When I started my 97 Explorer this morning, the radio display came up with the correct time and then started flashing "12:00". I researched in my owner's manual and of course, there was nothing in there.

Any ideas?

 

Did you try resetting the time? When you hit the clock button, does it begin displaying radio stations? The display on these radios is a common problem. Do a search on radio displays and you will find a ton of information. This is a link to the last time I posted a reply to this. I get no credit for discovering the link as I found it by reading soemthing from someone else.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...42#post2405742

Hope this provides some assistance.

 

I could not change the time setting nor could I get any stations to come in on AM or FM. The tape player would not play and the same with the cd changer.

I called a mechanic friend & he thought that the battery might be on its last legs. So he suggested that I test the battery before anything done to the radio.

 

Have you checked fuse 20 & 29 interior fuse panel?

 

Unless you are having a problem wiht other electrical items on the vehicle, I doubt it is the battery. That said, the battery is easy enough to eliminate as a source of your problem. If the battery checks out OK, I would look to the radio as the source of the problem. These radios are notoriously unstable and unreliable but the problem is normally results in a blank display. Aside for m the internittent blankd display problem I have on my 96 Explorer, I also had a problem a few years back where the button on the volume control would pop off. I was able to replace the volume control with the one form my daughter's 97 ranger, The radio's havve different plugs so I wasn't able to just swap out radios and had to resort to replacing components.. Come to think of it, I may be able to repair the blank display problem using that old Ranger radio as well - Hmmm? BTW, I did not take the radio from my daughter. She had replaced the stock radio with an aftermarket unit and the old ranger radio is now a spare.

Point to all of this is that the radio's are a frequent source of problems in the Explorers. For whatever reason, it does not appear to be a prbolem in the Rangers and I'm not sure why.