2004 - 2007 Chrysler REC Radio Navigation Joystick Repair

[XDCX]

I was helping my Dad get his 2005 Chrysler 300C ready to sell when I noticed the joystick for the Navigation portion of the radio was no longer working. Since the joystick is the primary input tool for the Navigation system the fact that it was broken made the Navigation features mostly worthless.

I did some checking via Google and found that the joystick failure is very common - so common, in fact, that the old 8 way joysticks are no longer available and a newer 4 way joystick is being used instead.

If you have a technician who is good with a soldiering iron and can de-soldier the old part you can probably do the repair in house.

If you don't have a tech that has that ability, you can do what I did and send the parts off to ReplacementRadios.com and for $125 they'll de-soldier the old part and soldier in a new 4 way joystick and send the parts back to you with FREE shipping.

I know the REC Radio with NAV was used in a lot of the 2005 - 2007 LH vehicles as well as the Jeep Grand Cherokee/Commander.

Given the antiquities of the NAV system it may not be worth it for a Used Car Manager to repair a broken joystick in a car he/she has in inventory. In the case of my father's car, since the car only has 40K miles we thought it made sense to get the joystick repaired.

To be clear, this isn't a commercial for ReplacementRadios.com, if there are better options out there for dealers who need to repair broken electronics I'd love to hear about it.

[XDCX]

Here's a picture of the radio.

Based on what I've read a lot of the higher end Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge vehicles used this radio and the joystick failure is very common.

[XDCX]

I tested out the navigation feature and joystick yesterday afternoon and it worked perfectly.

That said, it was eye-opening when I tried to input an address for an across town location. I'm so used to voice recognition with Google Maps that I'd forgotten how cumbersome it is to first designate the state, then the city, then the street, etc.

I'm still glad I got the joystick fixed but if I were driving that car I'd probably rely on my smartphone for navigation.

[mryan55]

The old REC radio certainly hasn't stood the test of time very well... even the 2007+ RHR and 2011+ RHB nav systems are getting kind of long in the tooth versus the competition.

Luckily it won't be much longer before the 8.4" radios are deployed in almost everything.

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by mryan55

Luckily it won't be much longer before the 8.4" radios are deployed in almost everything.

My Dad really likes the 8.4" radio/navigation unit that's in his 2014 Chrysler 300.

He was originally thinking about buying a used Mercedes GLK but then decided to see what he could get in the Chrysler brand for the same type of money and the 8.4" radio and the Pentastar engine with the eight speed transmission sold him on buying a new Chrysler.