Audio Systems: Sudden bursts of sound, delco model, radio cassette player

Question
I have a Delco Model 16194445 Radio/Cassette player with a seperate CD player in my 1996 Chevy Tahoe.

The problem occurs with the radio, cassette, and cd.

The problem I will describe has been occuring "on & off" for the past couple of years (but occurring more frequently within the past month).

The sound will fade out then suddenly come back on with a really loud "burst".  Sometimes, the sound will then go off, or sometimes the sound will stay on.  The times when the sound stays on (after the sudden burst), I have discovered that the rear speakers are not working and when I trying adjusting the volume, the sound will not increase (turning the knob clockwise), however, if I try to decrease the volume, the sound will suddenly stop.

If I quickly "wiggle" the volume knob back and forth, I will usually get the sudden burst of sound, then the sound will fade out to nothing.

What I have described might occur on a daily basis or it might not occur at all for a few days (it is somewhat inconsistant on how often and when it occurs).


Any help you might provide will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Jay

Answer
After 4-6 years of normal use, a factory unit is ready for replacement. You have seen why, and the problem is not cost effective to repair. That volume pot alone can run $55.00 (wholesale), plus labor, to repair. Any reputable tech would likely find much more in need of repairs while he had it apart (and the majority of it would still be 10 years old when you got it back from them). :/

I would go get a $90.00-135.00 AM/FM CD/CD-R/CD-RW MP3 and XM compatible deck at Circuit City and let them install it.
You can then burn up to 256 tunes per cd (if you use mp3 and  a pals PC). Of course, nearly all of them have XM ready labels these days for sattelite subscribing listeners.
Much less bulk, faster music access and less electro-mechanics than a CD changer. This adds up to much more bang for your buck as opposed to replacing what you have with another Delco. Not to mention the new warranty.

They will all eventually go bad, this is a good way to permanently minimise the expenses involved when it does.

A zealous (yet careful) novice could do the replacement with the install kit and wiring harness adaptor available from the CC store.

I know this response is not what you wanted to hear but let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Jmael