my radio has been buggin the crap out of me lately. all of a sudden my driverside door speaker would go out for alittle then it comes back on. i thought it was the speaker but then the other side of the truck would start doing the same thing. so i would smack the bottom of the radio by were the speaker balancer **** is and it would come back on sometimes... ok so its got to be the radio. i wanted a new one anyway so i put a new one in and its still doing it? so what the hell? is it a harness issue or something to do with the stupid infinity system thats in it?


also my truck has the steering wheel buttons. is there any way to hook them up to my new head unit?

its a 2001 and a sony head unit

 

Sounds like the connectors on the harness is on it's way out. and as far as the steering wheel button's there is a way to do it but i dont remember how. sorry i cant be of more help

 

For a replacement radio to make use of the steering wheel buttons, you almost have to get an AM deck that supports it. Now, I want to say Miami's deck didn't support it, but he has it working. Been too long since I've actually looked at his system.

From what I understand in your post, several things could be happening here, but I'm only going to touch base on the top few.

1. You have a loose connection at the back of the deck. Easy to check an fix. Just pull the deck out and have a look see. It's also possible that if you've been moving the deck, or you have been behind the dash working on something, that you jarred a wire loose out of a connection. That's another easy thing to check as you can isolate the wires and use a multimeter to check the issue.

2. The Circuit board on the deck is going out. Yes, it happens a lot and there is nothing you can do with out swapping decks. Either going to an AM or swapping factory decks. The 2nd generation ram radio circuitry was finicky to begin with, and once you add in years of age, dust, moisture and other contaiminents, it's just a matter of time before they quit. Usually the volume will change on its own or you'll notice that the volume control and other buttons aren't reacting to your input. Although that's the common symptoms, I've still heard of the channels cutting out like you have described.

3. The internal amplifier on the deck has a channel that's going out. Some try to replace this, and while it is possible, I consider it to be both a waste of time and money. Consider that you can go buy a brand new deck and pay to have it installed and you'd go home with more money in your pocket that if you had bought a new amp. Now, you can go to a junk yard and pull the same deck you have and even swap internals, but why do it when a $100 bill will get you one hell of a deck that does more than that stocker ever thought about doing.


On to brands.

While others here (Miami....) wont like this, I'm going to say it anyways. Stay away from Sony, Awia, Dual, and JVC for head units. When I talk to people that are having audio issues, I can usually trace their problems back to the deck. Those brands are notorious for using cheap parts and over time they tend to fail. Personally, I use Pioneer in my truck for a Head unit and have no issues since I installed it.


Ok, so now we're going to get to the real issue at hand. You've installed the new deck and it still isn't working correctly.

Just as the factory decks were weak, so was the little external amps that were found on the infinity system. I would think that if you wired around them, you might find your problems go away. Again, a multimeter will be your best friend through this mess.

 

its def got to be in the harness or something. i guess ill just have to play with it one day when i get time. since its doing it on two radios....

and i went with a sony because my mother works there so discount is hard to pass up lol... i got a 200 dollar head unit for 110