Loss off power to radio and climate control.

What the hell. This just happened to me last week. Started the car and no power to radio or HVAC. Drove 10 minutes to gym and stayed off the whole time. Came back out from gym and it worked as usual and has now since for a week. Car has 77k miles and I've had it 4 years and this is the first time it has happened. I'll go back and read over this thread for resolution.

EDIT: Bizarre how so many have happened in Colorado - every other complaint of this is a CO guy.

John - try to check the fuse panel (the one in the engine bay, not the one by the driver's left foot). That's what mine was. Blown fuse.

I'll check when I get home which one it was exactly. I'll let you know.

Oh, well then if it started working again, it's not the fuse. But anyways, my issue was the fuse. I just checked and it was the 20 amp (yellow) labeled "Back Up" which is in the front center when standing directly in front of the car.

I replaced the fuse, then it popped again about a week later, then replaced it again, and now haven't had any problems in 5 months (knocks on wood).

Bump...

So mine died today. Radio has the jazzy mod installed. CD player skipped when I bought it, skipped every 5-10 minutes. Got to skipping every 2-3 minutes, and was pretty much unusable. Couldn't listen to one song in full before it skips, and you have to change disk to get it to start over and work.

Well, today I get in the car and nothing. No a/c, no defrost, no radio. All dead. Try key off/on a few times, try pushing every button, etc, nothing.

I have the old stereo still that worked when I removed it (though it had a channel going out). I began removing the old one, and reseated each connection one at a time, testing to see if it would turn on. I had 6 of my CD's in it.... Nothing.

Tried unplugging it completely, and re-plugging. Nothing. Shaking it, nothing. Hitting it, nothing. Started taking it apart. At one point I had the metal covers off, exposing the circuit boards. I'm holding the radio by the face, and my other hand touching the exposed circuit boards, and it comes alive. Wiggled all the wires, connections, nothing seemed to do anything. Now that it's working, I can't get it to fail. I start dissecting it to see what's removable (possibly going to mod the thing to install an aftermarket stereo).

long story short, at some point I'm reassembling it after removing the CD player and it doesn't work, does nothing. I figure it must need that plugged in to work. So I reinstall it and sure enough, it works. But then it dies again. Hmmm....

Turns out, the connection between the stereo and the faceplate was the problem. I removed the CD player again (after getting all my cd's out of it) and the radio and a/c still work fine without the cd player.

I identified 2 plugs that must be plugged into the stereo assembly for the climate control to function, the rest are only for the stereo it seems.

From what I gather, modding it to install an aftermarket stereo is going to be a 10 on a 1-10 difficulty scale. Going to look at it again, but it looks like it's going to suck big time, and I could see it not working when I got done...

^^ Check the thread in Audio here for your query on replacing the stock head unit: http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/05-legacy-audio-faq-compiled-board-12608.html

GL fabbing those new PCB's...

I have a 2007 legacy 2.5i, I dont have the same problem but close. As soon as it started to get cold out my cars radio would lose the presets and spit the cd out when you started the car in the morning after it sat in the cold all night, and then sometimes when you started the car the radio would just come on quick and turn back off but also lose the presets and spit the cd out. I noticed the car turns over harder but I figured it is just because it is colder. I cleaned the corrosion off from the battery posts and wires and put a little vaseline on the posts but the problem still happens. I was just wondering if maybe my cars issue is caused by the same thing causeing the radio/hvac issue.

If you are still on the original battery, it might be time for a new one. It might explain you losing your presets (not sure about the cd spitting out though). If you don't have the means to test the battery yourself, I believe the auto parts stores can test it for you.

Sorry for not replying in forever! I replaced the battery and everything has been working fine. I am keeping my fingers crossed for this winter as well.

bump....just happened to me this morning.

on my morning commute I stopped for gas... had turned the engine off and left the radio on while pumping gas.

got back in, turned the car on and my radio/climate controls/time display are dark. No control over them. When I turn the igntion to acc1 i get the radio and time, and when I turn it to acc2 i get the radio and climate control. But as soon as I turn the engine on it goes dark, nothing.

this has happened before, but when I turn the car off/back on i'd get it back. this time not so lucky.

I'm running an aftermarket XM unit in the cubby that's hardwired into the system so it comes on when the car does. it too is not functioning when the engine is on.

After a minute or two of the engine running I get an: "Acc" code in the time display area.\

UPDATE: went out for an errand. sitting at a traffic light I heard a "click" from under my dash and everything came back on. only think i did before that happen was mess with my stereo buttons. i was able to eject and load a cd back in. and then within a minute everything came back on.

Add me to the list. Came out to my car after work, started it up and no display on either the radio or AC. Press the radio preset, bam everything came back on. Started driving and after about a mile the radio cut out completely and the radio display started flashing VOL00 while the HVAC display was flashing on and off as well. Fresh battery (which I replaced because of this and an erratic air bag light) which seems to have solved the airbag light, but no such luck on the radio/hvac. Ill try giving SOA a call tomorrow since Im out of warranty. Not a good first impressions for a first time Subaru owner either way.

Dan

any update on out of warranty coverage by SOA?

Seconded, anyone get a response?

This just happened for the first time today. My wife was driving the car for work. After her last start today the HVAC/radio lights were out. When I pushed the (face plate) spot between the fan controls and the readout the lights came back on, and stayed on.

Forester clock anyone?

Looks like this is the culprit...

http://www.justanswer.com/subaru/5bcyf-climate-control-radio-display-flickering.html

It's happened several times to me. I usually just slap the side of the dash and it comes back on.

+1.

07 Legacy Radio Malfunction.

Haven't it it shut off. The buttons quite working but the steering wheel controls work.

Also have been burning through upstream 02 sensors.

Been having issues on and off but it has started happening a bit more frequently now. I'm third owner and I emailed SOA if they would good will the issue but the rep told me to schedule it to be looked at when I schedule my brake line recall work and that they cannot guarantee a goodwill gesture. I don't want to pay out of pocket to diagnose an issue that we know is prevalent in our vehicles...

If my thinking is right, the rep is saying don't expect us to fix it for free once we (re)discover that it is the face plate, no charge for the "looking into it." Still lame.

Mine flashes quite a bit now, especially because the damn controls are so low...you fumble a bit...then sputtering ensues. As I said before the bad connection must be near the fan controls, because every time the flicker happens I just put a little pressure above the fan up/down (on the plate) and the flickering stops.

Have you made sure the battery terminals are clean and tight.

This is the first time I have seen this thread.

Back in the Fall of 2004 when I was doing my Fall/Winter car prep, one item I do is clean the battery terminals. I was surprised to find them loose.

Prior to that, from time to time the radio or HVAC system would act funny. Once I tighten the terminals, the issue went away.