Having a real issue with my radio in my 2010 Ram Sport . About 20% of the time my AM/FM doesn't work. I can switch to both and the radio displays the stations but there no sound and the frequency can't be changed. The SAT, HD and CD work, usually. Sometimes I am listening to the radio and it disappears and other times if I switch to AM/FM they are gone. The dealership has replaced the radio 4 times and the amplifier once. I have taken it in when the radio wasnt working but they said there wer no "codes" when they ran a test.
The radio may start working if I shut the vehicle off and start it again but sometimes it may last a couple of trips. Two radios ago my SAT, HD and CD wouldnt work.
Any ideas, the dealership has given up??

dmbcdn

 

See if one of the sales managers (those who have loaners) will swap vehicles with you for a couple days. Intermittent problems can be a PITA to find and when the dealership can't dupe the problem in their shop then the logical assumption is that the customer is nuts. We had to do this about 20 years ago with a new Ford Country Squire stn. wagon. You'd be sitting at a light and it would just die, and it did it about 50% of the time. The dealership never could get it to happen & it was back in the day before they had OBDII codes to look at. As a gesture of customer goodwill the sales Mgr took our car for a couple days & we took his demo. He called us the next morning, said he didn't even make it in to work because the engine died. Turned out to be a bad fuel pump, which at the time Ford was mounting them inside the fuel tank.

 

I have dropped in when it wasnt working and they scanned it for errors but found nothing. One of the many times i left it for the day it did shut off for them but they don't have any answers....

 

Them not having answers is just total BS...and I'd tell them to give me a loaner and keep it until it's fixed. Sounds like it's not the radio and it's time for them to inspect the wiring and FURTHER investigate not replace the radio and scan the computer and call it good. Try another dealer if there is one in a reasonable distance. Keep fighting w/ them that's unacceptable. If it's doing it intermittently then it's possibly shorting out somewhere, chaffed wiring, i doubt it but you never know...

Sorry but I'd lose my effin mind if I heard an answer from the dealer like that after the 3rd radio was replaced, clearly it's not the radio...

 

This is the problem with the techs at the dealerships, if they dont have the scantool telling them what the problem is...They are completely clueless. What happened to actual mechanics who diagnose problems without the use of handheld units?
This is a sign of laziness on the Techs part because they are all afraid to go searching and possibly find nothing and then they worked for free. Well, isn't that just too bad. I hate dealerships for this exact reason. last time i was in I had to tell them what the problem was. they didn;t believe me until they threw $1k at the problem and it didnt get fixed, so they decided to listen to me...i was right and they knew it. (cluster went bad and they said it was the tipm)

 

I feel ya, man.... that ethanol question you responded to of mine?dealership kept saying "could not duplicate" (three times!) even when i pointed out little things like the smoke from the exhaust wasnt black, it was white... or it only does it at highway speeds, etc.... it wasnt throwing any codes. I was a helicopter tech for uncle sam, and "could not duplicate" was what we used when we didnt want to F*** with something, lol...

 

The dealership said they had a "level 4" tech working on it and they were consulting with Chrysler Tech several times, still didnt solve the problem. Emailed Chrysler and they said to go back to the dealership. I am going back in tomorrow, will let you know how I make out.....

 

and thank you for replying, this is really frustrating, I love the truck but something as irratating as a radio not working really puts a cloud on all that is good.

 

Don't you have a Catback for "tunes" in the meantime?...lol
I'll drive around with the radio off about 1/2 the time to just listen to the engine/exhaust. But then again, I rarely drive my truck so if it was an everyday thing, it'd get old quick.
I'd assume they checked all the antenna wiring...etc

The only other thing I can think of is an amplifier problem. Whether or not the amps are seeing an input signal with AM/FM and/or shutting down due to current overload. AM/FM is a crappier signal and can cause amps to 'clip' much sooner than CD/HD/MP3 signals. Clipping can cause amplifiers to go into protection mode. If there is a bad internal capacitor on the amp, it will cause it do this more frequently. I'd see if they can replace the amp.

 

the amplifier was the last thing they replaced, going to dealership Monday morning....