I had good AM/FM radio reception. A rock chip necessitated windshield replacement. Now little or no AM reception. Porsche dealer and auto glass replacement center have checked many times and cannot find cause. Help?
Is your antenna in the front windshield, rear windshield, or someplace else?
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Front windshield
My best guess is that the glass shop did not source the correct windshield, or that they were unable to make a proper electrical connection between the leads in the windshield and the audio system.
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You might post this on a Porsche forum, they’re very active.
In the good old days the antenna was a metal rod that mounted on the body. I assume you can add one. Years ago I saw instructions for a better AM antenna by wrapping wire around the radio. It seems obvious that the new windshield has no antenna or it’s not connected. I’d hope the dealer or glass person would find it.
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I’d bring along a portable radio before I drilled a hole in the body for an antenna.
Maybe take it to a high-end car audio shop?
the dealer does not replace windshields in house? they have no replacement windshields? i would put my hands on one and see in person what type of antenna connection there is . if glass shop says they hooked “something” up than your windshield antenna is defective somehow.
i soldered a broken antenna wire in my suv in the area behind the radio and the fm reception is good but the am is lousy. i get 2 am stations. i considered replacing the antenna wire to the fender area but did not expend the effort required to do it.
Thank you.
That is my thinking as well.
Make sure the radio still works. Maybe it went belly up at the same time, a coincidence. The way I’d do that is disconnect the antenna input and connect up (as an experiment) a regular AM antenna (say from a junkyard). It the radio works then you’ll know for certain it is the connection to the antenna in the windshield that’s the problem. Or there isn’t an antenna in the windshield. Ask your Porsche shop if they’d already done this. I expect they have. If so, and they know the radio works, it seems odd they’d have no idea what’s wrong. Either there’s a connection problem between the radio and the antenna, or the antenna in the windshield is faulty or non-existent. No other possible explanations I can think of. I wouldn’t have any problems myself to resolve a non-functioning antenna problem with just installing a normal AM antenna, say at the rear of the car, fender mounted. But I’m a Corolla owner, not a 911 owner.
Does your FM work? If it does, then the new windshield does have an antenna and it is connected. It is possible that the aftermarket windshield has a different antenna design that does not pick up AM. The other thing could be that AM requires a ground plane connection because AM is vertically polarized where FM does not require a ground plane as it is horizontally polarized.
Thank you for your reply.
Dennis
Thank you.
Best possibility I have heard. FM works fine.
Dennis
Have you listened to AM recently? I thought something was wrong with my radios when I moved to Albuquerque because I could get only 2 stations. It turns out that AM is nearly dead, my radios work. On the other hand FM I can receive even without an antenna. (I take mine off when I’m not driving because some joker stole it once.)
You don’t need a great antenna for AM - the wavelength is 300 meters (for 1000 kHz), a thousand feet. A length of wire draped over the dash can work, if you don’t mind how that looks.
Thank you. The AM station I always listen to was strong before the windshield was replaced but now is almost inaudible.
Appreciate your advice.
Dennis
Not necessarily, FM will work as long as the antenna wire is plugged into the radio, no antenna needed.
AM needs a properly grounded antenna and the longer the antenna, the better.
The flip side of that is that for commercial AM, only length matters. I remember taking apart my '50s-era clock radio (to replace a tube!) The antenna (AM; it had no FM) was lacquer-insulated wire, a really long oblong helix, lacquered to the back: no design. I’d fetch out the longest scrap from my box, use that; it’d dress up the dash of my '87 pickup.
That would only work if the antenna wire is unshielded. Most automotive antenna cables are shielded. Even then, if it did work without the antenna, it would not pick up weak or distant stations as the signal strength would be really low.
Thank you,
Dennis