1998 Ls400: Audio Plays But Only Sometimes Gives Sound

[PeterNY]

My 1998 LS400 plays CD's, tapes and radio (UKW / MW / LW) but the audio only sometimes comes to live. Usually when I have driven for about 25 minutes over 75 miles per hour.

Did anyone experience this as well? I did notice a connection cable hanging loose from the passenger storage compartment but this might very well be a setup for a carphone (not installed right now).

Cheers!

[PeterNY]

Yesterday it started working fine again. But I left the navigation system screen off. Perhaps that has something to do with it.

[IanCornwall]

Maybe a silly question but is your arial coming up OK

Mine was sticking in the down position and although all the lights were on, no sounds from the stereo

Then hit a bump ,,, ariel unsticks,,,,,,, very loud music suddenly,,,, scares the crap out of you

I couldn't work it out for a while as I assumed the arial had gone up when I switched on the radio, as it was always up when i got out of the car

[PeterNY]

Maybe a silly question but is your arial coming up OK

Mine was sticking in the down position and although all the lights were on, no sounds from the stereo

Then hit a bump ,,, ariel unsticks,,,,,,, very loud music suddenly,,,, scares the crap out of you

I couldn't work it out for a while as I assumed the arial had gone up when I switched on the radio, as it was always up when i got out of the car

The arial works fine. It might have been a moisture issue in the trunk. When I bought the car the previous owner obviously left something organic and very wet in the trunk for very long. So the trunk was full of fungus and very moist. I cleaned it out, treated it with anti-fungal substances and still leave it open to dry out for hours over weekends. After this the system started working fine again. The foul stench is almost gone but it still remains to some extend. Something which only time can fix I fear.