Fm Radio Problem. No Reception

[firehawk87]

Evening all. For a while, I've had a problem with the FM tuner on my 2000 is200. It has next to no reception even on my local channel. If I am lucky, I can here a faint mumbling. LW works fine. If I unplug the aerial it gets worse so I know all the leads are ok. I have even plugged another aerial directly into the back of the stereo and that did the same. There is a feed to the aerial for the amplifier on it. Has any one else experienced this problem or even not what it may be? I wanna try and sell the car so unless I'm lucky and potential buyers don't check it, I'm probably gonna end up losing even more money.

Any help is much appreciated. Cheers

Jeff

[sparkystav]

Do you have the standard stereo or an aftermarket one?

if you have an aftermarket one then have you connected 12v to the aerial power cable? Its the white connecter with a single black wire behind the stereo.

Stav

[firehawk87]

Do you have the standard stereo or an aftermarket one?

if you have an aftermarket one then have you connected 12v to the aerial power cable? Its the white connecter with a single black wire behind the stereo.

Stav

no, it's the standard one. I think the problem started when I fitted a stubby aerial. It didn't work so I put the standard one back but then that decided not to work. My first thoughts were the aerial base but I have a universal amplified aerial which I fitted directly to the back of the stereo and wired up but it didn't make any difference. The only difference is that you can here a slight mumble under the static whereas without it in, all i get is static. There is an electrical feed to the roof aerial for the amplifier so it's not that. I'm just hoping it's not the actual stereo. Sadly I sold my aftermarket stereo and the bypass lead so I can't check that.

[firehawk87]

BUMP. Cheers

[firehawk87]

Anyone got any ideas? cheers again

[Steviewevie]

So was it all fine before you fitted the stubby aerial ? And then when you fitted that did the radio reception go bad immediately, or only after a while ?

I wonder if the wiring got damaged when you replaced the aerial, given that the problem still happened with the old aerial put back on.

[firehawk87]

it was instant. The stereo was on whilst I swapped it. I was sort've wondering weather I shorted something and blew a fuse but as far as I can tell, there isn't one that specially powers the aerial and I've checked all the other obvious ones.

[Steviewevie]

No, I don't think there's a fuse just for the aerial either, I checked when you originally posted. Unless your head unit has something internal on this ? I'm afraid I don't really see an easy way of testing this without another head unit to try plugging in to see if that works any differently :(

Can you maybe rig up a different FM aerial that you plug in and put outside the car somewhere just as a test ?

[firehawk87]

I tried that but it still didn't make a difference. I don't know whether it just wasn't good enough or if it actually is the headunit. My sister has an aftermarket stereo in her car so when I see her next, I'll see if I can rig my aerial to her stereo and see if it works. cheers for your advice so far

[Steviewevie]

I tried that but it still didn't make a difference. I don't know whether it just wasn't good enough or if it actually is the headunit. My sister has an aftermarket stereo in her car so when I see her next, I'll see if I can rig my aerial to her stereo and see if it works. cheers for your advice so far

Yeah that would be a good test. Let us know how you get on.

[Dan_Harris]

I had the same thing with the stubby aerial mate, swapped back to the stock lex one and it was fine. Think for some reason stubby's just don't get pick up reception in the Lex :(

[T7LER]

I had the same thing with the stubby aerial mate, swapped back to the stock lex one and it was fine. Think for some reason stubby's just don't get pick up reception in the Lex :(

well i cant get fm on my standard stereo and havent touched the ariel. AM works fine. my grand father knows alot about audio stuff n he rekons that am/fm need seperate circuit boards, AM uses a detector whilst FM uses a discriminator to receive frequencies,and that it needs demodulating,,, he used alot of other big words i didnt understand but basically its f####d!!!!

[firehawk87]

cheers. I'll have a try and see what I can do but if nothing works then I'll just have to hope that no-one notices if I sell it.

[bobbyx]

I got a problem though. When I plugged my aftermarket stereo in I had radio reception although not great, now I dont get any radio reception at all. I have read the forum on connecting the black antenna wire at the back of the dash to the blue remote wire unfortunatley this has had no affect. I dont even get the hissing noise from the radio. What could be wrong do you have any clue?

