Just looked at my manual and it say nothing about being able to disable the radio controls.

Your best bet would be to get an aftermarket head unit or the 09 factory head unit. Which is supposed to have better control.

I never really liked the controls on mine either, but I don't even have an Ipod. I just used it when I had friends ride with that did. I was kind of a waste of money on my part. Since I got a aftermarket deck anyways.

 

so i've come to terms with having to control the ipod via the head unit. sucks, but whatever.



My next, bigger problem is this: i took the car on my first road-ish trip today. After 20 or 30 minutes the sound just stopped. complete utter silence. i didn't touch anything. the head unit has full power, the ipod tracks continue to change and everything looks normal, except that there is 0 sound.

if i change mode to Am/Sat and then back to FM or iPod it will work. for about 5 seconds. then silence again. I got to where i was going and left the car off for about 2 hours. When i got back in it worked normally again for about 20-30 minutes. Then the silence problem. Anyone ever seen this?