I'm Completely Sirius Here

 Over the past few months, the reception in my truck's radio had been spotty. I don't do a lot of serious driving these days, so I didn't hurry to remedy it. I reasonably figured it might be an antenna problem and ordered a new, sleeker, cooler one hoping that might be the cure. Thought then about a new radio. It's an older truck, came from the factory with SiriusXM- the subscription to had long since lapsed- but I thought I might check into that in the near future. I was right about that. Saw a deal from SiriusXM a few days ago where I could get 3 months for $1. How could I not? That wouldn't solve my local station problem, but maybe it would replace it. 

I got on YouTube and found a couple few videos that were specific to my truck and my dilemma. Turned out it was a common problem. The videos showed how easy it was to access the radio by removing the portion of the console that housed it. I feared exploratory surgery until I saw the videos and they showed me how easy it actually was. Two screws held that portion of console in place. Removing them was then just a matter of finagling the center counsel out. Four screws held the radio in place. Unscrew them, detach the connections on the back of the radio and VIOLA! Easy enough. 

The guys on YT made their living doing stunts like this and were very good about relating to me each step and how simple it actually was. There was no inside baseball on this like so many DIY vids that assume facts not entered into evidence about everyone's skill sets. I'm a teacher at heart, and I dislike 'teachers' that act like they were born with their knowledge and why weren't you you stupid idiot??

I never would have guessed on my own that the problem would be one particular chip inside the radio commonly fails after years of bumps on the road and that it was a simple matter of reheating the solder to reconnect said solder to route it was supposed to take in the whole schematics of things. See, mind you, I was accessing the local stations- lighting up on face of the radio- but getting NO sound. I guess one little break in the matrix did it. Which one? Didn't matter. Both guys used a heat gun to heat the whole show around the chip (for about 4 seconds) and problem solved. This turned out to be so easy, even a Ferrerman could do it. 

As per instructions, I hooked up the radio before buttoning up my work. I had local stations again and the Sirius. Yay me. However, in the later process of buttoning, I lost the local again. Something else wrong? Don't know don't care at that point, or this one. All I wanted to do was rock out on my way to Walmart and back, as well as any other destinations. I've got that now. I'd buy that for a dollar.