# 2000 Cavalier electrical problem (radio goes off a lot!)



## sweets1919 (Feb 16, 2006)

Hey there,

I have a 2000 Cavalier that I bought in 2003. First year was fine, then in May 2004 the radio turned off while driving and said "Locked". When I parked and started up again, the radio came back on. 

Since October it has been happening more often. The radio will switch off while driving and either just turn off (and I can't turn it back on) or it will say "Locked" or "Cal error". In the manual it says to take it to the dealer, so I did in October. But they told me it was a "radio" problem and to take the car to a radio installer/repairman. (which I didn't as I knew the radio DOES work...the thing is, if I am driving and the radio has swithed off...as soon as I turn the car off the radio will COME ON!!) Other times, it would go for days without turning off...seemed to come and go.

So recently (last month) more weird things are happening. Two days ago the radio didn't come on at all except for 5 seconds at start up. Also, if the lights are left on and I open the door, there is a "binging" sound to let me know to turn the headlights off (this is normal). What is NOT normal, is opening the door with the headlights on, hearing the binging, turning the lights off and even having the keys out of the ignition and the binging continuing. There have been times where the car is off, the lights are off, the binging continues for over 3 minutes. To me this is some sort of electrical problem.

So then yesterday I accidentally DID leave the lights on at work for two hours (b/c the dinging did not happen as it should, radio had not worked in two days) and the battery went dead. I got a jumpstart by my AAA company and surprisingly the radio worked fine that whole night (stopped at a few places, the binging worked as it should, radio did not shut off at all). so that made me think it might be the battery causing these problems (it was super charged up and worked fine...today it worked until this evening, shut off again which is very frustrating).

Any ideas what I should do??? Thank you.


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## cresing (Feb 6, 2006)

You can goto an autozone or pepboys type of car place and have them test the battery but I really doubt that is the problem. You might want to try just disconnecting the negative terminal on the battery for a few minutes and let everything reset itself and then reconnect it. I don't know if that will help but it is worth a try. It could also be an alternator problem with it having a short or something and is causing these problems. Are there any other symptoms? Let me know if you get anymore insight into what this could be.


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## primetime32 (Sep 1, 2008)

Hey man, in 2000 is when chevy changed from there basic electrical system to a new system called data serial bus in the cars. it wasnt till 2004 when they started this system in the trucks. One major problem with this was that they router and decoder module through the factory radio. henceforth why you can here the dinging from your door being open in your car speakers. Now, your issue started off and is just caused by your radio failing. Its not interpreting the signal correctly telling it theres power to the unit. You need to change out the radio. Go to a car stereo shop pick up a gmco module this will act as the pass through for your chime system and just get a basic stereo installed. your problem will be fixed. alot of these 2000 cars had this problem. 
Hope this answers some of your questions.


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## easyas (Jul 7, 2008)

I had this problem in a 95 landcruiser- the connector for ignition+ into the back of the stereo was faulty ( hence the sporadic on/ off). re-crimped it and never again. You'll need to know how to remove the stereo and use a multimeter to diagnose this. good luck!


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## primetime32 (Sep 1, 2008)

That would work my friend if the 2000 chevys had a ignition line that goes to the back of the deck. They dont it operates using data serial code transmitted from the BCM to the radio. Telling the radio the car is on. Thats why if you take the Radio out of these cars you can lose things like door chimes door light controls and in some small cases airbag lights and brake failure. You need the Module in the car to relay the data information and will supply the car with a ignition source.


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## easyas (Jul 7, 2008)

Interesting thoughts primetime. Remember 'data serial bus' is just another word for 
'get 1 wire to do 2 jobs'. Yes, one of those 20 (or more) wires going into the back of the stereo does come from the ignition (via BCM)and another one goes to the battery too. On of them (or the earth needed to produce a circuit) is likely at fault in my opinion. 
Replacement of the stereo with a non-factory unit would indeed require a gmco unit to rewire the other functions carried on the connector. 
I'm just suggesting to check the connector as I had a faulty one. Of course it could be a faulty stereo, a faulty connector before the stereo circuit, intermittent earthing, shorting, speaker wires, or even a faulty control module elsewhere. I usually start diagnosing these problems by cleaning connectors and checking their voltage output, then work backwards until the gremlin is found. I whole-heatedly agree with you assessment though


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