Stereo's always off when I get in the car

Interesting issue, is the radio in the off state when you turn the car off before starting it in the morning? I believe it should just resume whatever state it was in previous to turning the car off, at least that's how mine acts.

Side note: My mother has the opposite problem on her '15 Chrysler 200, there is no possible way to turn the base radio system off, you can only turn it down. Then when you restart the car, it begins again with the radio on at low volume. It also has 9 gears and shifts way too much. She hates that car.

chevrasaki said:

I believe it should just resume whatever state it was in previous to turning the car off, at least that's how mine acts.

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mine only goes to radio on start up

i never listen to radio

99% of the time bt from phone, 1% music from usb stick

yet 100% of the time i start the car, I GET RADIO....fml.

boraz said:

mine only goes to radio on start up

i never listen to radio

99% of the time bt from phone, 1% music from usb stick

yet 100% of the time i start the car, I GET RADIO....fml.

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I leave an old ipod classic 180GB in the center console that has a library of music I listen to. It defaults to either that or XM radio, whichever I left on last and those are really the only two things I listen to.

When I press the start button, whatever was playing when I left the car comes on again. Weather it's a CD or XM radio. If the CD was on when I shut it off, the visual display comes on and finds the track that was playing exactly where it left off when shut down.

When I start the car, 80% of the time, it will resume where it left off when it shut down when I opened the door.

The other 20%, it switches to FM.

On rare occasions, the radio has to reboot twice - but it's never failed to start.

The radio is normally powered 24/7. It's turned on/off by commands on the car's computer bus. However, I have to wonder what happens if the battery saver has to kick in. In that case, the radio may lose power completely.

ChevyGuy said:

The radio is normally powered 24/7. It's turned on/off by commands on the car's computer bus. However, I have to wonder what happens if the battery saver has to kick in. In that case, the radio may lose power completely.

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I had an issue with my old cavalier on cold mornings even with an aftermarket radio it would light up but not allow you to turn it on until you restarted the car the first time. Didn't happen everytime, but seemed when I had a bad battery it happened more often.

The first winter with my cruze it did the exact same thing 6+ times on very cold mornings with the stock battery, I replaced that battery almost 3 years ago with a diehard AGM, has not happened since. The stereo would be lit, but it would not power on on first start up and the buttons did nothing. It would also at times forget the source I had last used, which still happens from time to time with the new battery.

A friend of mine just had his 09 silverado with a bad battery exhibit the same behavior, his stayed in power off state until he replaced the battery though. I'm guessing this must be part of the battery run down protection at work.

I also remember hearing that in some cars, the first sign of a battery going bad was the radio would lose it's station memory. Apparently, the voltage during cranking would drop so low the radio would flip out.

I think the problem is actually how the car is supposed to work. When I get home I will sit in my car for a min and then open the door, and the radio shuts off. Which is how it is the next time I get in. Is it supposed to shut off when you open the door tho.....I know it does after 5-10 min.

Patman said:

I think the problem is actually how the car is supposed to work. When I get home I will sit in my car for a min and then open the door, and the radio shuts off. Which is how it is the next time I get in.

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Yes, mine shuts off when I open the door. And the next time I start the car, it turns back on.

Patman said:

Only in the morning, it seems the stock stereo is always off. I know there is something that shuts it down when I open the door after removing the key. But every morning I have to power on the stereo. Is there a way to change this setting. I have been living with it for the last few years, it is not a big deal, just a nuisance. Don't remember if my 2011 LS was the same or not.

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Has this happened since you first owned the car? Did you buy new or used?

Speaking about minor cruze annoyances, does anyone else have the trouble that you leave your ac on and when you go turn it on by remote start or manual the cruze likes to 30% of the time turn the ac off for you and just blow air no ac?

ChevyGuy said:

Yes, mine shuts off when I open the door. And the next time I start the car, it turns back on.

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Yes I noticed today that is exactly what mine does. It turns back when I start the car on unless I sit in the car until it times out Or maybe I open the door before turning off the ignition and removing the key. I am not really sure why I brought the problem up to begin with now. It seems to work fine!!!

Thx guys It is obvious the wife is gone and I have more problems wo her. LOL I will be leaving for VN here in a couple of days so...... she can get me "back on track" but we won't back here until 2/21, I can't drive in VN and won't have my Cruze there, I will just be thinking about how these taxi drivers should really be shifting their little taxis up to the whopping @30 MPH. But I will be flying up north to see a co-worker of my wife's house.

StylinPro said:

Has this happened since you first owned the car? Did you buy new or used?

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On occasion since I bought it new. As I said it is more likely than not a timing issue with opening the door and removing the key etc. Seems OK now.

boraz said:

mine only goes to radio on start up

i never listen to radio

99% of the time bt from phone, 1% music from usb stick

yet 100% of the time i start the car, I GET RADIO....fml.

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Mine defaults to FM if I use USB. When XM was no longer active it defaults to XM. If I don't have a USB in or BT on it stays on active XM channel I had it at last.


Every now and then I reset the radio to prevent random issues from showing up as dealer visits only waste both our time unless I go for other issues same time.