No display on radio

[sdswan]

I have a 1998 Explorer Eddie Bauer with the factory cd/cassette stereo, most of the time there is no display on the face but the cd and am/fm work fine otherwise. Is there a fix besides replacing the stereo? Thanks

[fordboy_52]

hrm, sounds like a wiring problem internally.... mabey its time to replace.. sorry

[96f150]

Are you sure your headlight dimmer switch is not rolled all the way down to the lowest position?

[IPACA9]

VERY COMMON PROBLEM!!! When I worked for the radio warranty department for Ford we would replace so many of these radios that they were on backorder. We would have to give the customer a loner cassette radio just to get thier's repaired.

There is a fix somewhere in these forums that somebody has done or you can Kelvin at Broadway Radio Shop. 816-753-1960 Tell him Travis O'Brien sent ya. They can repair it to you and send it back. They might even tell you the fix. I did not work in the tech department. I just simply pulled the radio and replaced it under warranty. If it wasn't under warranty I would bring the radio to the shop and they would fix it. Very simple repair from what I was told.

[paul100]

I had the exact same problem with my 99 EB explorer. The internal power supply board has two or three resisters that were mounted right down on the board and over time the heat/cool thermal cycles cause the solder to crack and so you start to get intermitent display lights and finally no lights. There is a guy who tells you how to fix it for 20 bucks or will sell you a new board for around 90 bucks. I went with the new board and it was really easy to replace, took maybe 30 minutes. you do have to take the radio apart though. check out this web site www.shareamemory.com/radio

[XCUR&F350]

I second Paul100's suggestion to visit the www.sharememory.com/radio as a good start especially for Explorer radio problems. Sharememory has a replacement board w/ excellent/complete instructions on radio removal and board replacement, most folks can do this with minimal tools. From my web research the Explorer radios had significant display problems.

Another common audio unit problem in Ford cars and trucks is the Ford/Clarion OEM 6 CD Dash unit that has had significant problems with the CD mechanism. Unit displays CD error messages from internal jamming or sensor failure.

These trouble prone units sometimes show no CDs installed when in fact there are CDs present and also not ejecting of nor accepting new CDs when openings exist likely due to dirty sensors.

We are/were having problems with our barely-used Ford OEM 6 CD unit in a 2002 F-350 and I was in the process of removing this double DIN unit from the dash today (with the DIN extraction tools) when the CD door moved a bit. I inserted the ignition key and allowed the unit to power up and it started working/properly ejected all CDs. Possibly flexing the case released an internal jam???

Anyway I'm awaiting the ultimate dreaded OEM FORD 6 CD player problem to present itself (again) possibly w/o a happy ending. Today the unit works - tomorrow - Who knows?!?!

Haven't had much success w/ the searching this Forum so don't know if there are other posts on Ford OEM 6 CD problems . This has been a big OEM FORD audio problem for years and years BTW.

[Bob Ayers]

The problem is bad solder joints on the DC to DC power supply on the display PCB. The display is soldered to this PCB, just look for bad solder joints.