Radio losing presets

Wierd thing happened today....searched found nothing.

 

I have no mods done to my car inside or out as of yet....

 

I drove the car Sunday morning...parked for the day around 11am...snowy and cold....very cold last nite.

 

This morning I warmed up my car as usual....no low battery not problems whatsoever...

 

Headed down the road...hit the presets and all channels on FM1 and FM2 were identical...87.9...

 

Had to reset them all.....any idea how that happened?

Dying battery? Cold weather makes them work less efficiently... voltage drops... radio forgets presets.

I was thinking the same thing except it didn't seem like the battery reacted any differently this morning than it has any morning...no slow crank nothing like that...

I remember a thread about this.. are there 4th generation 'archived' threads? Anyway.. had to do with remote start and/or cold weather?? I had an '07 OB sedan with remote start that did the same thing when I'd remote start it in the Winter. Was a 2 year lease so didn't really pursue a fix.

Happens to me a few times each winter.

 

No starting issues so not battery but radio presets are all cleared.

Happens to me with cold weather and remote starts. Dealer replaced my battery this winter and it hasn't happened since.

I have an 07 and it happens a few times a month also. I did a search for "radio" and looked under every post. This is a common problem and it seems the only way to fix it, is a new radio or battery. I can be driving my car and shut it off for a few minutes and they are gone when I start it. The battery is fine and starts the car at -10 no problems, don't think it's the battey with me. I also have no FM when the rear defroster is on!

i hate it. i tried adding a ground to the stereo with no go

Is there a small power source battery in the radio itself? The reason I ask is when the ignition is off, there's no power at the radio (unless the wiring harness delivers it directly to a part of the radio which holds presets).

The car battery provides backup-power to the radio when the ignition is off. On aftermarket radios, this is called the "memory" wire which always has battery-voltage on it (unless a fuse/circuit is blown, of course). Since you said it only happened once, the circuit is probably fine, and you simply need to replace your car battery.

 

Check the voltage of your battery with a meter... see: http://www.aa1car.com/library/battery_runs_down.htm

 

Or take it to a shop to have it properly tested.

Rise ... rise and live again ...

 

Hey carguyco, did you figure this out. Mine just started doing this for the first time ever this week. New battery?

Thanks

 

Wierd thing happened today....searched found nothing.

 

I have no mods done to my car inside or out as of yet....

 

I drove the car Sunday morning...parked for the day around 11am...snowy and cold....very cold last nite.

 

This morning I warmed up my car as usual....no low battery not problems whatsoever...

 

Headed down the road...hit the presets and all channels on FM1 and FM2 were identical...87.9...

 

Had to reset them all.....any idea how that happened?

Ever since the temp has been above 35 degrees no issues. We will see what happens when the weather drops in Chicago. I think it's temp related meaning the battery volts is dropping along with the temp and good bye pre-sets.

I did a little more searching and it seems most likely a battery issue. I just got a new duralast gold battery today. I'll post my results in a couple of weeks as we head into the cold of winter.

Hanslo

My 07 LGT started doing this now too.

 

It first started when I started using the remote start last week (hadn't used it since last winter). However, I've had it happen even without using the remote start now. This morning I turned the key to accessory, made sure the radio was OK then turned it on and when the car started the radio didn't. It had lost the settings. It doesn't happen every time and I haven't really figured out any pattern. It seems to happen more often if the car has been off for a long time (over night), but I'm mainly commuting so that's pretty much the only condition that it has been tested in.

 

I've had no sign of a weak battery, but it is 4 years old now. Temperatures have been a little below freezing this week.

The battery may appear to start the car just fine, but the factory battery has a severe voltage drop when starting.(mine was as low as 9.5 volts) I added SEVERAL 6ga grounds in the engine bay, main battery ground was changed to 2/0ga, upsized the battery to starter cable to a 2/0 ga cable and even upsized the cables that fed the fuse blocks to 6ga with no change. I put a different battery in with 550 CCA (factory is only 430) and have not had a problem since. This was three years ago.

 

Cliff notes - Factory battery is junk. Replace with larger aftermarket battery. Problem solved.

 

/thread

I meant to post back. I also had no sign whatsoever that my battery was failing but after researching these symptoms I decided to go ahead and replace the battery. Everything has been perfectly fine since.

I hooked up a battery charger in on the weekend and it told me my battery was at 66% charge. I think it was also at 10.x Volts. I left it to charge at a low amperage and a couple hours later it was at 100% (13.x Volts). I left it on over night to let it maintain it. I've only started the car a few times since but haven't had a problem with the radio.

 

I don't know why my battery was at 66% but was able to be charged to 100%. I'm going to keep an eye on it.

Thanks for the feedback Hanslo. I am having the same cold weather preset loss issue on my 07lgt.

 

It spooks me as I had this way back when I first got my 07. The car would loose presets and then after a couple of days it wouldn't start. The dealer replaced battery and still car wouldn't start after overnight sit. Long story short - that car was replaced under lemon law. Subsequently Subaru found out that the XM add on unit connection to the radio was pulling what they called "Dark Voltage" and it required replacing the radio.

 

As this lgt's battery is 4 years old now I am going to have it replaced today. I'm hoping replacing the battery will be the easy fix. I'll report back as well.

 

 

Followup:

Replaced my battery with new one..been a couple of weeks and NO lost radio presets. Local garage put in an INTERSTATE battery.

I had a weird problem yesterday... I didn't lose my presets, but when I got in my car and started it, my XM went to channel 1... I assumed I lost presets, but as soon as I pressed a button it was fine... I have been noticing slower starts in the recent cold spell... I am thinking maybe main power went too low when starting, but the memory kept enough juice to hold the presets??

 

Either way I am anticipating getting a new battery sometime this winter. I'm at 72k mi '08 (mid year '07 manufactured) LGT

Lost my presets again once more this week. I bought a new battery and will be installing it tomorrow. One thing that I realized just recently, I likely had my seat heater turned on too. I don't know if that's switched off while the car is starting or not. I turned it off the last few days and had no problems, but I also had times when it was on and had no problems.

thread revival, atroz which battery did you purchase?

 

i've been running into the same issue lately, thinking about getting myself a new battery

I went with Canadian Tire's eliminator battery.

 

I've had no more problems since installing it about 3 weeks ago.

+1 on replacing battery. Replaced the OEM with an Optima Red Top. Non-issue ever since. Kinda pricey battery but I let it sit in my '88 Monte that's getting a motor swap in a cold garage untouched for months. Put it in the Subie, fired it up.

thanks atroz, wanted something that would be reliable for cdn winters.

The one I bought has about 50% more CCA than the Subaru one. They actually have two that are the same 'Group' but the other one had the posts towards the middle of the top instead of the edge like the factory one. I was worried about whether the cables would reach the extra distance though. It had even more CCA and was only another $5 or so.