2004 X3 Radio Issues - Keep's switching to phone mode.

[JoshWho]

Hey everybody,

I have a 2004 X3 and lately the radio has been kind of wonky. When listening to the radio it will randomly (every 10 seconds or so) briefly switch to phone mode and back. I do not have a phone set-up on the radio or am able to get to phone mode on my own. There are no inciting/exacerbating factors that I can find, but I noticed it did start happening after a car wash.

Also a little after this started happening I have also noticed that the radio does not turn on/off when starting/stopping the car.


Ah, as you can imagine it has been pretty annoying and I have not been able to find any other help on the internet so I thought I would turn to you experts. Thanks for reading!

[DennisCooper]

Hi,

It's 'possible' there's been some water ingress that's got into the OEM audio/telephone modules and causing water damage/corrosion and giving the symptoms/weird behaviour. It also might not be water ingress, and just that the OEM modules are aging and beginning to fail and thus, these symptoms are appearing. There also might be battery voltage issues which can give funny electrical happenings, ignition switch could be failing and also causing these kinds of things.

You can swap the OEM audio modules to compatible and known 100% working ones to see if that resolves the issue, check wiring continuity, change ignition switch (check on the X3 specific forum if this is or does cause issues along with the battery) and battery.

Cheers, Dennis!