HELP? Keeping losing time and radio settings.

[Mike97M3]

Every now and then, when I come out to go to work the set time is blinking to be reentered and all the radio preset are wipe out. As if I had lost power? Car starts right up?? What is causing this. Car just turned 121k miles..

[GasmanM3]

The radio likely has an internal rechargeble battery to keep the memory. It is porbably toast / not keeping charge.

This is the case with the dash warning lights (they stay on if the circuit board battery is dead).

Unfortunately, I don't know the details of how to replace the radio battery. ...at least it's a start :)

[Larry Arabia]

The stock radio is fed both switched and always-hot power. There is no internal battery. The memory is maintained by the main battery.
You can confirm this by disconnecting your battery. The radio will instantly forget its settings, and will ask for the code.

The problem here is likely a blown fuse.

[GasmanM3]

You're correct. I have an aftermarket radio. I also needs a constant power lead for memory, and an accessory lead to power-up.

I thought since the problem is intermittent, then it is either a loose contact or an internal battery. It didn't sound like the radio needed to be recoded when the memory settings were lost, so the constant power lead is likley working. Although re-reading the post, it didn't say is it was stock or aftermarket. Aftermarket with a loose lead (no need to recode)?

I didn't think about a fuse. DoH! I'm glad someone is paying attention. :)