Anyone Have a Tip to Clean the Aux Port for Music?

[farrelltravis]

I am pretty certain that the 1/8" auxiliary in port on my boat is not getting good contact anymore. It is "poppy" and I have to twist the cord just right for it to work. Sometimes it just pops and won't work. I am thinking I need to just clean the inside of the port so it will make better contact.

I was thinking maybe a metal pipe cleaner would work. Any ideas?

 

[KXCam22]

I may be more likely that the spring contact inside is bent. It happens with the small headphone type jacks. Sometimes you can get in with a tiny flat screwdriver to bend it back and sometimes you have to replace it. Cam.

 

[maboat]

Are you sure its the jack (female) and not the plug (male) end? They get dirty and corroded when used outside. Its not always visible. Try cleaning/wiping/swapping the plug end first. If that doesn't help, you can squirt some Wonder Drug 40 into the jack. Not too much, just a squirt. Ok this might go in the gutter, I'll stop...

 

[farrelltravis]

@KXCam22 I never knew there was a spring in there. I will google those and see where they are and then check on that.

@maboat First off, you had me laughing! Second, I am pretty certain it is not the cord/male end. I thought that was what was making it do that, but I bought a new cord, and got the same results. So, I am thinking it is indeed the female receptacle. Guess that female receptacle may need a squirt. Ok, I will stop there too.

 

[MIDLIFECRISIS]

I thought that female part never wore out, just had to go on vacation once a month.

 

[farrelltravis]

I thought that female part never wore out, just had to go on vacation once a month.

 

[Gym]

Just clean your jack off with a little electronic cleaner.

 

[MIDLIFECRISIS]

Watch out that might burn a little bit.

 

[scokill]

@KXCam22 I never knew there was a spring in there. I will google those and see where they are and then check on that.

@maboat First off, you had me laughing! Second, I am pretty certain it is not the cord/male end. I thought that was what was making it do that, but I bought a new cord, and got the same results. So, I am thinking it is indeed the female receptacle. Guess that female receptacle may need a squirt. Ok, I will stop there too.

It's not really a spring, but a flat contact that is bent. When plug is inserted it puts pressure on the male plug to keep contact.

 

[Ronnie]

Watch out that might burn a little bit.

Uh what's are we talking/typing about again?

Oh yeah, I had to replace my jack earlier this year because the connection was just bad (music volume was low or sound was distorted). I used something from radio shack but planned to buy the eom jack for $20ish this off season. This thread has motivated me to try and clean out the original instead.

 

[KXCam22]

Scokills description is better than mine. Sometimes you just have to replace it as they can be finicky to bend back. I guess they could get dirty and corroded being in a boat - not used to them being in a boat. Some electrical spray contact cleaner might work. Normally I use a pink pencil eraser on electrical contacts but you would never get it in there (or out). Cam.

 

[txav8r]

@farrelltravis
It is kind of like the throttle and steering cables getting stiff, inevitably they have to be changed Travis. It is both corrosion/dirt and wear. I wouldn't think they get enough wear to give you any grief but they do, and I would have also thought the male plug would be the culprit. Does your aux port have a rubber cover over it? Do you use it? I think trying to clean it or trying to get the internal contact to have the original pressure will not buy you much time and your going to have to change it. So your choices are either paying the $20+ for another aux port and just removing the old one and replacing it...or, for a dollar or two, you can get a new female 3.5mm jack and replace it, but you will have to melt the solder connection on the old one, and solder in the new one. I am pretty handy Travis, but finding the exact same jack and getting the old one out and new one in might be easy for an electronics repair guy...for me, I think I would just look for a whole new jack, but first, I might dissect the old one and see what I needed. You might take the old one out of the boat, and take it down to Fry's Electronics and see what they have. Radio Shack is a thing of the past since their BK and reorganization, I can't find anything I once did in their remaining stores. Bottom line, the plug can be replaced cheap, but the easy way is to just get a new plug and play aux port itself.

 

[RightStuff]

Maybe it's time for a bluetooth upgrade? Just sayin'...wires are sooooo last decade.

 

[Glassman]

Are you sure its the jack (female) and not the plug (male) end? They get dirty and corroded when used outside. Its not always visible. Try cleaning/wiping/swapping the plug end first. If that doesn't help, you can squirt some Wonder Drug 40 into the jack. Not too much, just a squirt. Ok this might go in the gutter, I'll stop...

 

[McMark]

Spray a little on the male end then insert it a few times. Then spray the male end again, insert and spin it. Should break the corrosion without accidentally filling up the jack with WD40.

 

[farrelltravis]

Talk about reviving an old thread!

I am still having this issue. I actually got a new auxiliary cord, new phone cord, and am still having the same issue. So, that leads me to believe it is the head unit where it connects to the RCA input. I hadn't thought about a bluetooth dongle - that would save me from buying a new head unit and remote. But, if the RCA ports are bad on the head unit, I don't think a bluetooth dongle would work either.

 

[RightStuff]

So the Aux (3.5mm 'headphone') jack on the front and the RCAs on the rear of the head unit are bad? Everything above talked about the Aux jack being bad, not the RCAs that it connects to behind the helm...

 

[farrelltravis]

For clarity:

The symptom was a "noisy" connection.
I changed the cord from the music player to the aux input. - Didn't help
Tried a different music player - didn't help
I changed the aux input - didn't help
Fast forward about 1 year - it doesn't "pop" anymore, but at the end of a song, it is "noisy" and the music player stops. This happened on 3 different music players.

Sorry for the confusion!

At this point, I believe it is either the RCA connection on the head unit that the aux input connects to, or the head unit itself.

EDITED TO FIX SPELLING MISTAKES

 

[tdonoughue]

Actually, the first thing I would do (if you haven't already) would be to unplug the remote on the back deck. Those are notorious for causing weird issues.

When that doesn't help, plug it back in and carry on with your HU replacement plan...

 

[farrelltravis]

Thanks for the tip. I will check into that.