I found this post from 2016 and I was curious if the radios going haywire changing stations or FM1 to FM2 on their own is really just a dust issue because it is happening to me, I am a recent Ford Explorer 2003 XLT owner and I love this car. It began a little bit in the first month I owned it and now it is out of control getting steadily worse. It switches back from FM1 or 2, to CD to AM and these are completely different buttons. The stock stereo has a CD player and a Cassette player and it won't play any of my CDs it doesn't seem to recognize them saying Data CD and its not! Now the switching from whatever to whatever- it seems to cycle various components on its own and randomly is beginning to happen faster and faster to where it has gotten ridiculous. I have air spray in the can stuff but I have not had any spills plus I wanted to check before I go and damage the stereo unit. This car is exceptionally clean so I doubt it is a dust issue. Also when i turn off the radio after turning off my car, I turn the car back on and the radio on to get spanish mariachi which is not a preset channel on my FM. It just resets to that channel every time.
Second, can anyone recommend a stereo/CD player aftermarket or whatever that will fit the console hole which I can replace the lazy CD player and get rid of this cassette player altogether? Or does anyone have an idea if there is a ford plate that fills the second head unit spot that I can purchase when I get a new head unit?
Last question, I cannot seem to lock my steering wheel when I turn off car and get out. I understand these have had fire issues in the past but it locks every now and then, I try turning the wheel before removing the key and then again after removing the key but there are more times then not that my wheel is just not going to lock. How do I get a lock everytime. I have to push key in hard in order to unlock it when it does lock but does anyone else have this issue and if so, how do they go about the locking of it every time? I park on a hill when I visit a friend so there are cases it should lock no matter what?
