Stock radio - static from cassette?

[kumulonimbus]

I replaced the aftermarket Alpine cd deck that came with my car in favor of the stock no-bling look of the oem cm5908 radio. After entering the code everything was perfect. Sound from AM/FM/weather band were crisp and clear.

This morning I stuck my cassette adapter in to play tunes from my phone. Now I have tons of static!

The weird part is if I take out the cassette and switch to AM/FM/weather band the same static remains. It sounds the same no matter how much I turn the volume knob, unless I turn it to off, in which case everything is silent.

Any insight would be much appreciated!

[StereoInstaller1]

I replaced the aftermarket Alpine cd deck that came with my car in favor of the stock no-bling look of the oem cm5908 radio. After entering the code everything was perfect. Sound from AM/FM/weather band were crisp and clear.

This morning I stuck my cassette adapter in to play tunes from my phone. Now I have tons of static!

The weird part is if I take out the cassette and switch to AM/FM/weather band the same static remains. It sounds the same no matter how much I turn the volume knob, unless I turn it to off, in which case everything is silent.

Any insight would be much appreciated!

I would be willing to bet the stock amp has died.

[kumulonimbus]

But how do you explain that it sounded fine before I put in the cassette? Putting in the cassette causes the amp to die?

[xtos]

Amp dead= no sound. Cassette mechanism faulty = may cause static especially if you put your cassette in and head azimuth is way off. What I can't figure out is when you took it out why the static remained. My guess would be the wiring, since those decks had an specific connector and not DIN standard and you may have spliced/cut/reconnected wires and something is wrong ...?

[kumulonimbus]

New observation: sometimes the static only comes on in the front right speaker. While the radio was running I pulled it out and swapped the front left and front right speaker cables from the back (it isn't a modern harness-- the channels are independent). Then the static was heard in the front left speaker!

This is strong evidence that the static is coming from the head unit itself. So my theory is that the tape that was inserted into the deck somehow caused the entire deck to output static. Could it be magnetization?

[xtos]

Nope. Magnetization on a cassette deck causes sound distortion and not a great deal.
It sounds like your volume knob is old and dusty inside and causes static. If you turn in around fast ...volume up-volume down does the static remain on the same speaker?
You may need to pull the volume knob out, and use some contact spray inside the potentiometer.

[kumulonimbus]

That doesn't seem to be the issue with mine. The static sounds the same (and same loudness) regardless of the volume setting.

I'm probably going to have to hunt down another head unit and see if the static goes away...