GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I am new to the forum and while scrolling through some threads I did see another person mention the "knob problem". Maybe it is the same one I have! about 8 months ago the volume knob stopped working properly. It spins loosely and its like it might fall off. My daughter is driving the car presently and has become a pro in getting it to work. I took it to my dealer who took it apart and found that it could not be fixed, rather the whole radio needs replacement. Is this for real?? He charged me for labor and I got nothing of value from it other than a lousy prognosis! This was last summer and I haven't done anything about it since...any one have this experience??

VERY common problem on the 09-10 models. My former 10 GT had the radio replaced twice under the 3/36 warranty due to the bad knobs before I bought it. They are a cheap design and fail often if used a lot. Mine broke once more after I bought it and I ended up replacing it with a modified one to avoid having to take the radio apart. Luckily I had the steering wheel controls so I never really used it for the volume.

If you are somewhat handy, you should be able to replace it yourself for less than $10. GM sells the knob separately.

Here are the steps to fix it, taking the radio apart, and not taking it apart by cutting out the knob and removing the flange like I did.

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Good luck!

The problem you are experiencing is a design flaw. Follow the instructions in that long thread on repair. It isn't a difficult fix but might take an afternoon.

I did the fix and filled the new knobs with epoxy before installing. You can still see the light through the knob and so far so good.

I'm in the other camp: the frontal assault camp. If you have dremel type tool or small hacksaw, cut the knob out and break the raised flange off of the broken knob to remove it. Buy a couple of new knobs from the dealer (as suggested) and trim off the raised flange on the new knobs so you can simply slide on the new knob. Why the frontal assault method? Because these knobs are going to continue to break again and again and again, especially if you own the car a long time. There is only a cheap piece of plastic keeping the knob on to the metal stem; it won't last. I certainly would not want to take the radio off every time the knob goes bad. Pick your method, but I have extra knobs downstairs with the raised flange all trimmed off just waiting for the time when one of the other knobs fails. Check out trb's pictures in that same thread. That's the way to do it in my opinion.

Bought a couple of the knobs and am going to attempt the frontal assault method! My 2009 vibe is with my daughter out of state and I am going to visit her in a few days. Just bought a beautiful dark blue 2004 vibe for myself, so now I have 2! This one has the older radio which I am trying to get used to. Hard to read the screen in daylight, with polarized sunglassed!