Radio trouble

Hi;
This subject has been addressed in this group hundreds of times in the past.
Go to Google.com and type in Explorer Radio display and you will get more
than you ever wanted to know.
Google is your friend.
HTH;
TomA

the problem is that u have a **** shoved up your ***

And ford still doesn't admit that there is a problem.

Steve

...
...

to remove unit u have 2 holes each side of radio u need a set of din pins any parts store or wall mart will have them bout 10.$ put pins in push them out each side and pull out------as far as dip. light prob has a dimmer cont on radio may b down all the way ? not sure but will b cheaper to in stall after market radio

Replace 2 Ohm and 3.3 Ohm resistors, 10 mF cap., and 100mF cap on small display board. Also resolder all leads on face plate board.

As a former Ford/Visteon audio engineer the Dual Media radio in question was actually produced by Pioneer for Visteon. The issue you describe is a known condition with the Pioneer produced for Visteon branded radios up thru the 1999 model year. There is a independant repair facility out in Washington state that does a great job fixing these and gaurentee's his work for the life of the vehicle. I can't remember the company name but the repair guys name is Trevor and the last number I have for him is 1-360-791-5336.

Good Luck

Frank

You coud find it at a Haynes or Chilton repair book in the back all types of diagrams

You need to poke the four holes that outline the radio two on each side and the radio should slide out

I had posted this email below that I received from ford quite a while ago,
but since I keep seeing this come up with people who don't realize that it
isn't an isolated incident (I gave up counting at over 50 different post on
it) that I post this again to show the deep concern that ford has with this
issue. I especially like the "This will be our last written communication to
you on this concern" part.

Steve

Dear Stephen,

Thank you for your message of 08/11/01 regarding your 1998 Ford
Explorer. We appreciate the time you have taken to write us concerning
the mach stereo system in your vehicle.

As previously communicated to you on 07/13/01, we feel that every
consideration has been given to this matter and was appropriately
addressed in our prior response. If any additional information
regarding this matter should become available in the future, we would
appreciate you letting us know. This will be our last written
communication to you on this concern.

Stephen, we encourage and welcome you to communicate with us again via
e-mail should you have a different issue or inquiry.

Thank you for being a member of the Ford family.

We appreciate your business and therefore would like to apologize for
any frustration caused by this situation.

Stephen, we hope that you will remain a Ford customer in future years.

At Ford Motor Company, we consider the satisfaction of our customers as
one of our most important objectives. If you have any other inquiries
or concerns, please feel free to contact us and we will be happy to
address them.

Thank you for contacting Ford Motor Company.

Sincerely,
Blaine
Ford Motor Company
Customer Relationship Center

The following information is displayed to confirm that your personal
OwnerConnection data is correct. If you notice any errors or
discrepancies in the information, please revisit http://www.OwnerConnection.com
and make corrections to your profile. Thank you.

Original Message Follows:

Hello,

I have contacted you twice before about the display on my 98 explorer's
Mach stereo system. The display dims to the point where it can not be
seen. Both times I received replies that indicated that you felt that it
was an isolated incident and not a design flaw. I now have on file 15
other owners all with the same exact problem. In some cases the radio
has
be replaced at much reduced cost. Please do not treat this once again as
an isolated incident. I have been a loyal ford customer and this is my
second explorer. I had expected to buy my third. However, with the way I
have been treated with this radio problem I will be looking closely at
your competitors. In the wake of the bad press that the explorer is
getting can you really afford to alienate more owners by failing to fix
this design flaw? I will more that gladly send you the list of people
with this problem so that you can contact them and verify that this is a
very common problem and should be covered past the 36000 mile warranty.
Should a $600 stereo only last 3 years?

I will be looking forward to your reply. Once again please do not just
send
me another quick form reply or I will be forced to go to the local media
with this problem.

Thank you,

Stephen

just my 2 cents.

my 2000 Limited also had this problem (Mach stereo). fortunately, it was
still under warranty and was fixed.
my view of Ford has changed somewhat because they won't admit this is a
widespread problem. maybe because it is not safety related??

1998 Explorer Sport with the upgraded AM/FM/Cassette/CD and 80 watt amp. (no
subwoofer) The radio is working fine, but the display has gone out. Could
this be a fuse. I noticed 3 fuses for radio. 2 of them stopped the radio
from playing and one did not, but that fuse was not blown. If not a fuse,
could it be anything other than the display being shot? If the dispaly is
shot, can I order that part from Ford. Is it hard to get to. I can not even
figure out how to pull the radio. Has anyone dealt with the problem before?
Thanks...

I've never posted this fix on this forum, hope this helps.. I posted this
fix to a different explorer forum quite a while back, I now have ~113K miles
on my X and my display is still functioning...

<<<<<<<snip
I have a 98' Sport with the Mach sound system, and my display went out at
around 50K miles(this was about 18 months back). I lived with the problem
for about 6 months when I was lucky enough to stumble upon this board and
find this thread... So, after popping out my system and cleaning the
display driver board, this fixed my display... For a while...

About 2 months ago, the display died again.. I decided to try to find a
more "permanent" fix. After calling Ford and Visteon I was able to learn
that the Mach system's Head Unit is indeed manufactured by Pioneer. I found
a telephone number for Pioneer's parts center off their website, and was
able to order a replacement board. I received the board about 3 days later,
installed it in my system, and it has been working fine for about a week
now...

