Alright, people. Most of you probably don’t know me, and you’re probably here because I applied for a job at your company. If so, take special note of this article, as it’ll tell you far more about me than any job application ever will.
So… I love music. When I say that, I mean this: I will not drive without music playing in some fashion. When I grocery shop, I usually have headphones in my ears (yeah, yeah–I know, I’m one of those people).
So… a tragic, horrific, entirely unseen catastrophe occurred. It was… sometime in April or May, I think, when this tragedy occurred:
My truck’s stereo stopped working properly. How could this happen to me? Well… it may have been partially my fault (that’s the best I’m willing to offer on this, mind you).
The problem: The audio on the entire left side of the truck would stop working randomly. If I moved/wiggled the aux cable, audio would begin functioning properly again (audio on both sides of the vehicle would work).
Note: You can skip the accordions if you’d like. They discuss my thinking process, which may be beneficial to potential employers; however, I wrote quite a bit because I wanted to provide enough information for people who are interested in the process.
There were only two options:
1) I may have accidentally been a little less than gentle with my aux port. My Lightning-Aux cable had gotten pulled a bit roughly. I didn’t mean to damage it. Maybe the cable was bad? It was pretty old, after all.
2) The truck was damaged through no fault of mine–maybe a speaker wire had come loose? Maybe something in the radio itself shorted?
I considered these issues carefully. Logically, the issue had to be one or the other. I was capable of fixing one of them, but not the other. If the radio was damaged, I could just replace it, right?
Wrong. Apparently, if you purchase a new radio for your vehicle, it must be ‘coded’ to your vehicle. In other words, car manufacturers individually “connect” every single radio unit with their designated vehicle.. which seems shady to me, but that’s not the point of this article. You, the customer, don’t have that luxury–if you want a new radio connected, you’ll need to take it to a dealer or mechanic shop. To be fair, if your vehicle is prior to a certain year, you can connect your own… somewhat. Anyway… back to the story.
So… first things first. I needed to diagnose the problem. But how?
First, I swapped cables. The second cable yielded no change. Neither did the third, so the cable wasn’t the problem.
What’s next? What would you say?
My logical brain decided that it was highly unlikely that the speakers or speaker wires ‘magically’ went bad or disconnected since there were no prior symptoms.
What does that leave?
The radio.
I considered.
I called a car audio specialist in town and explained my problem: the aux panel needed to be replaced. I asked about it. He couldn’t grasp my question, and was relatively unpleasant about it, so I phrased it differently. I asked how much it would cost to have a new radio installed.
He tried to up-sell me to a “fancy” radio. I explained that I wasn’t interested in a fancy, feature-rich radio. I wanted an OEM radio to replace my OEM radio. Old. Not high-tech. I get it. He said an OEM replacement and install would cost “at least $300.” I declined.. told him I’d call back if I opted to do it.
I figured my mechanic’s price would be the same since the audio guy said he used the Kelly Blue Book price, so I didn’t call them.
I got online and looked at radios. Replacement radios range in price. Even the same exact models can be different prices.. for instance, a regular OEM replacement for my truck was about $180 dollars, give or take, yet for an OEM replacement that was unlocked, the cost would be…. about $300, if memory serves. Brutal, yeah? Brutal indeed.
At this point, months had passed. My indecisiveness about what to do had allowed the problem to deepen. The left speakers no longer worked at all, regardless of how I delicately moved the cable connector. It was time for action.
So… my online research indicated that the problem could potentially be a loose connected between the actual aux port itself and the motherboard in the radio.
Since radio replacements are expensive–$300 is a lot for people who live paycheck to paycheck–I opted for the DIY. Here’s where it gets interesting. I proudly present…
How to fix your Silverado’s aux port
1. First things first! Take off the front panel. You can’t get the radio out without removing the plastic “shell” around it.
Also… unplug your battery first. Just in case your airbags go off. Only one article I read prior to doing this mentioned it being a potential issue, but still–better safe than sorry, yeah?
Beautiful, isn’t it? This old radio makes me so happy every day.
2. Remove the faceplate*
*this is probably not the technical term–so remove the front radio part from the radio unit itself.
Be gentle with the clips. They seem sturdy, but they’re plastic. Plastic breaks.
3. Remove the next plastic plate–it appears to simply be a covering for the back of the motherboard.
Pay attention to which screws you’re removing and make mental note of where they came from.
4. Take a moment to admire the front of the radio. Beautiful!
5. Keep going. Take off the final plastic brackets–those large pieces of clear plastic all need to come off, unfortunately.
Again, this is super important–you MUST remember which screws go on these plastic pieces and which screws go on the prior (black) plastic pieces. They look almost identical, but if you put the wrong ones in the wrong spots, the plastic pieces won’t be secured to the board. Take notes or label the screws if you need to do so; don’t mix them together!
6. It’s soldering time!
Look carefully at the corner of my motherboard. You should see four slightly-circular metal pieces. They’re in pairs. Each “pair” has a divider in it that separates the two pieces.
What does that mean? It means one pair is for the left side speakers and one is for the right side.
Note: If you put a headphone jack/aux cable in through the front hole (on the other side, naturally) and wiggle it a bit, you can discern if this connection is loose. If the metal pieces on the back wiggle at all, they’re loose. Mine didn’t wiggle at all, for the most part, but that didn’t mean anything!
7. If you haven’t done a lot of soldering, make some practice solders. Just do it.
I made some practice solders on an extra iPhone charger I had.
When you’re comfortable with making SMALL solders, you can solder your board. Solder the four circle-connectors carefully. You will need a SMALL soldering iron/gun for this–I had to borrow a smaller one since the office soldering iron was far too large.
IMPORTANT: DO NOT ALLOW THE SOLDER TO CROSS THE DIVIDER BETWEEN THE METAL CIRCLE CONNECTORS. DOING SO WILL SHORT OUT YOUR RADIO.
8. Put the radio back together. I hope you remembered to keep your screws organized!
9. Back to the truck to put the dash back together.
10. Radio and heating console need to go back in before you finish with the dash bracket/mount/whatever.
11. Two thumbs up for your handiwork. Now, for the real test!
Go for a drive and take a listen.
That’s the end, folks. My radio worked perfectly after I resoldered the aux port connections.
My music meant more to me than anything, so I wanted to be sure it would be fixed. I didn’t have enough money to replace the radio, but I did have an analytical mind that always wants to better itself.
I could have asked someone else to do it, but when something means so much to you, it’s impossible to leave it in someone else’s hands.
Thanks for reading!