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Flicking backup camera / radio won't save previous station (opens on static)

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adiggs

Well-Known Member
Sep 25, 2012
6,423
24,529
Portland, OR
Good morning all,

We're seeing a couple of issues with our Roadster that has both us and Service stumped - wondering if anybody else has seen these and have any ideas. We have an early 2.5 Sport with an Alpine head unit.

First issue - the back up camera flickers, sometimes badly, sometimes blanking out, while we're backing up. It seems pretty stable if the road is smooth, but flickers when we hit bumps in the driveway, or the transition from the driveway to the road. The more the bump, the bigger the flicker. Without being scientific about it, it seemed worse over the winter when it was cold and wet (Oregon weather), and seems better now that the weather is drying out and warming up (I could be entirely wrong about that).

The second issue - the radio won't remember the last station when we turn the car on, nor will it reset to one of the preset stations when the car is turned on. It does remember which collection of channels were selected (AM/FM / HD), but on FM, it resets to 87.7 and static each time we turn the car on.


Wondering if anybody has seen either issue, and have ideas / suggestions about to fix that.

Thanks!
 
Definitely a connection issue - warm weather will expand the connectors making them tighter so you have less flickering over bumps. Have the car stopped with the backup camera on and tap on it to see if it flickers. If it does, it's the connector to the camera, if not it's to the head unit. The head unit itself seems to have a problem with the radio memory so perhaps a bad memory card. How about remembering your audio settings (ie bass level, etc.)? Those should be gone too after you set it.
 
Definitely a connection issue - warm weather will expand the connectors making them tighter so you have less flickering over bumps. Have the car stopped with the backup camera on and tap on it to see if it flickers. If it does, it's the connector to the camera, if not it's to the head unit. The head unit itself seems to have a problem with the radio memory so perhaps a bad memory card. How about remembering your audio settings (ie bass level, etc.)? Those should be gone too after you set it.

I'll have to check, but pretty sure that other audio settings are remembered. It at least remembers the last audio input source.

Thanks for the suggestion of how to test it augkuo - that makes sense.
 
I had a similar radio problem on my roadster. It stumped the service guys for weeks requiring the car to go in multiple times. They tried changing the head unit, the XM Radio unit and a variety of other things but in the end it was a simple wiring problem. Basically the radio requires a connection to a battery at all times in order to remember the stations. The radio connection on the radio was incorrectly connected to the wrong terminal so whenever the car went to sleep the stations were lost. If I parked and immediately drove the car again the last station would be remembered which initially made it seem random. My car is a 1.5 Roadster that had been upgraded to the Alpine Double Din and the wiring error was made when the upgrade was done.
 
That's very helpful insight 'roadster340 - thank you!

No fix yet for either the radio issue or the flickering backup camera. I've even see it go completely black (with the overlay!) and stay that way until I bumped over something that would flicker it back in :) I've also been busy with work and travel the last month+ and haven't gotten back to this. Time to get back to the paint chip and the backup camera / radio issues.