Crappy Radio Reception?

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Hawkwind

Active Member
Joined
Oct 2, 2013
Messages
491
Location
Brighton
Car
CLK 320
I have a non original radio/cd fitted, when I first got the car the radio reception was good on all stations, but recently the reception of Radio4 is useless. The other channels are much better, but maybe that's down to signal strength?

I was wondering what could have affected this, I've checked that the ariel is plugged in properly in the rear of the radio and retuning the station, any suggestions what to check next?

I know Radio4 is an old farts station, but hey, I'm an old fart :dk: :D
 
Reception is pretty pants round Brighton, I lose reception just as I come off the A23 and join the A27 upto where I leave for Hove.. then it's fine again... does it in both my cars
 
Will retuning the station fix the problem and give you a clear reception?

Dec
 
Does the clk suffer from the broken alarm siren problem? The fuse for this is the fuse for the aerial amp..... on the211 its in the boot. Ymmv.
 
Is it a Chinese radio?

They are known for problems.

Don't know the make of the radio, but it did work perfectly when I first bought the car.

Reception is pretty pants round Brighton, I lose reception just as I come off the A23 and join the A27 upto where I leave for Hove.. then it's fine again... does it in both my cars

I agree, the reception around here is not good, but it's the same everywhere.

Will retuning the station fix the problem and give you a clear reception?

Dec

I did try that Dec, but reception is so poor, it won't re-tune.

Does the clk suffer from the broken alarm siren problem? The fuse for this is the fuse for the aerial amp..... on the211 its in the boot. Ymmv.

I'll have a rummage in the boot tomorrow. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
Thanks for the reply Dec, I'll investigate further tomorrow.

Checked all the fuses in the boot area and they all seem to be intact.
 
You will have lost the supply to the aerial amplifier, this is quite a common issue when fitting after market head units to some MBs.
Look in the car's wiring loom there will be a cable that is not connected to anything anymore, from memory I think it will be blue/white, this needs to be fed a 12v feed when the stereo is on, eg wire it to the ignition supply of the stereo.
 
You will have lost the supply to the aerial amplifier, this is quite a common issue when fitting after market head units to some MBs.
Look in the car's wiring loom there will be a cable that is not connected to anything anymore, from memory I think it will be blue/white, this needs to be fed a 12v feed when the stereo is on, eg wire it to the ignition supply of the stereo.

Thanks for the advice Andy.
 
Sorry to dig up this dead horse to flog it again, but the problem still exists, I've just been ignoring it for a while.

I have checked every single fuse on the car and there are all fine, I had a look at the wiring to the radio today and there don't seem to be any unconnected wires except for this one.



Does this have anything to do with the radio, or is it a remnant of the wiring for the tracker device that was once fitted?

Thanks to all those who've taken the time to comment and your patience, as you may already suspect, electrickery and wiring are not one of my strong points :crazy:
 
This is for a 208.

Radio
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Also… C208 Home Page

Dec
Thanks for link reply
 
After some further investigation I've discovered that when the car is parked the reception is great, even with the engine running, only when driving does the reception deteriorate. :dk:
 
Scratch the above post, reception is variable.

I did finally locate the antenna amplifier on the convertible, it's located directly under the antenna and held in place with a single Torx screw.

So I've tested the voltage to the amplifier and I'm getting 12V, but on examining the amplifier and the locating screw, there seems to be some corrosion both on the locating screw and the circuit board itself :(

Cleaned it all up and crossed my fingers, but no luck :( :(

Looks like I might be on the market for a new amplifier, why the hell do they even need these things anyway :dk: In the 'good old days', you just plugged in an ariel and the f**cking thing worked :wallbash:

Any ideas, or should I just junk the whole thing and go for a digital system?
 
First you need to establish if the built-in Antenna amplifier is doing anything..

Work out what fuse powers it, or just get access to the power wire. Tune to a low-signal (noisy) station and remove the power to the Antenna Amp. If it gets worse, it's working, if not, you know the problem.

Having established the problem, if it's not the Antenna amp, a booster is worth a try, but it needs to be cheap enough to throw away, because they often make no difference at all.

I know the part of Brighton you mention and my radio plays-up there as well.

Mind, I may not have a working Antenna amp either...

Other things to try depend on the type of antenna you have. If it's the usual rubber-fixed length affair, you could try a longer one, and if it's the older telescopic type, it's worth taking it apart to check there's a good earth at the base where it connects to the bodywork....corrosion here will ruin reception.
 
Thanks for the reply Paul.

Yes while I was experimenting with the amp, it did make a difference, when I unfastened it from the rear wing, there was no reception at all.

It's very difficult to see the inside surface where the amp would make earth, as it's tucked away under the lip of the boot and behind the boot hinge as well. My thoughts now are that the amp might be working and it might be worth running a seperate earth wire from the amp. Just not sure which bit of the amp will need earthing? Don't want to start popping fuses :crazy:

Before I reassembled the antenna/amp I cleaned everything to a bright metal surface, but maybe the inside of the wing needs a clean as well. I didn't bother as there was absolutely no signs of corrosion on the wing itself. I'm a little puzzled as to how the corrosion on the amp and fixing screw got there actually?

Thanks again for the help.
 
So today I ran a separate earth wire from the antenna amp as a temporary measure.

While there is still some interference it is still to early to say if the overall reception has improved. I'll be driving to work tomorrow so I'll have a better idea after that. :dk:
 
OK so having driven to work I can report that the reception is improved, not perfect, but much better than it was, so it would appear to be an earthing problem.

When I get the chance, I'll fit another earthing wire properly with solder and thicker wire, hopefully this will improve things further.
 

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