Expert: Cleggsan - 12/11/2008

Question
I have a 2000 Cadillac Catera I bought in September. I noticed that some times when driving the radio will randomly go off and after a few minutes it will come back on. Also sometimes if you open the driver or passenger front doors with the radio on and the car running, it will shut off. when this happens and you flip the headlights or foglights switch, it will sometimes turn back on. My question is do i need a new radio? or is it a wiring problem? Please help its geting annoying

Answer
This is a wiring problem within the car wiring system. It may be a loose connection or a short between the alerting system and the radio wiring or some such thing.

A good radio shop may be able to track it down; in the worst case a Cadillac dealer that has a radio expert on staff (some do, some don't) may be needed.

Just replacing the radio unit will probably not fix it - but you could try.

Does the radio go off when it is playing quite loud? If so, it points to a shorted condition with one of the speaker wires to something else in the wiring system.  That may help in tracking it down.


C