2002 jetta wagon, radio stopped working

Got in my TDI the other morning an noticed the radio no longer worked.
Checked the Bentley manual and it says it is fuse 37 "Radio terminal 86S, intrument cluster". Fuse is not blown and the instument cluster works as far as I can tell. Is there a terminal somewhere I can check
Any thoughts appreciated

There are two fuses for the radio -- one is on a constant power circuit, and one is a switched power. 37 is the switched-power one, which basically just tells the radio whether the key is on or off (but shouldn't prevent it from working), while the other one is the one that gives the radio the power to actually turn on and make noise. Off the top of my head I think the second fuse is #42 -- can confirm for you tomorrow but your bentley manual should show it as well. Check #42 and see if it is blown.

I may be able to offer something else related; you'll find other posts on here (or maybe not, depending on whether you hit the right search words...) Anyway, I had this happen once on my car... for some reason, the radio can get confused, and won't turn on. In that case it's not an issue of a blown fuse, but rather of needing to remove the fuse for about a minute or so, which re-sets something and the radio works again after re-installing the fuse. This happened one time with my car, and I couldn't relate it to any specific event. Just got in the car one day and the radio was dead. Happened to find on here about the fuses, pulled them for a few minutes, reinstalled, radio has worked fine ever since. (that was about 3 years ago.) Good luck!

Besides fuse 42 there is also a fuse in the back of the radio that can blow. I have had to pull fuse 42 a few times to reset the radio when it got out of sorts. I have also had to replace the fuse in the back once. You of course will need the "radio keys" to pull the radio if this is the problem. If I recall correctly the radio was completely dead when I needed to replace the fuse in the back, while when it got out of sorts the red light indicating it was "sleeping" was still lit.

Dave

I can confirm last part of Dave_D... I'm pretty sure when my radio was out of sorts needing just the "fuse block" fuse pulled, there was a red light on the radio and that's the telltale.

Ok I am reviving this thread because, while I learned a lot of new info, my radio is still dead. I have a 2000 Jetta TDI, radio was working yesterday...not so today.

I have removed fuse 42 multiple times for up to 30 minutes at a time. Nada. I have removed the fuse on the back of the radio. Both were not blown but just in case I replaced them. Still no radio.

Is there another issue to check or maybe my radio has simply died of natural causes?

Edit: I have no red light flashing.

thanks in advance!

Gocorona said:

Ok I am reviving this thread because, while I learned a lot of new info, my radio is still dead. I have a 2000 Jetta TDI, radio was working yesterday...not so today.

I have removed fuse 42 multiple times for up to 30 minutes at a time. Nada. I have removed the fuse on the back of the radio. Both were not blown but just in case I replaced them. Still no radio.

Is there another issue to check or maybe my radio has simply died of natural causes?

Edit: I have no red light flashing.

thanks in advance!

Click to expand...

Do you have power at fuse 42 in the panel? If so, do you have power at the fuse at the back of the radio? If the answer is yes to both of these I would assume the radio is dead. If you are missing power at either place I would look for another fuse or wiring problem as the cause.

Dave

Radio on the Fritz and #42 fuse is OK

Hey, my radio stopped working on me one day at random in my 02 Jetta TDI, so I pulled fuse #42 for about 30 seconds and it fixed the problem. I read on some forums that this was a VW recall; however, the dealer told me my car did not qualify for this (my car wasn't produced in the correct month).

A month later the same problem has occurred, but pulling fuse #42 failed to correct the issue. I've read that there is a fuse on the back of the radio that can be pulled out or replaced, is this true? If so, where would I find said fuse?

I watched a video on removing the stereo (I have the VW stock stereo with the CD and tape player), but there was no mention of fuses; furthermore, I don't have the keys to remove the stereo. Is there a quick and cheap solution for this? If not, anyone have a ball park guesstimate on the price of said keys? I'd rather not get ripped off.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Yes, there is a fuse in the back of the radio that blows on occasion. If the little red light is NOT on at all, as opposed to blinking, then it is possible that fuse is blown. You can probably borrow the "keys" to pull the radio from any store that installs radios, as they need them to do their job. I have also heard that you can make your own by cutting up a credit card, but I have never tried this.

Dave