Thanks CathedralCub for your suggestions. That will be my next project. I hope I won't have to take the front seats out to lift the center console but I will get to it on the weekend and see. Keep you posted

Thanks, looking forward to finding out if this works! I've got one too, but it'* been good so far.

Well as usual, I am procrastinating. I guess I haven't worked up the enthusiasm yet to remove the front seats and take out the center console. But I do have an old spare radio with a different unrelated problem and I think I will use that for testing first. i should be able to isolate the problem at least that way to either the bose box or the radio.

Cool, thanks for the update!

After tolerating this for a few years now, I finally decided to put my mind to it and make it a project. I removed the bucket from the center console so I could see the Bose amplifier underneath and put a hair dryer to it and sure enough after about 3 to 5 minutes of applying heat the radio started playing. I waited til the next morning and turned on the radio - nothing. Now I unplugged and plugged in the connectors a few times in case the problem was with the connectors and maybe some corrosion, but that didn't make a difference. Then I applied heat again to the heavy aluminum body of the amplifier unit away from the plugs and about 3 minutes later the radio came on. Now I was pretty much assured that the problem was with e Bose amplifier. To my surprise it was very easy to remove the amplifier from the center console. There are some really good help videos on YouTube on how to remove that baby. You don't need to remove the center console to do this. Undoing the connectors is easy and so is unscrewing the 2 rear mounting screws for the amplifier. They are easy to get to with a 7 mm socket and a long extension. But the 2 front screws are not that easy. You need a 7 mm wrench to get to them and you work strictly by intuition and gut feeling. It depends on how talented you are how long it will take you to get them out. But you will not get them back in unless you make it easy on yourself and drill 2 holes in precisely the right spot through the metal frame above it (see attached picture). Once you have done this it becomes relatively easy to install the replacement unit. Follow the tutorial video, there are a few other tricks you need to observe. I went to the local salvage yard to get a hopefully good replacement and I did and I had this thing out of the donor car in 20 minutes flat and the thing works like a charm. After all this time problem is finally solved.

Wow, thanks for letting us know how it turned out!

I had forgotten about this one, and then after review I was like "Oh yeah THAT one!"