Just curious to know if anyone is experiencing weird radio noises on start-up.

I searched through the forum and found several TSB's related to odd radio noises, but the TSB's refer to 2007 or 2006 and below radios.

Has anyone had issues with the radio in their 2008 HHR?

When I first start my HHR and turn on the radio (or if it's already on - as in most cases), I get no music. Instead, I get loud distortion noises. Sometimes, the distortion noises have a rhythm as if they are following the beat of the music, but it certainly isn't music.

After 15 seconds or so, it stops and the radio starts working normally.

Yesterday, after a particularly cold night, this problem occurred for the first 5 minutes of my drive until it went away. Ironically, I was on my way to the dealer to drop it off for a slow tire leak but the radio started behaving normally before I got there (d'oh).

The dealer looked for any TSB's related to this but, since the previous TSB's seem to be specific to earlier model years, they indicated they found nothing.

I should also mention that I listen to mostly XM, so not sure if this behavior also occurs on the FM/AM bands.

So, anyone experiencing something similar to this? Appreciate any feedback.

Darren

 

I've had this happen in my wifes Toyota with the XM unit I added. Probably an XM thing, but I would try leaving it on FM one night, so when you start it in the morning, you can see if it happens.

 

Darren maybe it's the sweet new boost gauge or those nice tail lights. Check the connects on those mods at all?

 

Good point - I should probably try to leave it in FM or AM for a few nights and see what happens.

Bill, I don't think it's that stuff. From what I remember, this even happened to me a few times before I installed any of the new goodies. It's definitely happening more often now though.

 

Maybe it's a rap station.

 

Darren, if you can't find the problem, I always blame the wife...

 

To her face?

 

...nothing else to say.