Did Skynet take control of the radio in my SUV?

A few weeks ago I was getting ready to leave the driveway at my house, I'd started my ford flex and got out to close the garage door. While I was walking back to the flex the radio, which was playing my Ipod, switched off and then switched to Sirius and the volume jacked up (Kanye West was playin, nothing in my music interest) I got into the car and turned the volume down and then it switched to another station on sirius and the volume went up again. I switched it back to my Ipod,. and it didnt like that either. it then went to AM and stopped on a NPR station, so I shut the radio off again and then the car. Thinking my computer was freaking out, I thought rebooting it would do the trick, So I disconnected the battery for 5 mins and reconnected it. Well that seemed to do the trick, or so I thought. After being on the road for 5 mins listening to the ipod, it started it again, but this time it went to FM stations, up volume, down volume. So I shut the radio off and it came back on about three times and at this point i am at a real WTF stage I got to the grocery store did my shopping trying to understand what caused it. Got back into the car ready for Christine to act up again and nothin... I listened to the Ipod all the way home,. and it hasnt done it since.

I thought it was just a once off thing till my good friend called me to tell me his VW Touareg did the very same thing. and he is two states away,.



So,.did Something shuffle through my radio from above or someone?


Also to add,. my Sirius account has been deactivated for two years.

reply to post by Lil Drummerboy


Curious, to say the least.

I was definitely leaning heavily towards some kind of electronic or mechanical malfunction until you posted the tidbit about your Sirius/XM account being deactivated for 2 years.

I know they will sometimes give it away free like the premium cable channels do, but it would be quite a co-inky-dink to have that happening at the same time your radio is malfunctioning.

Your friends story is also interesting. Have you checked around to see if there are any others that also experienced this?

reply to post by Lil Drummerboy

I suppose that it could be a software problem, see here (unless you posted this to that forum):
Ford Radio issue
But, I will tell you this, it could be more of an issue with the control buttons, especially if they are on the steering wheel. I used to work for a manufacturer who was an OEM supplier to the automotive industry of electrical and electronic components. I worked in the test lab and wrote software to run the test fixtures to QC verify both design iterations and final product.

Beginning back in the late 90's manufacturers wanted to reduce wiring and componentry and use as few I/O (interface) ports on their controllers (think CPU) as possible. In order to accomplish this task, the switches are all wired in a sort of parallel mode with different resistive values in series with each switch circuit.

This switched resistive ladder network employs only 1 ground and 1 signal wire back to the processing unit and the resultant voltage division from the switch network is calculated by a 12, 14 or 16 bit ADC (Analog-to-Digital Converter) with the digital value then having a match in the firmware's command value lookup table for whatever it is controlling.

This system works well and is usually immune to noisy switches (bounce) when proper decoupling capacitors are used on the input circuitry.

The value scale is usually chosen so that pressing multiple buttons at the same time will not trigger a false or ambiguous button press. Usually it is ignored.

It is possible that one of the switches had some strange situation where the button may have been depressed or stuck for a little while. This can happen if there is plastic flashing or a burr of some sort on either the button base or along the edge of the escutcheon (Panel Face) that the buttons stick through.

Next time it happens, try pressing every button with the power off and feel for any that don't have a positive "click" or tactile feel to it. This can also happen if the buttons are exposed to direct sunlight and they become slightly "sticky". We used to test them in environmental chambers per Ford specifications with 85 degrees Celsius and 80% or 85% humidity for 96 hours for one specific test.

I would bet on direct sunlight but it wouldn't hurt to check with your dealer for Trouble Bulletins and a possible warranty fix.

Good Luck with it.

reply to post by Riffrafter
this is why i posted here, to see if it has happened to anyone else,.
It was a thought of just a computer glitch till my friend had it happen to him

reply to post by evc1shop

thank you for that,.
again I was in belief that it was just a software issue till it happened to him,.
I guess it could be a pair of coincidences,.
thanks again

I guess we will see if it happens again,. I will hit all the control buttons for the radio.

May I ask what year your vehicle is??

I feel if the product used the marketing term "smart". The "smart" term can be easily replaced with "hacked"!!

reply to post by AbleEndangered

2010

My iPod and iPhone have both done that, start belting out a song.
The tune in radio app sometimes starts itself up on mine.

A few minutes ago I went to use my iPhone and once I pressed call, it sounded like motor bike or a lawn mower. I reset network settings and it's back to normal.

So your car has a "black box"?

www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/12/07/black-boxes-in-cars-raise-privacy-concerns/
www.foxnews.com...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_data_recorder
en.wikipedia.org...

Bluetooth, wi-fi, hot-spot, Satellite in vehicles are doorways into your Cars computer(s).

I am highly suspicious of devices that can be purchased but not tinkered with...

When was the last time you changed your vehicle battery?

My pos vehicle acted all funky before the battery died. Ended up being the cheap battery installed...it seems if you have a 3 year battery, it'll last only 3 years. It came with a 3 year battery.. With yours being a 2010, might be time for a new one.

A weak battery will cause the vehicle comp to go nuts.

Good luck.

Edit-go by the date on your battery, don't rely on any tests. It took a store manager to trouble shoot my computer issues-the test was OK, but he used his knowledge/expertise. One key factor was the computer taking longer than usual when being turned on...gages went off-scale high...besides the radio, light, door locks issues.

Could be one of the following.

1.Cold solder joint.
2. Faulty Arm Chip
3. Faulty buttons getting vibrations of the road and causing the switching. Most Likely explanation.

Recommended fix new head unit..

It keeps messing with my Garage door every morning!

That or my sensors are misaligned but I prefer to go with Skynet cause it seems more logical than a faulty garage door...

AbleEndangered


Bluetooth, wi-fi, hot-spot, Satellite in vehicles are doorways into your Cars computer(s).

yes this is what my initial concern was,.
Im glad i dont have park assist with this model or i might be going for a unwanted drive