Radio stopped working

[lex - eleven]

Ls430 mark levinson radio suddenly started playing up. first the cd player gives up now it's the radio. sometimes it will come on and be okay but mostly refuses to work at all. I can be driving along without a sound from it then suddenly it will start playing. Any ideas chap's ?

[MLW]

As cars are so 'electronic' now, I would disconnect the Battery for 10-12 hours, reconnect, and hope the computer 'sorts itself out'. Might work.

[lex - eleven]

I get the idea but 10 -12 hours, that seems a long time and will doing this effect anything else?

[MLW]

Ok, maybe try 3 hours. Took the Battery out of my 2002 LS430 and all was well, no problems. An overnight 'discharge' might be the better, but if you need it just try 3 hours.

[Cotswold Pete]

The reason for leaving the Battery disconnected for long periods of time is to allow any capacitors to discharge, and some can take a long time. 

If problem is related to ECU somewhere having got it's knickers in a knot, then an overnight would be be thought as well.

If that does not work, then I'd be going for a dry joint inside the radio, or some component about to give up the ghost. Any of these are fixable but a real monkey to suss out what is what.  Once took me a year on a bit of my HiFi gear to work out that it was a 10p capacitor causing a problem, and that was with it out of its case for 18 months (not really feasible to be doing that with a car radio).

Best of luck getting to the bottom of  the problem