This is a tip - not a question. I have a 2006 Mazda3 4 door. Last year, my radio display stopped working! I could still play the radio, CD, etc. I just could not see what time it was, the temperature, or what station was playing, etc. Everything else on the dashboard was working fine. I took my car to the dealership and they said it would cost about 600-700 to fix because it wasn't a fuse problem. I walked straight out of there laughing - no way was I shelling out that much money to a stealership. As long as I could hear the radio, I was fine. Fast forward a year later, last night, my car died because I left the lights on for a few hours. Someone helped me jump start the car, and my jaw just dropped to the ground when I saw my radio display light up!! It came back from the dead!! I have All I can do is pass on the message and hopefully this remedy would help others with this problem. I guess jump starting the car reset the electrical system somehow. At any rate, I'm one HAPPY camper.

 

I doubt it was the jump, but the low battery & reset that it caused... so removing the battery or fuse may solve the problem too.
Glad to hear you found an easy fix.

 

I have just googled the problem because it has happened out of the blue today - also a 2006 but a 5 door.
Told husband and he suggested I disconnected the battery and reconnected!!!!! Can't believe he may be right. He is now asking which fuse controls the radio unit and display- does anyone know?

 

Rochelle--If you lift up the fuse box top, underneath should be a diagram of which fuses go where and what they correlate with. I hope this helps!

 

Husband has fixed it but since he has just gone out , I have no idea whether it was the fuse or if he just connected and reconnected the battery!!

 

Husband said he took the fuse out and then put the same one back in again as when he tested it there was nothing wrong with it!!! Hope others learn from this.

 

My radio display went blank a few days ago so after reading this thread I removed the Audio fuse from the fuse block under the hood. The radio was still on? so I'm not sure what this fues was for?

So I removed the ground wire from the car's battery for about 3 minutes, reattached and bang! the radio display is back!

Thanks Sazzy for posting this!

-Doug

 

Simply swap (in the fuse box) the HORN fuse for the RADIO fuse...you won't believe till you try...but it works!!

 

Thanks for the great tip. Last time I had the temperature/radio display fixed it cost ~$150 for the unit. I want to try the battery reconnect this time, as the unit has failed again after only 2 years.

 

Just a bump on this thread, as I encountered the same problem on a Mazda 3 (2012) I just purchased. The salesman didn't know about this fix, so I was able to talk him down a bit. I found out this is a common problem for all of the c1 chasis (mazda bk) cars made by volvo, ford, as well as mazda. They share common electronics for the Ford Focus, Volvo (several models), and the Mazda 3. A neighbor had this same problem with his Ford a year ago, and the battery disconnect trick worked there too. An electrical engineer who works with me checked out the car, and pretty much agreed with me that the stock negative battery cable terminal is crap. Replace it with a beefier aftermarket one, and you shouldn't have that problem again.

 

Works for mee too. Thanks sazzy!

 

Hysterical. I had the dead same problem. Took out the under bonnet fuse marked Room 15a. Looked at it. It was fine. Returned it. Everything working fine now!

 

i just bought a 2008 mazda 3 and am having trouble with cruise control.It was working when i bought it but then it quit.The cruise light comes on in the dash but will not set or accel. someone said to replace brake switch but that did not work. Any help would be appreciated..thanks

 

hi, i have a 2005 mazda 3 maxx sedan. the radio lights up but the temperature side deosn't. any info on why this is happening

 

I have found that when it comes to problems on any Mazda there are two things you can do to fix the problem 1 is to take out a second mortgage on your home and pay for all expensive repairs yourself or 2 use your extended warrantee and let Mazda pay for all repairs!. I myself prefer the second method.