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I have a 12 LS460 with the Mark Levinson radio and I have an issue where the radio takes a long time to fully boot/initialize. I've looked about and haven't found anyone who's had this exact issue.
I suspected an amplifier failure and sent it to United Radio. To my suprise, it passed with flying colors. I notice the long boot the most when the ambient temperature gets above about 80 degrees and the car sits. Sometimes it happens when I cycle the key after stopping for a short time, like at a store or getting fuel. It will display "Audio Off" and will not respond to any radio inputs. It will stay in this limbo for 10 to 30 minutes at times. I've added an image of what I see when this happens.
I've run the cars self test and all of the radio buttons function and register inputs. Any assistance in diagnosis and where to look is greatly appreciated. If you need more info, feel free to ask.
Thanks for your time!
Last edited by foolinjected; 08-22-24 at 06:21 PM.
I'm not sure if the 12 has it but does your car's nav use the hard drive option? I'm not sure when in 2012 it was discontinued.
I know my car has the HDD in it, so I'm assuming so. The self test I performed said the drive is okay. But I don't know if it's testing to see if the sectors are good. I'll check again tomorrow to see if nav boots fine as it's supposed to be hot again. But as of this moment, this is what the self diag says.
To add more info, once the radio has booted and entered the normal Enform system, it works perfectly fine. No delays, no input errors not anything that would seem like its not functioning as it should.
To my knowledge the battery is good, from the last test had a few months ago. I'll test it again to be sure but its only ~8 months old. This issue has been happening over the past 2-3 years and I've replaced the battery's 3 times in the past. First due to age/health, and second unfortunately failed prematurely, bad cell. The third is the current one I have in the car.
Since the head unit is the issue, I recommend calling United Radio, describing the problem. My guess is they would have told you to send that in and not the amp.
I agree that that the radio module may be overheating and failing. I did operate the nav unit while it was in its boot limbo, nav was available and operated. I didn't set any destination to see if it would prompt me, but it wasn't slow or inaccessible. Does anyone know of any tests or checks to perform? The HDD I could scan with my PC to check its health, but any info on testing/diagnosing the radio assembly is greatly appreciated!
Since the head unit is the issue, I recommend calling United Radio, describing the problem. My guess is they would have told you to send that in and not the amp.
I'll definitely give them a call and inquire about it more. Honestly don't know why I didn't in the first place but sometimes learning is hard.
Pardon the delay. I use a battery tester. Came back as a good battery.
It seems to be an AGM battery. The LS460 is not designed to use an AGM battery but that is unlikely the cause of your problem. If you haven’t already, you should disconnect the battery for a few minutes which will force an initialization when you start the next time.
08-22-24, 03:13 PM
Radio Slow to Boot
