Poor radio reception

[John Maddox]

From memory the radio aerial connects behind the rev counter. Often a problem if the screen is replaced. Not sure about amplifier.

 

[nfearn]

Does anyone know where:

i) the connection from the inbuilt radio aerial in the windscreen connects to the car's wiring loom?

ii) The aerial's signal booster is located and what it looks like?

Background - I have poor radio reception and believe it may be down to either a poor connection to the screen aerial or a failed signal booster.

Any other tips/thoughts are welcome. Basically the reception is just fine when stationary but degrades quite badly (lots of static and drop-outs) when moving.

 

[D Ward]

The amplifier is just behind the clock, black box fixed to the metal work by the windscreen, short black lead connects it to the windscreen. Have you checked to see if the small single wire (power supply to amplifier) behind the radio is connected, often gets forgotten about, I think its black and plugs into the single white wire. Not the green wire, that one is part of the alarm system for the radio and not normally used

 

[nfearn]

The amplifier definitely has power to it, at least at the connector which emerges from the aerial connector adjacent to the radio. The windscreen has been changed recently so that is a possibility which I need to pursue. Thanks for the information concerning the location of the windscreen aerial connection and the amplifier - that makes things much easier to check.

 

[JB 3.2]

I can confirm that on my car the radio amplifier is just behind the clock.

 

[nfearn]

I've now had a chance to investigate the locations of the components and their condition fairly thoroughly. This is what I have found: - The aerial signal booster and the connection to the screen are behind the clock. The booster is mounted (and earthed) onto the car's bodywork via a stud and a 10mm nut. Removing the nut is a little tricky unless the speedometer is also removed and a 1/4" socket with an extension bar is used. - On my car, the reception problem seems to have been caused by corrosion in the male connector for the aerial coaxial cable where it attaches to the radio's head unit. The actual soldered joint where the problem was is hidden by a rubber sleeve which makes the problem difficult to detect. When I cut into the sleeve the problem (corrosion in the cable's outer mesh layer of copper wire which forms the ground for the aerial and acts as a shield) was fairly obvious, with a certain amount of flaky copper oxide dust coming out of the connection. - The aerial cable is irritatingly short and is difficult to solder in situ, although it might be possible with care and perseverance. - My proposed fix for this is to solder a replacement aerial cable* into the booster unit. I have completed this piece of the work and it's not particularly difficult as long as you are careful and know a little of soldering technique. *Available quite inexpensively through Amazon, etc. - This fix will also involve feeding the new cable through the grommet through which the original cable passes so that it can pass between the "top" and "bottom" of the dashboard assembly. The grommet is located behind the oil pressure/temperature gauge. I strongly suspect that feeding the cable through will also involve removing the climate control unit. From my basic research on the web, it seems that the majority of reception problems stem from poor aerial connections or breaks in the aerial wire, or poor earthing of the aerial or head unit itself. While it is quite satisfying to fix the reception problem, this has mopped up a few hours and has been quite frustrating at times. Hopefully this description will be helpful to those with the same problem, which I imagine will occur more frequently as our cars age and the original soldered joints suffer the effects of damp and time.

 

[JB 3.2]

Thanks for the update Nick. I also have poor radio reception, I replaced the head unit, aerial plug and the aeriel booster, none of which have made any significant difference. Like many others I now use an iPod if the reception is poor. One point which you may wish to try is disconnecting the aerial lead from the booster and replacing it with a length of wire, on my car it noticaby improves the reception. I have a spare lead with the booster plug on it, which you are welcome to try.

 

[nfearn]

Thanks for the offer John. However, I am reasonably certain that I have found the problem (the corroded earth wire in the aerial cable). Radio reception with the new cable in place is now pretty good or at least as good as I imagine it will ever be with an aerial in the windscreen. regards Nick

 

[Mears]

'interesting post Nick. I too suffer horrendous bursts of ignition interference, despite changing an HT lead that was split. I'm beginning to suspect connection problems now, either at the windscreen (definitely been out for a respray job) or the head unit. 'hard to motivate myself to do it though as I've become accustomed to listening to the glorious engine noise instead of the radio!