147 Radio Gremlins

[Garibaldi]

Hi Guys,

Does anybody have any suggestions?

I arrived home tonight, switched off my 147 and locked it. A few hours later my daughter arrived home and told me the radio was on. I hadn't had the radio on all day.

Occasionally it will come on by itself when I start the car even though I may not have had it on the day before.

Is it haunted or is this just another Alfa mystery?

[Cool Jesus]

Had a quick search on the web for you, seems a new unit might be in order 
There was one suggestion of leaving a cd in the unit? Poster stated he left the car for a few weeks and the battery wasn't flattened and the radio seems to have behaved itself. Are you aware of the 20 minute setting in the menu, which keeps the unit on after ignition turned off? I have a spare head unit off a 2005 147 if the above doesn't work.
I hate finding threads with no resolution posted. Speaking of which I better tidy up a few of mine 

[shiny_car]

There was one suggestion of leaving a cd in the unit?

^^^ This. It is an uncommon fault, but a fault none the less, that you are describing. Leaving a CD in the slot is meant to be a solution.

All reports of people adding the CD on alfaowner.com forums (UK) say it works.

[Garibaldi]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Cool Jesus, thank you for your kind offer of your spare 147 head unit. I will try leaving a CD in the unit and see how it goes.

[Garibaldi]

Great news, leaving a CD in the unit has worked.

[gtv19]

Hello fellow Alfa drivers, I think it might have been me who posted the news about the cd trick. I had suffered that intermittent radio phenomenon, some time ago with my 156Ti. Somehow I found that leaving the cd in the changer averted the problem(does this only occur with an Alfa? Got to love em).
To be on the safe side I had a replacement radio ready for order thru the dealer, but did not go to the trouble. the subsequent purchaser had the same issue and inserted cd and again fixed the problem.

Good luck,I hope it is that simple for you.

Laurie

[Alfapride]

I have had similar experiences with my 147 original radio, sometimes it turns itself on randomly and the FM station names do not always line up - for example 106.7 read as 'mix fm' on saturday haha. I noticed sometimes as well that the cd player will not read discs (even new ones). Due to the asthetics, it's a shame to replace the unit with a aftermarket unit. I noticed online you can buy replacement cd/radio players (maybe they are NOS) - whilst they are not as advanced as some newer players it's nice to have the original out there should you want it.

[Thevak]

It worked! CD in did the trick.  Another happy alfisti!

[extraball]

my radio came on everytime I started the car. I know turn it off before turning the car off. Now it doesnt come on when I start the car, which maybe helpful in this situation.