Poor Radio Reception

[PhilL]

I have had my 1999 E240 Estate for about 4 months and I have never been happy with the reception on the radio. i have had it looked at under warranty several times.

The first time they said they could find nothing wrong, so back again!

The second time they said that heating elements were damaged in the rear screen and that this would cause the poor reception??? 6 weeks later they eventually replaced the rear screen; and guess what, no improvement to the reception.

Back again and they blamed the Sony head unit, not covered under the warranty!

Tonight I bought a replacement head unit (Kenwood) and connected temporarily; guess what, no difference to reception.

While I was playing I thought I would try a length of wire in the aerial socket and, guess what! Perfect!!

So I now know it is reception from the original aerial/amplifier.

Has anyone experience of a similar problem, or can give me some clues where to look for the cause?

Thanks in advance!

 

[stwat]

Take the info you have, and what you did to eventualy get a signal straight back to the stealers!!!!

 

[guydewdney]

i had the same issue with my old C class (99 as well)

except the aerial is in the side window, not the rear window in the C (202) - check your o/s iirc for 2 vertical wires.

then also consider that theres some sort of amplifier aparantly in the headlinging / trim...

or give up and buy a dab radio and forget FM..

the woodstock DAB54 is out now... but they 'burn' cheap cds - im looking at installing a cooling fan in the thing...

edit - found an amp in the C pillar - might be phone tho'

 

[Tan]

Check the aerial plug. We had really poor reception on the radio in my dad's S-Class. Changing the aerial plug sorted the problem and is a cheap and easy fix.

 

[sym]

Check the aerial plug. We had really poor reception on the radio in my dad's S-Class. Changing the aerial plug sorted the problem and is a cheap and easy fix.

Likewise - had the same on my 202. Dealers obviously never check this !!

 

[Shude]

My previous W202 had rubbish radio reception but when I changed from the oem-fitted sony to comand the reception was vastly improved. My current car came with a JVC headunit which had excellent reception dispite being a rubbish headunit in other respects, I'm told this is because JVC use an active booster.

 

[230K]

i had the same issue with my old C class (99 as well)

except the aerial is in the side window, not the rear window in the C (202) - check your o/s iirc for 2 vertical wires.

On my 98 210 Estate the aerial is on the passenger side cargo window as stated there are two wires on the glass running vertically, when i got the Pentagon smoke tint fitted reception fell off badly and i thought it was the film that caused it but on inspection the film installer had broken the wire goig to the glass.
If your 99 210 is a facelift model it could be possible that the aerial has been moved to the rear screen

Good luck

230K

 

[doriant]

Try checking the aerial lead itself, sometimes they fail.
Test the head unit with another lead & aerial.

 

[PhilL]

Found It!!

Thanks to 230K!

I checked the connection to the window and found the wire had come off. Looks as though someone has tried to bodge it by sticking on with sealant.

The wire was stuck to a clean bit of track using conductive paint (used for repairing screen heater elements) with tape over it to ensure it stays put.

Perfect!!

I can now get Wake up to Wogan on three different frequencies where I couldn't get it at all before.

Welcome back Terry!

Thanks for all your suggestions.

 

[joecud]

i also have very poor sometimes no reception from my radio in my 2001 s class cdi anyone have any ideas

 

[BigDave933]

I had a similar problem with my CLC220. After fault diagnosss the rear windscreen was replaced. Reception was still bad so Mercedes did more fault finding and found that the aerial amplifier had never been electrically connected. Reception is now perfect after connection.

 

[joecud]

where is the amp on the s320cdi 2010