Weird JBL Glitch

[mav75]

I have the JBL 6 disc/10 speaker system. Last night, while I was listening to the radio, I couldn't change the volume from either the steering wheel or the actual head unit.

I also couldn't make adjustments to any of the settings (ie. bass, mid, treble, fade, balance or surround). The only thing the tuner knob on the head unit would do was change radio stations.

The other steering wheel and head unit controls worked properly though.

After shutting the engine down and restarting it, the problem disappeared. I'm not sure what to make of this. I know every once in a while you need to restart your computer due to software hiccups, but is this the same thing?

Has this happened to anyone else? Should I be concerned about this?

 

[otterball21]

I've had that happen when I first got the car... wasn't too sure what was going on. ...

 

[eorange]

This has happened to a number of people and has been discussed here before. One person reported it to their dealership, who (ineffectively) replaced the radio. Obviously there is a larger bug at play. It happens to me about 2-3 times a month.

The workaround is simple - not sure if you know this, but you can turn the key of the 4Runner while it's already running. This will NOT make a horrible grinding noise, because the electronic ignition will not let that happen. But it does have the side effect of power cycling the radio, which then fixes the volume glitch (until next time it randomly happens).

 

[sharp4runr]

Wow, it's never happened to me and I'm on my 2nd JBL Radio. The first was the Single Disc JBL that came with the truck and now I upgraded to the 6 Disc JBL unit and no problems there...

 

[OUTRNNR]

I had this happen to me over the weekend. As soon as the car was shut off and restarted it works fine

I thought I had an excuse to get navigation

 

[webshot]

I had this happen on mine but only when had something plugged in the radio with the special Toyota Y splitter to share the plug with the RSA.

Like an ipod interface or even the stock Toyota 6 disc changer that goes in the console.

 

[slowginjoe]

i had this happen a few times too. i have jbl w/ nav. it got worse until there is no sound at all from the headunit. the voice guidance for the nav still works perfectly however. putting the nav into diagnostic mode, it doesn't seem to be able to locate the 'dsp-amp', which i think means the jbl amp. so my guess is that the amp died. i'm gonna take apart the rear cargo area this afternoon so i can test the amp...

 

[spyne]

I have the same system and have never experienced this in over 3 years and 35K miles. Guess I've been lucky.

 

[slowginjoe]

Looked at the amp. Confirmed there's power and audio signal going in, and no audio coming out so 99% sure the amp is blown. It exhibited symptoms similiar to what people described above for a few months before now being completely dead. The symptoms started around 40k miles on my 2003. But it only happened a couple times and it went away after turning on and off the engine. And now, nothing... Atleast the amp is the cheapest of the 3 components in the nav/JBL system.

 

[toybox]

I've had this happen twice in the three years I've owned the truck.

 

[wolfgang]

Just to add to list -- Happened 2x to me in 3 years and 17,000 miles of ownership of my '03 SE (single CD JBL).

 

[slowginjoe]

Any of you have an ipod adapter installed by any chance? i've got the VAIS aic-100i installed in mine and was wondering if it had anything to do with the problems...

 

[toybox]

Any of you have an ipod adapter installed by any chance? i've got the VAIS aic-100i installed in mine and was wondering if it had anything to do with the problems...

Nothing has been added on to my truck in the audio/elctrical department.