All of a sudden, my ipod won't play in my tc. On the display, it's cycling through songs one after another without actually playing anything. None of the buttons are stuck or anything so i don't get it. What could it be?

 

try restoring the ipod to factory settings, reload your music and then put it in your car again. if that doesn't work, try a buddies ipod and see if it's the radio. just use the process of elimination to figure out what's going on. after you know which one is broken, get it fixed.

report back here with your findings! ;)

 

Ipods tend to be kind of sketchy with Scions - for example, whenever I unplug mine from the car, the auto-shutoff remains disabled, so it will sit there with the display fully light up until the batteries are totally gone unless I remember to turn it off manually.

Try a hard reset on the iPod first. (flip the hold switch on and off and then hold the menu and center buttons for about 5 seconds). If that doesn't help, give the factory restore option a shot. If that also doesn't work, find a buddy with an iPod and see if there's works in your car like Scott suggested.
If their pod works and yours still doesn't, it might be time to go shopping for a new one.

 

if I leave the ipod plugged into the ipod jack thing, will it drain my battery if the car isnt on?

or does it automatically shut off after a certain amount of time?

 

I believe it shuts down eventually if you leave it plugged in. It is just the act of unplugging it that screws up the auto-off timer (at least on mine). But then again, I never leave mine in the car for more than an hour or two, so I can't say for sure.

 

thats what I was wondering.. I want to be able to just leave it in the car unless Im adding music to it.

It's in there now, so I guess I'll have a look when I take my lunch break.