Light on clock radio

Depending on the model of the radio, the typical suspect is a bad solder connection. I have repaired hundreds of radios for this problem. On Chrysler radios there are one or three places to look. On Ford radios, there are over eighty places to look, and repeat failures are real common. With the Chrysler radios, once repaired, they are repaired for life.

The bad solder connections are inside the radio and have nothing to do with anything else. My specialty was working on 1990's Chrysler radios. You should have the newer-style radio with rounded corners on the face plate. I never had to repair one of those for the intermittent display problem, but I assume they develop the same problem because they use the same circuit boards and manufacturing techniques.

The exception is if you have some type of back-up camera that is used with the much larger radio displays. I do not think those were around yet in 2004. With those, an electrical problem could signal the display to turn off at inappropriate times.

Bad solder connections due to automated manufacturing techniques. This was common on TV's too throughout the 1980's and 1990's. Once the connections are re-soldered by hand, they rarely cause a problem again after that.

Radio needs to be removed from dashboard, disassembled, and certain connections inside need to be repaired, "re-soldered".

This is not a fuse problem. When a fuse blows, it never works again after that. This is most likely bad solder connections, as I've said repeatedly. This is a very common type of repair that is done in tv repair shops, but the industry has put most of them out of business. Even if you can find a tv repair shop, the people there will have little or no experience working on car radios.

Remember, I'm assuming this is bad solder connections based on your description of the symptoms. I've repaired hundreds of Chrysler radios for the dealership I used to work for, then, another two dozen dealers in my state through word-of-mouth advertising. I saved their customers a lot of money because I charged much less than the regular repair shops. I left the dealership in '99, and continued to fix their radios for another eight years. I've worked on a few 2003 and newer models, but none yet for intermittent display. If you pull your radio out, there will be a sticker on the top, with a model and "supplier" number. If you tell me those numbers, I can look at a radio I have to see if it's likely to have the same connection problems.

If you visit the parts department at any Chrysler dealership, they can send your radio in for repair or they can provide you with the name of the shops they use. There are only three in the nation that are authorized for warranty repairs. One is United Radio in Syracuse, NY. Another is Instrument Sales and Service. One of their locations is in Kent, WA. The other is Downtown Radio of Denver. I was a guest of the former owner of Downtown Radio back in 1999. Had a real good time there. I bought hundreds of radio service manuals, and all my replacement parts from them.

There are also smaller shops all over the country that dealers send their out-of-warranty radios to.

One thing to keep in mind is these solder connection problems occur due to automated manufacturing techniques. At the smaller repair shops, the people usually locate those bad connections, then resolder them by hand, just like we do on tvs. Those connections repaired that way will never cause a problem again after that.

At the larger repair companies, they don't have time to diagnose each radio individually. At Downtown Radio, they ship out enough radios each day to fill two small UPS trailers. To keep up, they just replace an entire circuit board, then throw the old one away. Every repaired radio gets a new faceplate too. The problem is the replacement boards were manufactured the same way, so it stands to reason they will develop the same problems in a few years. This is an even bigger problem with Ford radios. I always told dealers I was gong to keep their radios for two weeks to play on my test bench. About 90 percent acted up again within the first week. I have the same three circuit boards those guys replace, but if I were to sell them to someone, I know they will also develop the intermittent display in a few years. The better repair is to find the bad connections and fix them.

The problem will not spread and will be safe to drive

If my diagnosis is correct, this has nothing to do with anything else in the car. As I mentioned previously, this is much more common with Ford radios, and out of frustration, many owners of those vehicles just put up with it. If you have the radio model I'm thinking of, you're going to have the inconvenience of no clock and not knowing which radio station is selected. Sound and other functions won't be affected.

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Best, Ken