If you'd like to order the part from Pioneer, their parts center # is
(800)421-1404. You will need to give them the Pioneer model number off your
HU for them to cross reference the part. This model number is located
directly underneath the Ford Part number on the label underneath the unit.
For example, the Ford part number on my radio is F87F-18C868-BD and the
Pioneer model number is FH 2116 ZF, so look for something in that format.
The part(s) that you will receive is a "kit", which includes 3 circuit
boards. This included not only the display driver board, but also 2 other
small boards, one of which contains the rear connectors for the radio and
another small board located close to this(they would not sell me the display
driver board separately). The part number for this kit is HWM5469 (at least
for my radio model). I only replaced the display driver board, which was
VERY easy to do, and this fixed my display problem. To replace the other 2
boards, you would need to completely disassemble the radio and make at least
20 - 30 solder connections. I didn't suspect these boards to actually be
bad in my radio, so I didn't think replacing these would be of any benefit
(and it could be very risky if you're not adept with a solder iron). With
shipping and handling these parts cost me about $95, much less than my Ford
dealership and most repair shops wanted to fix it. If this permanently
fixes the problem and prevents me from having to dismantle the radio every
6 - 12 months, it should be worth it!

By the way, two differences I noticed on the replacement board:

1) The 2 watt resistors on the top of the board located under the shield
are mounted about a half inch above the circuit board. I'm guessing Pioneer
realized the design flaw of placing components that generate that much heat
directly next to other sensitive components.

2) The quality of the workmanship on the replacement board is significantly
better than the original board. On the original, you'll notice very poorly
soldered connections on the bottom of the board, and A LOT of excess flux
which was never cleaned off the board. I consider this as a contributing
factor to the original failure.

With that said, I STRONGLY URGE anyone who has had this display problem to
contact Ford's Customer Relationship Center at 1-800-392-3673 and report it.
I spoke to them on several occasions trying to get this issue resolved, and
they denied any knowledge of the problem. They did state however that if
enough owners complained about the problem that they may consider
implementing some sort of program to cover it (e.g. extended warranty on the
radio). It really disturbs me that I paid approx 30K for this truck back in
98', an extra 1K of this for the sound system, only to have it die 3 years
later and have Ford completely deny that there is a problem. I spoke to two
different Ford dealerships, and several radio repair shops, and THEY ALL
stated that they see this problem A LOT. I would think that a company with
the motto "Quality is Job 1", would be interested in resolving a "quality
control" problem that effected a large number of customers.

Anyway, sorry about the rant at the end, I certainly hope this info helps
somebody out there!

-Rich

I too experienced the radio display problem. Ended up doing an exchange
with a retail concern in Denver who provided radios and service to the area
Ford dealers. Like you, I pushed the issue with Ford Customer Service and
achieved the same results. Though courteous, everyone I talked to denied
there was an issue let alone a widespread problem. After my third letter to
FCS, I received the same BS as you. The exchange radio has been installed
for about 20K miles with no problem. I had about 45K when the problem first
manifested itself.

Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News
http://www.newsfeeds.com - The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World!
Over 100,000 Newsgroups - 19 Different Servers!

Had the same problem. I sent mine to these folks, and now it works fine.
Turnaround time depends on how fast you want it shipped. Take a look and
good luck.

http://www.videoservicestop.com/pages/1/...

--

Michael J. MacMahon
Captain (ret.) KCPD

Golf is not a matter of Life or Death; it is MUCH more important than that.

Thanks so much for the detailed description of what you did to repair
your radio. I also have the same problem with my Ford radio. I also
have contacted customer service and been blown off by them. I have
tried to solder the connections myself and have been frustrated with
it. I might just have to break down and buy the parts you mentioned.
I was originally hoping that someone would post the detailed self-fix
on the boards components, but everyone seems to point to the version
for sale by someone on the web. I think it would be interesting to
start a list of all of those that have had the problem. I bet the guy
selling the fix has a listing of how many people he has dealt with,
but of course he is making money on the fix.

Anyway, that's my two cents worth.

I used the info at http://www.shareamemory.com/radio and it was the best $20 that
I've spent (especially when compared to what Ford wanted...$550!). I was
able to get my display back after being without it for over 9 months. The
guy is extremely helpful and responsive to any questions you have about the
procedure and process to get your radio repaired. He does offer a service
to send it in (if you can't do it yourself) or I think another service where
he'll send a working board to swap with you. With any of the options,
you'll come out way ahead of the Ford dealer solution...$$$

...
Thanks so much for the detailed description of what you did to repair
your radio. I also have the same problem with my Ford radio. I also
have contacted customer service and been blown off by them. I have
tried to solder the connections myself and have been frustrated with
it. I might just have to break down and buy the parts you mentioned.
I was originally hoping that someone would post the detailed self-fix
on the boards components, but everyone seems to point to the version
for sale by someone on the web. I think it would be interesting to
start a list of all of those that have had the problem. I bet the guy
selling the fix has a listing of how many people he has dealt with,
but of course he is making money on the fix.

Anyway, that's my two cents worth.