One thing I must say is I went to the car wash and the assistant unscrewed my ariel and gave it to me. I screwed it back on but didnt check the radio I just noticed I was getting absaloutley no sound when i am on the radio source not even static. Any help please

[bobbyx]

Evening all. For a while, I've had a problem with the FM tuner on my 2000 is200. It has next to no reception even on my local channel. If I am lucky, I can here a faint mumbling. LW works fine. If I unplug the aerial it gets worse so I know all the leads are ok. I have even plugged another aerial directly into the back of the stereo and that did the same. There is a feed to the aerial for the amplifier on it. Has any one else experienced this problem or even not what it may be? I wanna try and sell the car so unless I'm lucky and potential buyers don't check it, I'm probably gonna end up losing even more money.

Any help is much appreciated. Cheers

Jeff

I think ive cracked it you need to reset your stereo. Thats exactly what I did it now works. If you got aftermarket stereo you probably have to stick a pin in somewhere. If you got manufactures diconnect the Battery for 30 plus minutes then reconnect it. :winky:

[firehawk87]

Evening all. For a while, I've had a problem with the FM tuner on my 2000 is200. It has next to no reception even on my local channel. If I am lucky, I can here a faint mumbling. LW works fine. If I unplug the aerial it gets worse so I know all the leads are ok. I have even plugged another aerial directly into the back of the stereo and that did the same. There is a feed to the aerial for the amplifier on it. Has any one else experienced this problem or even not what it may be? I wanna try and sell the car so unless I'm lucky and potential buyers don't check it, I'm probably gonna end up losing even more money.

Any help is much appreciated. Cheers

Jeff

I think ive cracked it you need to reset your stereo. Thats exactly what I did it now works. If you got aftermarket stereo you probably have to stick a pin in somewhere. If you got manufactures diconnect the Battery for 30 plus minutes then reconnect it. :winky:

I shall try that tomorrow and let you know if it works. cheers for letting me know

jeff

[firehawk87]

the ressetting thing didn't work. i shall try my aerial on my sisters stereo and vise versa tomorrow. if it comes to it I'll have to get a cheap stereo off of eBay.

[ormi]

could be the fm booster (its in the base) seen that problem a few times.

[jay_russell]

a little question if that's OK.

I'm installing a aftermarket head unit and this white/black wire for the antenna does this connect to the power antenna from the head unit. blue wire from mine?

[Steviewevie]

I thought the wire was usually just black. But yes, there is a wire that goes off in the same direction as the aerial itself, which feeds the power to the aerial amplifier. So you need to give this wire power from your head unit, yes.

[firehawk87]

a little question if that's OK.

I'm installing a aftermarket head unit and this white/black wire for the antenna does this connect to the power antenna from the head unit. blue wire from mine?

should do. it did on my previous panasonic unit

[jay_russell]

can i leave it conected to the plug it is conected to now or does that not work when you take out the original head unit?

[Steviewevie]

can i leave it conected to the plug it is conected to now or does that not work when you take out the original head unit?

That won't be working any more. So you need to cut off that connector, and then wire it into the appropriate lead off the harness of you new head unit.

[firehawk87]

can i leave it conected to the plug it is conected to now or does that not work when you take out the original head unit?

That won't be working any more. So you need to cut off that connector, and then wire it into the appropriate lead off the harness of you new head unit.

you can buy a harness for about £15 that does all the work for you. you take a plug out of the amp and plug it into the lead. you then plug your stereo lead into the other end. connect your new stereo's remote output into the aerial amp wire. job done.

[oedipus]

New occurrence here. Since 2 weeks, after car went to the garage for some suspension work, the FM stereo didn't work anymore. I hear mumbling & disturbed signal. MW & LW work fine, as does the 6CD unit. I tested without aerial and that is worse, so I presume antenna is not the problem. I do have a GROM ipod adapter installed, but there is no ipod connected.

If I recap the options listed above, I can:

- check the wiring

- reset stereo

Any other suggestions welcome!