Radio button broken on 2009 Mazda3

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2009 Mazda3 i Touring Value
Hello everybody,

I recently bought a used 2009 Mazda3 i Touring Value, and a couple days after I brought it home (after it was already purchased as-is, unfortunately), I noticed that the top Track Seek button (the one with the upwards arrow, ^) is pushed in so far that it is inoperable. The button still lights up red, but when I push it, it does not function; nothing happens on the radio, as opposed to pushing the button below it. This wouldn't be a huge issue for me because I don't really enjoy listening to the radio (I mostly listen to music on my iPod through the Aux port, and the tuning knob works anyways), but this is also the button that sets the hour on the clock. Come daylight savings time, my clock will be an hour slow, which could get annoying.

I went to a Mazda dealership (Groove Mazda), and they said the buttons don't come separately, so it would be about $800 with labor for a stock radio, or ~$500 for an aftermarket radio. Basically, the guy said it wasn't worth my money just to replace a button. Personally, I think the stock radio/dash is awesome (it's one of the things that attracted me to this car), so I don't think I want an aftermarket radio if I were to be able to find a cheap one. The dealership I bought the car from (not Groove Mazda) said they didn't notice the button was broken either, and they offered to pay for the repair if it was around $50, although I haven't been able to find a repair for that cheap.

Basically, this leaves me with one option for repair (as far as I know). I could try to pry the button off with a small flathead and put it back on. My biggest fears in doing with are that I am going to split the button in two (or more) and/or I won't be able to get the button back on; if either of these happen, it would look worse than it does now, and I assume that would leave the light exposed. It doesn't look too bad right now and is pretty unnoticeable, but at the same time it's completely dysfunctional. So I want to make it functional again without making it look worse; if fixing it isn't possible, then it will just remain as is. Have any of you taken off one of the radio buttons before? If so, how did it work out? What do you recommend I do? I can provide a picture or two if necessary.

Thanks.
 
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Even if you've never done this before, I'd love to hear your advice.
 
This thread has gotten over 200 views, yet no replies, and daylight savings time is ending soon. I would extremely appreciate even the slightest bit of help.
 
What I would do is...Take a precision flathead screwdriver, pry off the button. After said button has come off, I would "flick with my finger" the exposed part of the radio that the button has come from, to make sure that it is operating freely. If it is, put button back on and try it out...If nothing, then you may need someone with more electrical knowledge than myself, lol!
 
The dealership I bought the car from (not Groove Mazda) said they didn't notice the button was broken either, and they offered to pay for the repair if it was around $50

There is a good condition OEM radio on ebay for around $100 shipped. Since they offered to pay for repair up to $50, you could probably get them to pay for half. It would be easy for you to swap out the radio. Here is the link for the radio on ebay

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2009-Mazda-...ake:Mazda|Model:3&hash=item20cc5376f3&vxp=mtr
 
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What I would do is...Take a precision flathead screwdriver, pry off the button. After said button has come off, I would "flick with my finger" the exposed part of the radio that the button has come from, to make sure that it is operating freely. If it is, put button back on and try it out...If nothing, then you may need someone with more electrical knowledge than myself, lol!

There is a good condition OEM radio on ebay for around $100 shipped. Since they offered to pay for repair up to $50, you could probably get them to pay for half. It would be easy for you to swap out the radio. Here is the link for the radio on ebay

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2009-Mazda-...ake:Mazda|Model:3&hash=item20cc5376f3&vxp=mtr

Awesome! Thank you both very much for posting! I'll try skallen's solution, and if that fails, we'll see where what rsvinylgraphics said leads me. I'll keep this thread posted on any advancements.
 
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