When I turn on my turn signal or my aux. reverse lights, my radio (cheap Clarion unit- stock speakers) dies for a couple seconds then comes back on. Any ideas?

Puzzled.

 

Sounds like the unit is hooked in the Acc. Change the power wire to direct current (battery w\fuse) this should take care of the problem.

 

Thats sounds like you are pulling to much power and the radios internal switch is shutting down and then coming back on when the current is avail. Put a DMM on the battery and use the turn signal to find out how much of a voltage drop you are getting. Typically this happens with stereos when you do not have the amount of power needed.

What all are you running on your battery? Should have atleast 12.2V off and atleast 14V on.

 

I cleaned the terminals on the battery to no avail, that had no effect. I will check the voltage on the battery as my rear power window has been slower lately and I just replaced the relays.

I have to be honest here, I can change head gaskets, rebuild starters and wire relays for lights etc, but never done anything with the CD player. I don't listen to much music while driving.

 

Well, it was the battery. It died in the parking lot of the auto parts store- how convenient. I got an AC Delco battery replacement.

EDIT: WRONG....read on (it was the alt).

 

You should play the lottery tonight LOL

 

I would suggest trying a different power suppy for the radio.

 

Well the alternator is on its way out(?) It won't charge below 1500rpm, and the e-brake + battery lights come on. The volt meter doesn't jump when revved either. I got it to briefly work by tightening the belt, after dinner I went out and started her up again and it wasn't working properly.

 

The voltage should not change when revving the engine, thats is one of the purposes of the voltage regulator. Voltage may fluctuate a little depending on the amount of current being drawn away from the battery. Like turning on the headlights.

 

I'm not starting my own thread for this because this one is nice and cozy. It's the same problem as I'm having now.

Turn signals cause the radio to go out. But when I turn the hazard lights on it doesnt. Also, when I put it into reverse the radio cuts out. (i have a manual transmission.) Is this the battery or alternator? I'd say it's not either, because both are pretty new. Battery is only about 5 months old, and the alternator was replaced about a year ago. Each is still a possibility, though. Especially if the alternator was rebuilt incorrectly.

I don't have the alternator warning lights. Was replacing the alternator the solution to your problem?

P.S. Everything was fine on the truck last night. Only thing i've touched under the hood in a few weeks has been the throttle body. Last night it drove fine. Today, the radio is cutting out.

 

Have an auto parts store check the battery. But I'm going to guess its the alternator. I'll bet you turning on your high beams will kill the radio too.

 

Possibly. But wouldnt having both hazard lights on draw more power than one turn signal, and shouldn't the radio cut out then as well?

I'll go check the lights later. I'm busy with a few other things at the moment.

 

Our trucks seem to have their share of electric gremlins. I had one associated with the turn signals: when I'd activate the turn signal, the speedometer would peg to zero instantaneously and then return to normal. But, it wouldn't do it if the lights were on, sometimes. I reseated all the electrical connectors to the speedo/gauge cluster and tightened up some grounds and the problem went away. I think what it is is that the turn signal flasher draws a lot of current when you first activate it and then less because it heats up. If there is a less than perfect ground or connection, you can see a very short voltage drop across other components like the speedo or stereo or whatever. The combo switch--particularly contacts associated with the low beams--is a known weak spot. 4crawler has some comments and good advice about the combo switch. Also, there is a known potential problem associated with a wire that goes from the battery to the under-hood fuse box. I think the wire is about 6 gauge. The problem is with a crimp connector at the fuse box end of the wire. People have blamed this crimp connector for various things including instrumentation problems. I think 4crawler may have something on this too.

The moral of all this is that even with a good battery and charging system you can have intermittent problems with electrical items. Check connectors and grounds and maybe fix that wire from the battery to the fuse box.

 

Radio does not shut off with brights on and secondary hedlights i have turned on. ill check out the wires to the fuse box. I have two open wires being run straight from the battery for a cb radio im going to install, but since its not a closed circuit that shouldnt affects it, right?

-edit-
wires are all fine going to the fuse box. Nothing is rusted or corroded.

I noticed when I leave the signal on, the radio won't stay off. it's only when the signal is first engaged. Also, I can repeatedly turn on the turn signal and the radio won't turn off. If there's a 3 second pause after I turn the signal off and I turn it back on, the radio will shut off. But not if i rapidly turn it on and off.

-edit again-
I also noticed that while I'm inserting or ejecting a CD and turn the signal on while the CD is going in/coming out, it will still power the motor to eject/retrieve the CD. So it's still getting power. Could the radio just be going bad?

 

That's the sort of behavior I was seeing with my speedo and the turn signal. I attribute it to the turn signal flasher having lower resistance when you first activate it because it has not yet warmed up. In my case, I suspected that the flasher needed to be replaced, but I couldn't easily find it. Might want to replace your flasher with a solid state device and see if that makes a difference.

 

What's a flasher? And why look for a solid state device?

 

This morning when I was halfway to work the radio also became staticy. As I parked the truck and turned it on and off, I noticed the slight buzz/static in the radio went away with the engine off. It comes back with it turned on. Bad radio?

 

so is this sounding more like a radio problem than a wiring problem? How difficult is it to remove the stereo? Where do i start? I don't want to start prying and breaking plastic.

 

Beg to differ. My 4Runner has had by far the best electricals of any vehicle I've driven in. Try owning a fuel injection-era VW. They test the patients of saints. My cousin has a 2001 Golf and the gas gauge doesn't work. The car randomly dies, then starts right back up as if nothing happened, some days its electrically dead, and the last I heard, check lights would come on, then disappear leaving no codes- the VW mechanics can't figure it out. My friend's has a Jetta and the dash is lit up like Christmas.

By far, most of our electrical faults are bad grounds and worn out brushes in the alternator.

 

if its any better... when i have my radio full blast (yes i like to play it off my iPod that loud cuz my iPod's at half volume), i can hear my blinker through my speakers, and hear it when my car goes in reverse