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Radio reception

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Alexw

Member
Its definately all plugged in and there wasn't one cable that was missed? I'm guessing not as it seems you have installed it twice? A mate did this on his car, he disconnected the Antenna and it fell down into the recess and he forgot about it, took him ages to figure it out...
 
What makes are the old and new head units? Maybe the new one needs an aerial adaptor. Can you take have photos of the rear of each unit?
 
Just a quick question to the in-car musical guru's on our list [:D]

I've just replaced our 10 year old head unit and CD changer with a spanking new version that plays MP3's has a USB socket and is Ipod compatible. It was a straight forward install as the old one already had the plug n play ISO cable connectors.

Problem is that radio reception on the new one is abysmal. I can pick up one very local FM stattion and no AM stations at all [&:] Swapping back to the old head unit brings back dozens of stations so it's not a problem with the antenna and amplifier to my way of thinking. Plug in the new one again and just one FM station.

I'm thinking the new one is already broken in some way, but before I return it any other ideas?
 
Not an area of the car I have experience troubleshooting (although I have replaced the radio in mine) but I understand that there is an aerial amplifier that is powered by the electric aerial feed wire from the radio. On cars with an electric aerial this wire sends the signal to raise the aerial when you switch the radio on, most cars don't use it but apparently ours do for an amp. It could be that your car's ISO connector has an extra 'custom' connection in one of the empty slots for this power line & that your old radio's connector was wired up to match this (ie non-standard). Is there a spare single wire coming from the back of the new radio? I don't know much about modern car radios, but I guess it could be that the new one has no electric aerial control. I used to own a Rover 600 with an electric aerial, cool toy for the first five minutes of ownership [8D]
 
Paul; have you RTFM? Perhaps theres a 'local stations' option in the menus causing weaker signals to be disregarded?
 
Are you able to try it in another car to confirm if it is a faulty head unit? Did you also get an adaptor for your aerial? Just a complete stab in the dark but new head units have different plugs than old ones - I had to use an ISO adaptor when I installed my head unit. Can't remember if I could have got the old plug to push into the ISO connector of the head unit as the diameters of the old style aerial connector and the ISO connector are similar- though the ISO connector looks more like a phono plug.
 
Cheers guys - lots of things for me to be double checking this week I'll take a pic of both backs just in case. Unfortunately I can't try the new radio in another car as the Turbo is away at JMG's trying to track down a mystery coolant leak and my van radio is part of the entire dashboard
 
Hi, Lots of great advice to check. One other thing to consider, is the new radio an import !. We had an imported Honda CRV and we could only pick up radio as you describe. Best of luck
 
ORIGINAL: 944 man Paul; have you RTFM? Perhaps theres a 'local stations' option in the menus causing weaker signals to be disregarded?
Click to expand...
The functions that make it biased towards stronger signals are LOC (local), and REG (regional). Try activating TA (traffic announcements) and see if the signal is still weak as it cuts to various stations it chooses itself, if the signal is good the unit needs setting up somehow.
 
Ooh, have you got AF (alternative frequency) on? This automatically retunes it to stronger signals of the same station if the one you have manually selected dies. If RDS (radio data system) has an on and off make sure it's on.
 
I have a similar issue with my head unit. Bought it from the States, and it'll pick up just about nothing. It only gets "odd" frequencies (88.1, 88.3, 88.5 etc etc) so can't get the local stations... Guy near me fixes radios for a living, got him to have a look at it. He said most head units have an option, but mine alas did not. I've just gotten used to having no radio!
 
If I recall (and it's a long time ago...) there is a connector that was plugged in to the original radio that activated the ariel amplifier. I'm sure you haven't missed it - but worth mentioning in case there are others who have a problem in future.
 
Finally sorted this today - thanks chaps. It WAS the aerial amplifier as suspected. The old head unit had a positively charged chassis and the wire was clipped on to the back of the head unit so I did the same to the new one but with no success. Finally today I spliced the amplifier wire into a positive at the back of the new head unit and hey presto radio signals a plenty [:)]
 
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