I have a Becker 754 in my '87 300TD.

It has started to randomly turn on and off. Car running or not, it will do it either way. I have tried to duplicate the on-off behavior but it seems impossible. It's related to power somehow. If you turn on the radio with the ignition off, then turn the key to run, the radio will switch off, then eventually as the glowplug circuit shuts off and battery voltage comes back up (test done with voltmeter connected) the radio will switch back on. Sometimes the radio will not turn off when the key is removed. I have a junker radio and it looks to me that maybe the power relay inside the radio is bad - this is the part that clicks when you switch the radio on or off - and it's become very sensitive to little voltage drops. I have at times been able to duplicate the on-off behavior by turning the car lights on and off while radio is on. Radio cuts out when lights turned on then comes on again. This only seems to work with an FM station. At times the radio will work fine for a day or two or a few hours, the next time it's used it will turn on and off randomly and often. So basically it's not useable.

I'd like to retain the original Becker radio, i like the way it looks and i don't want to rewire the car for an aftermarket radio. The car wiring itself is in good condition, have checked grounds, and tired radio powered to battery, same random behavior.

So i guess what I am looking for is confirmation this is the radio itself and might not be something in the car wiring. Sure seems to me to be the radio itself but maybe someone can recognize something in my descriptions.

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punkinfair