Radio resets...short?

This is very random when this happens. But every now and then, when I start up my jeep, the radio has reset to AM and I have to reset my stations. I assume I have a short going on somewhere, but how do I find it or could it be something else? :dunno:

I have the same freakin problem. Only mine resets to 87.9 FM. It does it pretty often too. I was wondering if I just have a bad connection at the battery or somewhere else in the battery cables but I haven't been able to check yet. One way to see if it's loosing battery power is to see how many engine "cycles" it's been through since the last ECU reset. SHould be MANY MANY MANY of them.

I think it has pretty much done it since I've owned it, about 3-4 years as far as I remember. I just haven't done anything about, since it didn't appear to change to hurt anything.
But now, I'd like to try to figure it out. I wonder if it's just a loose connection on the radio. It's the original stock radio.

Mine is stock as well. It's an '87 so it wouldn't surprise me if there were some loose wires. Hell, it's almost amazing they hold up the way they usually do anyways.

I have some weird electrical gremlins too. If it's cold out then my tape player automatically turns on when I start the Jeep up. I have to stick my finger in the tape deck and hold it up for it to stop. And, my gauges will stop working and all fall to zero randomly, but if I press the trip odometer button they spring back to life....weird.

Check the connections and wiring at your battery. Poor connections will cause enough voltage drop when cranking to reset the radio.

I would also check you battery cables and connections.

As my Optima was going out, that was my first symptom. After about six months it started cranking slower as well. New battery, now it's no problem.

I doubt if it has been 3-4 years it's the battery, so check the cables and connections.

It could also be a wiring fault in the radio's "keep alive memory" circuit.

An automotive radio actually has two power leads - one is a low-current lead that is "always hot," which serves to keep the memory (presets, clock, and suchlike) in the radio ticking over. The drain caused by this lead is nominal - a few milliamperes, or so. And, a "switched" or "hot in RUN" power lead - that's the one that provides power when you turn the radio on to listen to it.

Since a middlin-charged nine-volt battery is enough to keep radio memory alive and keep clocks going, I'm more ready to think "wiring fault" or possible "radio fault" than "battery going flat" - especially since you don't mention starting difficulties or slow cranking (you'd think it was an unrelated symptom of some other problem, but you'd be surprised at how often disparate problems in a vehicle can be interrelated...)

Oh - but it's not really a "short" - a "short circuit" is a fault where the wiring bypasses the load, and allows full source current to flow (which blows fuses.) What you are probably fighting with is an "intermittent open" - which can be all the more irritating, because looking for a short circuit means you're probably looking for the wrong thing...

You answers, although educational, sometimes make my head want to explode.

So you are saying it's either a problem with the internal hard wiring or the low-current lead could be fudged up somewhere? Yikes. I think I'll deal with re-setting my stations. lol...

The radio memory circuit is usually shared with the interior lights, so that circuit is a good candidate for checking. See if there's anything you can wiggle, slam, or otherwise do to make the interior lights flicker, dim or go off when they shouldn't.