Radio only works in park or neutral

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mustangtc65

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Ran a search, found one thread that was a dead end. Read it could be the neutral safety switch or the trans range sensor. Does and 02 auto have both? Car shifts fine. All the gears read fine on the dash. It started yesterday, this morning battery was dead. Any thoughts?
Thanks, Ty
 
How old is the battery? These cars seem to do strange things when the battery is near the end, and must be replaced with a like Motorcraft vented battery as aftermarket batteries are hit or miss.
 
Battery is less than a year old. Everything is clean and tight on that end. Fooling with it this morning, sometime the radio will not turn off even after the door is opened. i guess that's what drained the battery. I manually turned off the radio last night but the clock stayed on. Also with the key in the on position engine not running everything is fine. Only with the engine running dose the problem exist.
 
Interesting. You have an intermittent short/open condition. Is the stereo stock or aftermarket? Wiring issues are a mess to track down, about the easiest way to track them down is to get a clamp-on ammeter to measure current draw, then start pulling fuses one at a time until you find the circuit that's drawing the power. Then it's a matter of tracing the wiring path until you find the problem. It's a mess to do even for experienced mechanics because it's a lot of tracing hidden wires to find the damage. Good luck. If the problem is an easy one to recreate for a mechanic, you might be cheaper taking it to a competent Lincoln dealer than tackling it yourself.
 
Radio is stock. Now i cant get the radio/clock to turn off, unless i put it in reverse or drive with the engine on.
 
Unless someone knows what it is, you're in for the hard slog I'm afraid. Hope someone can point the way beyond my general electrical short finding procedure.
 
So, the radio has three things that it uses to know when to be on or off.
1. Switched accessory power.
2. Starter interrupt.
3. Data buss to tell it when a door is opened.

If accessory is at +12V and Start is at ground, the radio will operate.
If accessory is at +12V and Start is at +12V, the radio will be off.
If accessory is at ground and Start is ground, the radio will turn off after ten minutes or after a door opens, whichever happens first.

Accessory should be at 12V anytime is key is in the accessory or the run position, and at (or near) ground any other time.
Start should be at 12V when the key is in the start position, and at (or near) ground any other time.

Time to get the meter and see what's going on. If the accessory and the Start line are doing what they are supposed to do, then the headunit itself is bad.
 
I had the same thing happen in my '06. Volume on the radio grew weaker and cut out at times but was normal when the engine was turned off and key in accessory. Eventually, It also developed a popping sound from the amp at start-up and I am now left with no sound on the left speakers, about 50% on the right, and seemingly normal volume from both rear deck amplified speakers. I also have a power draw that drains the battery overnight.

I believe that, because the speakers powered by the external amp are working, replacing the head unit should be the first step and likely fix. Do you have any thoughts on this Joe?
 
Thanks for the replys. This started happening all at once. Turned off car it was fine. Next day it started happening.
 
Went out to start the car yesterday morning, battery was completely dead. Put the charger on it for a bit and start it up. I get in to leave for work and everything is working fine. Radio works in all gears and turns off when i open the door. Maybe it was the dead battery reset? Hopefully it doesn't come back. The problem now is i started looking at double dins and now i want one. Ty
 
Telco said:
How old is the battery? These cars seem to do strange things when the battery is near the end, and must be replaced with a like Motorcraft vented battery as aftermarket batteries are hit or miss.
Click to expand...

mustangtc65 said:
Went out to start the car yesterday morning, battery was completely dead. Put the charger on it for a bit and start it up. I get in to leave for work and everything is working fine. Radio works in all gears and turns off when i open the door. Maybe it was the dead battery reset? Hopefully it doesn't come back. The problem now is i started looking at double dins and now i want one. Ty
Click to expand...

What he said....... I was driving as my battery was dying (the alternator had already failed) doing about 25mph. The speedo showed about 140 and the tach about 6Krpm.

This car does goofy, unexplainable things when the battery goes!! Additionally, check your alternator.
 
Update...Been working fine ever since the battery was completely drained and charger put on it for 30 min. I did nothing to fix the issuse. It will probably rear its head again, hopefully in the warmer months, and i will fix it then. Until then fingers crossed.
 
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