Hey everyone, this is my first time posting on this thread, but there's something going on with my Camaro that's bugging the hell out of me. I have a '91 Camaro RS, and it has the original cassette radio in it. When I first got the car sometimes if I hit a bump just right the radio would cut it. And I could bring it back by banging on the side of the radio. Now it's gotten worse, and on top of that it went out one night, and I was banging the side of it and I lost all of my dash lights, and the radio display went out. The radio display is only out when I have my headlights on. Is this a fuse issue with the lights? or is it something bigger? I'm assuming the radio is shot anyways, just wanting to be able to my dash lights when I drive and wiring is not my thing so I thought I would ask, thanks for the help I appreciate it!

 

Could be an issue with a ground. The headlight grounds are up by the battery. That said, if you were banging on an area and it got worse then I guess I would check there for loose wiring or whatever the cause might be.

The radio may just have cold solder joints, or some kind of wiring issue. You would have to open up the radio to re-flow the solder to address cold solder joints. Or if it's a wiring problem you'll have to troubleshoot that with a meter while it's acting up. A schematic would help to see what wires to check and how things are connected together. Or you can just follow the wiring from the radio and/or lights etc.

 

It's been bugging me for a while now, I will try this and see what I find, Thank you for the help!

 

Glad to help! Oh, also try wiggling the wires around too to see if any of the connections are loose etc. Sometimes when you move them too much the symptom goes away, but if you move the wires at the time it is happening you can sometimes locate the problem.

 

I agree with scorpner. It's probably a loose ground. The black wire at the radio is the ground. Also be sure you don't have your dimmer switch turned all the way down. I know you're probably thinking.... I'm not that dumb. It can happen to anyone though.