Radio turning on randomly

beanie

beanie

Active member
 Bournemouth/Turin
I went for a drive recently and without doing anything, the radio randomly turned itself on. I switched it off and a few minutes later it happened again.

Each time this happened, and just before hearing the radio, I noticed the NAV booting up, exactly like when you switch the ignition to pos.2. It was as if the car ‘electronically restarted’, thankfully nothing else was affected.

I haven’t found much info on this but some suggestions have been either that the alternator is in its way out or the ignition switch is failing.

For context, the car has 83k, nothing has ever been replaced, modified or fiddled with from an electronic point of view. The battery is ‘fairly recent’ and due to where I now park, the battery is disconnected between drives so I’m not expecting it to be the issue here. That said, next time I will check its charge and the alternator output as a start of getting to the bottom of this.

Any thoughts or experience with this?
 
I would have thought if it was ignition related you would have seen odd things on the instruments as well?
Could possibly be a dodgy power connector to the radio?
 
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enuff_zed said:
I would have thought if it was ignition related you would have seen odd things on the instruments as well?
Could possibly be a dodgy power connector to the radio?
Click to expand...

That would make sense regarding the ignition, so far nothing else seems ‘off’.

As for the connector, could be, though with the nav powering on at the same time perhaps it’s on that end of things? I’ve no idea with anything electrical so I’m praying it’s the ghost of NA M cars expressing its displeasure at the state of the modern stuff.
 
Check the electrical connections at the amplifier, near the battery in the trunk. I had to replace the amplifier, due to moisture from leaky convertible top that caused corrosion. My radio would turn on and off erratically, due to the amplifier being damaged by corrosion.
 
BMW Spartanburg SC said:
Check the electrical connections at the amplifier, near the battery in the trunk. I had to replace the amplifier, due to moisture from leaky convertible top that caused corrosion. My radio would turn on and off erratically, due to the amplifier being damaged by corrosion.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I’ll give it a look, though being a coupe it shouldn’t be getting damp in there.
 
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