Radio display problems

[Alchemist]

Anyone having display or other problems with their radio?

I have the standard radio/6 CD player that comes with the Limited. Intermittently the letters in the display are not displayed correctly...sometimes what should be individual letters in the display are all black or mostly black rectangles. This usually happens when I am going home from work, so maybe it is a heat problem since the car gets pretty warm sitting in the sun all day. Turning the radio on and off does not help, but it does reset if I turn the car off and back on.

Since the radio/CD still worked ok, I viewed this as an annoyance until recently I had another problem....none of the push buttons (including the on/off button) would work. I could increase and decrease the volume by turning the volume knob, but everything else seemed dead. I started randomly pushing all buttons. Finally one of them (track button, I think) caused the display to reappear normally and the buttons worked again.

Any ideas? Yes, I am going to go the dealer, but haven't had time to get there yet.

[Moderator Note: The following TSB was released by Toyota on January 25, 2007 http://rav4world.com/tsb/2007/AU001-07.pdf ]

[Janos]

No answers but I would take a pic when it happens so if it doesn't when you get to the dealer he won't look at you like you're crazy.

[SeriousBlack]

no problems here, let us know what the dealer says.

[Alchemist]

Originally Posted by Janos

No answers but I would take a pic when it happens so if it doesn't when you get to the dealer he won't look at you like you're crazy.

That is a good idea! Thanks for the suggestion.

[Janos]

yw...good luck .... keep us posted

[inlets]

Originally Posted by Alchemist

This usually happens when I am going home from work, so maybe it is a heat problem since the car gets pretty warm sitting in the sun all day.

I have had the same problem on a car I had a few years ago, and it was the extreame temps, that caused the problem. Also the problem occured in sub-zero temps as well. The problem never effected the operation of the radio though. As soon as the cabin reached a respectable temp the problem went away. As I recall at that time there was no dealer fix for the problem. Today I'm sure they'll just change out the radio.

>>I could increase and decrease the volume by turning
>>the volume knob, but everything else seemed dead.

I have had my RAV4 for ~ 10days now and have the JBL stereo. A few days ago, I discovered that the volume control would not work. This was while driving home from work. Next morning everything seemed to be OK. Later that day, saw the same problem!. I could turn the stereo on and off and adjust the treble/mid/bas, but no volume.

Sounds like a faulty rotary encoder on the volume control and am quite surprised given that I previously had a 96 RAV4 for 10 years with no problems whatsoever

- CalKiwi

I have the same problem. When I tap on the screen it starts
working again, must be a loose conection.

[flyingn]

def a warranty issue. Take it back and get dealer to replace whole radio

I have the same problem as the OP, plus occassionally the screen fails to display anything at all.

Its intermittant and, as suggested above, a tap on the screen usually fixes the problem.

I can live with it until the first scheduled service.

Excuse the crappy quality of the camera phone picture...