Greetings all,

Has anyone ever have their AUX option in the OEM radio disappear? I have an 05 MCS and I had the AUX input port installed by the dealer when I purchased him. I will be driving SPOON around with an MP3 player, iPod or GPS plugged into the port playing music and all of a sudden the radio switches to FM and starts playing a radio station. When I try to get back to the AUX option, it is not there. There's only radio and CD.

This is intermittent though. If I try back later the AUX option might return. Some times if I unplug the cable from the AUX input port and plug it back in then it comes back but only for a few minutes then it disappears again and I'm stuck listening to the radio again. Some time unplugging the cable and plugging it back in doesn't work. The MINI service guys told me that they already checked the connections on the back of the radio to see if they were loose but they were not.

Any ideas? Am I just screwed and need to get a new radio? Thanks for any help or advice.

 

I haven't had it happen but it sounds like a short.

 

Definitely sounds like a short........possibly in the cable (they have TINY wires and get moved around a lot), or, since it happens with all 3 devices, in the AUX jack itself or wiring connection to the AUX jack. Easiest thing is to try new cable on the input device.......if still have the shorting, then it's probably in wiring associated with the AUX jack. Good luck, stuff like that is hell to trace down.

 

If it was the cable connecting the mp3 player to the aux port then I should still get the AUX option when I try to scroll through the options on the radio. Reason being is because in the past if I had nothing connected I still see the AUX option.

I don't know. It doesn't seem like the service guys are going to do anything about it because it never happens when I take it in for service hehe. I think I have to call it a loss and buy a new radio. Does anyone have any recommendations?

 

Try a ground loop isolator: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=139021

 

Before I bought a new radio I would pull the current one and wiggle the connectors to see if the AUX display flashes off and on. Sounds like a loose wire to me, since it is intermittent. If it were the radio, it would more likely be a consistent failure. The exception to this can be a crack on a circuit board in the radio. If it works when the radio is cold, then fails as the radio heats up (has been on a while), it could be due to expansion/contraction of the circuit on the board. I'm betting on the loose connector.

 

try the ground loop isolator. it worked like a charm for me