Radio no longer works

[AvocadosGuac]

Hey Guys,

Started up my TJ yesterday, only to find out, the Radio isn't working. I've checked the fuse behind the glove-box, its fine, I replaced it for good measure, and i tested all the fuses in the engine bay. I know the radio has power, because the light on the buttons work when I turn my headlights on. No time, nothing. When i started it the other day it sounded like the rear two speakers crackled, not loud, just on. I haven't done any other testing, but everything else in the jeep works, including the 12v cigarette lighter, wipers, blower motor, dash lights, horn... The only thing not working is the radio.

I'm thinking that the radio blew a capacitor inside as it is 21 years old, but if anyone else has seen an issue like this, any insight is appreciated.

Thanks

 

[AvocadosGuac]

Update:
I took apart the radio, no blown caps and no broken solders. Not even dusty...

Leading me to believe i have a f**d up wiring issue... Damn it.

 

[Chris]

Has the radio ever worked at all since you've owned it?

It's possible the head unit itself has gone bad. Definitely not the most common thing, but everything fails in time, so it stands to reason that with it's age, the electronics inside it have gone bad.

 

[Jerry Bransford]

Update:
I took apart the radio, no blown caps and no broken solders. Not even dusty...

Leading me to believe i have a f**d up wiring issue... Damn it.

It's very easy with a 12 volt test light or multi-meter to tell if your radio is getting power or not. Though I dunno how you can look at a capacitor and tell if it's bad or not.

 

[AvocadosGuac]

It's very easy with a 12 volt test light or multi-meter to tell if your radio is getting power or not. Though I dunno how you can look at a capacitor and tell if it's bad or not.

Its actually pretty simple, if a cap has expanded, or is leaking anything, it needs to be replaced. Hard to describe, but if you look on google images for bad capacitor there's plenty of them there.

Has the radio ever worked at all since you've owned it?

It's possible the head unit itself has gone bad. Definitely not the most common thing, but everything fails in time, so it stands to reason that with it's age, the electronics inside it have gone bad.

The radio worked when I first bought it.

And it works now... Not sure why, but just disconnecting it and reconnecting it didn't work, only worked until i actually opened it up, put it back together and tested. Oh i forgot to mention i hit it a couple times with the palm of my hand. If it works till i get paid on Friday, it works, if it stops, guess i'm gonna buy a new radio.

Thanks for your help guys

 

[toximus]

Though I dunno how you can look at a capacitor and tell if it's bad or not.

I've seen a few bad ones in my day.

 

[AvocadosGuac]

I've seen a few bad ones in my day.

I work in IT so I see them all the time coming in on old PC's

 

[schmoupe]

I have a stock headunit out of a 2005 TJR for sale here:

https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/stock-sound-equipment-fs.11675/

 

[cliffish]

people still want a factory head unit? I guess maybe i should not have tossed mine?

 

[Jerry Bransford]

Its actually pretty simple, if a cap has expanded, or is leaking anything, it needs to be replaced. Hard to describe, but if you look on google images for bad capacitor there's plenty of them there.

I spent nearly 50 years in the technical side of the electronics industry, many of those as a technician, field engineer, regional support engineer, etc. and have troubleshot everything from AIr Force transmitters & receivers to large scale mainframe computers & super computers... usually down to the component level. While SOME capacitors will blow and leave visible evidence they're blown, that's a small percentage of them. Most go bad without any outside visible evidence. "Looking" for visibly bad capacitors is not going to find them most of the time unless you have Superman eyes & can see its internal condition. If I had a dollar for every bad capacitor I have replaced I'd probably be several hundred dollars richer.

 

[Rob5589]

As long as the wiring is good, buy a new deck. That thing is 20+ years old and new ones with plenty of modern features are available for 100 bucks or less.

 

[Brian J Theriault]

people still want a factory head unit? I guess maybe i should not have tossed mine?

If you need a factory head unit, I just changed mine in my 05 just because I wanted one with Bluetooth. It always worked fine, as a matter of fact as good a sound as my new Clarion.Let me know if interested.

 

[AvocadosGuac]

I spent nearly 50 years in the technical side of the electronics industry, many of those as a technician, field engineer, regional support engineer, etc. and have troubleshot everything from AIr Force transmitters & receivers to large scale mainframe computers & super computers... usually down to the component level. While SOME capacitors will blow and leave visible evidence they're blown, that's a small percentage of them. Most go bad without any outside visible evidence. "Looking" for visibly bad capacitors is not going to find them most of the time unless you have Superman eyes & can see its internal condition. If I had a dollar for every bad capacitor I have replaced I'd probably be several hundred dollars richer.

I haven't replaced nearly as many caps as you, so ill take your word on it. Most of the ones I've seen come from the 2005 era where the company all the motherboard manufactures use, started producing shitty caps. I would have a PC come in that randomly stopped working only to find like 6-10 popped caps. Replace em and the system would work better than factory