volume control out of whack

[standingbear]

Hello, I'm the owner of a 97 Q45 that has a Bose CN 425 stereo system, up until a few weeks ago the stereo has been working fine, however now I'm having major issues with the volume control, when I turn the knob to lower the volume it'll increase it and I'll have to mess with it for quite awhile just to get it back down, same thing when I turn the knob to increase the volume, it'll most of the time not react, what do you suggest? is this something that I can check out? can the knob be removed? etc. really needing some help here, thanks

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Moved to Q45 forum. Good luck!

[Skibane]

That knob is an "encoder" that sends electrical pulses to the radio computer, depending on how fast and in which direction the knob is rotated. The computer translates these pulses into instructions to increase or decrease the audio volume.

If the encoder gets dirty, it can send erratic pulses as the knob is rotated. In turn, the radio computer translates these pulses into erratic instructions to increase or decrease the audio volume.

Suggestion: Pull the radio out of the dash, open it up, and see if you can hit the inside of the encoder with a blast of WD-40 to clean the dirt and dust out of it. Rotate the knob back and forth while you're doing this, so that the WD-40 soaks all parts of the encoder.

[Q451990]

Ditto on all of that, but I think I'd use electrical contact cleaner instead.

[Skibane]

Ditto on all of that, but I think I'd use electrical contact cleaner instead.

I'm not sure the encoder in that radio uses electrical contacts. Some of them use an opto-interrupter instead. Using WD-40 is sort of a shotgun approach - It does a good job of cleaning contacts in mechanical encoders, but it'll also clean the dust out of optical encoders.

[Q451990]

Makes sense... WD40 it is. I knew that stuff was good for something!