Ford radio display repair

[robm]

WAYYY off topic...

But I was too pleased with the results to not post it here. If you have a newer Ford with a digital display on the radio that has failed, here's a fix for you.

There are two resistors on the radio's front faceplate board that get too hot and desolder one side of themselves from the board. The real fix for this is to desolder the other side, place a small piece of felt or something to space them out from the board a bit, and resolder, BUT, I was in too much of a hurry to do all that tonight. With that said, here are the pics:

Here's the backside of the radio faceplate:


This is a closeup of the two resistors that require attention, which are located right next to the cassette slot:


Here is a closeup of the repaired resistors. I had to use waste solder, so please excuse the horrible appearance:


Hope this helps someone out there. Someone wanted $20 for this information from an online site dealing with this repair.

[asdfjkl;]

what do you mean waaay off topic? your the first post of it!

[robm]

Well, ok ok, true. I suppose that's why it's the "Forum 42" section.

I was just happy to not have to buy a $500 radio because there are no forums for the repair of automobile electronics, so far as I've been able to find.

BTW, just for further information, that particular radio was out of my '99 Expedition, so this should be pretty similar to any Ford radio with a digital display around that particular year.

[Aguiluz]

The question is: Why do they get that hot?

[robm]

No idea, but apparently there is a component on the other side that gets pretty toasty in the same spot. I wanted to do some further research into the issue, but I was in too much of a hurry. Next time the solder melts, (and it will,) I'll go ahead and raise those resistors up a bit and attempt to track down why they're getting a wee bit too warm.

I'm going to say probably just a poor design; it seems this is a common problem for these units.

[marshallh]

Seems to a somewhat prevalent design flaw. On the Mitsu 3000GT's with digital climate controls, there are a few resistors that will burn out just like they did above.