreenV8S]

My V8S did that when I got it. Turned out that the stereo earth wasn't connected, but it happened to be earthed most of the time via the case sitting on an earthed mesh covering the top of the transmission tunnel. Sometimes when I went over a bump it would be enough to stop it working. Curiously it always used to come back to life if I switched it off and on, I guess the act of clicking the switch moved the stereo enough to get it to earth again.

[Timmon]

I had this exact problem with my Chim and its damn annoying. I got the dealer to have a look at it and it turned out that the wiring in the actual stereo itself needed looking at.

The dealer sent it away to be fixed free of charge and all was dandy after that! I did have a dirty great hole in my dash for about 8 weeks though! Hope this helps. Tim

[nick275uk]

I had this problem with the factory fitted Pioneer stereo, and replaced it with a new Pioneer model, and the same thing is happening.

In fact on Monday I drove to Birmingham from Cardiff and the stereo lasted intil just after newport - on the way back it lasted practically all the way back home - approx 1 mile from home on a 135 mile return trip.

It seemed like the first pothole I drove over (not to many of these on the motorway) it cut out.

Maybe a loose fuse on the live connection to the stereo moving / live feed from the battery loose / earth connection.??

I'm still trying to find the bloody culprit.

To get it working again, I put my foot on the clutch, switch off the ignition, then turn it back on again - probably not a good idea at 60mph but it works.!!!

I love my TIV's little foibles.........

>> Edited by nick275uk on Thursday 11th November 18:30

[david beer]

Does the sound die or does the whole unit go off, ie no indicator illumination ? Also does it loose its memory during this "off" if its the latter.

[nick275uk]

The power goes, and the stereo makes the beep beep beep noise as if I've turned off the ignition to remind me to remove the head unit.

It doesn't lose it's memory though.

Help.............

[david beer]

If it can "beep" its still got its "back up" supply so its loosing its "acc" supply which in all other cars would not be "ignition" supply! Its most unlikely though and would sound like an internal fault or the front contacts. You could link the wiring so it does not need the ignition supply to test this, but it would mean you would have to turn it off each time, if it were a "acc/ign" supply fault.
Clean the fronts contacts first, my first choice.

[millie]

I had this too, fiddled with it for ages (3 minutes) and then have never switched it on again - cant hear the engine