2017 Corolla: Replacing the radio?

#1
Hello,

The radio in my Corolla makes an intolerable rattle. It can be clearly heard driving down the freeway at 90 with all the windows rolled down. It's unbearable and though I've had this car for a couple of years and I continue to make payments on it, I drive a 2005 Prius that I begged a friend to give to me instead of leaving at the junk yard. Yes. The rattle is so extreme that for a year and a half I've driven a 14 year old piece of shit that barely runs instead of driving the new car that would otherwise be a nice ride if not for this noise.

The rattle is coming from behind the touch-screen somewhere. It's inaccessible, so I'm unable to get to it to try to dampen it.

I'm not expecting the Prius to run forever, so I need to start thinking about solving this rattle. The most straight-forward solution I think would be to just replace the radio. What's involved here? Can I just buy another radio on Ebay (or elsewhere if you'd be so kind as to enlighten me) and plug it in or are there some ridiculous, impossible to solve hoops to jump through?

Any help appreciated.
 
#2
The old joke of changing car because the ashtray is full… Radio is easy to replace but not cheap (see eBay). Opening the dash anyway, check before buying: it might just be some loose fixation or not the radio at all! Rattles are tricky. Plus why bother, your car is under warranty.
 
#3
You drive 90mph with the windows down and are surprised it's not a quiet ride?

If you can take the radio out to replace it you can take it out to find the rattle. Your car should also still be in warranty, use it
 
#4
Well I didn't want to tell the whole story, but why not. I did find the rattle, and I silenced it. But doing so broke the radio. The rattle was caused by an LED panel that sits behind the selector "buttons". The LED panel was loose on both sides. I snipped off small pieces of foam ear plugs and wedged them in next to the panel.

There was no way to access the backside of the touch screen, however, except by slipping a credit card in between the touch screen and the radio, slowly separating the two-sided tape that held it in place. The tape was tough enough that I didn't feel it as the credit card cut into the cable that connects the touch screen to the radio. So now all the left side control buttons along with the eject button no longer work because the connection has been severed.

Hey. It was incredibly noisy and impossible to enjoy anything about the car with all the noise it made. I dreaded getting into the car to go anywhere. I would avoid shopping or driving anywhere for fun, like to take my kid to the park, because I hated listening to all the noise it made.

As for "warranty," they kept the car for a month and gave me a rental the first month after I bought the car as they tried to find and silence endless rattles. After that they gave up and said they've done their due diligence to find and dampen what rattles they could. But, truth is, they fucked it up more and I've had to learn how to dismantle the dashboard on my own to find and silence rattles the correct way. It's as simple as taping a couple of spent paper towel rolls together
 
#5
(cont.)

As for "warranty," they kept the car for a month and gave me a rental the first month after I bought the car as they tried to find and silence endless rattles. After that they gave up and said they've done their due diligence to find and dampen what rattles they could. So fixing rattles are off the list for warranty maintenance at this point. But, truth is, they fucked it up more and I've had to learn how to dismantle the dashboard on my own to find and silence rattles the correct way. It's as simple as taping a couple of spent paper towel rolls together, holding it up to the ear, and directing it around the cabin as you drive. It becomes clear where the rattle is or isn't coming from pretty quickly through this process.

So now I've got this radio that has a partially severed cable. I'm unable to use all of its features because most of them are only accessible from the left-side control mode buttons. The cable isn't repairable because of the way it's designed. Seems like the simplest solution at this point is just to replace the radio with another one.

So if I find a replacement radio and plug it in, it'll just work? I won't have to do anything special to activate it?
 
#6
So if I find a replacement radio and plug it in, it'll just work? I won't have to do anything special to activate it?
If it's the regular one (without apps and navigation), yes. If it's the one with apps and navigation (with Entune on your phone), it has to be associate with the VIN number of the car for the link between Entune app on the phone and the radio to work properly but I have no idea how it's done.
 
#7
If it's the regular one (without apps and navigation), yes. If it's the one with apps and navigation (with Entune on your phone), it has to be associate with the VIN number of the car for the link between Entune app on the phone and the radio to work properly but I have no idea how it's done.
Well I don't recall an Entune app. Just stuff about miles traveled, gas economy, speaker configuration, a backup camera that automatically came up when the car is in reverse, a CD player that played MP3s and even FLAC files, stuff like this. Is what what comes stock with the car the Etune/Navigation thing or is it more basic? I don't recall trying to use anything pertaining to navigation (I never get lost anyway).
 
#8
Is what what comes stock with the car the Etune/Navigation thing or is it more basic?
It depends on what variant of the car you have... Let's just say that the one with apps has a button labeled "apps" under the audio button on the left, the regular one having a "setup" labeled button instead. Check this video of someone going from regular to apps/nav. It might help you identify your own and figure how to install (procedure being the same, whether it's a change or not).
 
#9
Instead of "Apps," mine says "Car." So I'm guessing I have the basic deal that'll just work when it's plugged in.

Next step is finding a replacement radio. Any suggestions that don't involve Ebay?
 
#10
Next step is finding a replacement radio. Any suggestions that don't involve Ebay?
Once the radio removed check the exact model numbers on the label then do a google search. Scrapyards. Audio store (there might be alternative other than what came with the car but still able to maintain functions.
 
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