About a month ago I turned on the radio & the FM stations were staticky & I couldn’t get any AM stations to work. It was cloudy out that day & I thought maybe it was due to the weather. But the problem has remained. It’s gotten slightly better where sometimes I get a clear signal, but it depends on the street I’m driving on in my city. It’s a hilly city. If I’m on top of a hill, it works good, if I go on the decline it doesn’t. It sometimes works at a certain stop sign/light, & sometimes doesn’t. There’s not a particular pattern. I haven’t gone through a car wash or have knowledge of any direct damage to my antenna. Any ideas on what to do to fix it? Thanks!
My guess is water getting to the connection of the wire to the antenna, and or maybe a bad ground at the antenna.The real big clue here is that you get NO AM signals at all, this is a sympton of the antenna being disconnected (do the easy stuff first).
It sounds like you might have a loose connection between your radio and the antenna.
one more vote for a loose antenna connection. Is it the original radio, or was that replaced? If its the original, and no one has been behind the dash for any reason (heater core replacement, computer replacement, electrical work, etc), then check the wire at the base of the antenna first and work back from there. Otherwise, perhaps the antenna was never plugged in all the way under the dash.
Do I just open up the hood & get to the connection point that way? Or is there a different way to locate antenna/wire connection?
The connection at the radio will be under the dash,in the back of the radio, below it. From the post above, it sounds like the antenna is mounted in a front fender? If so, the connection at the antenna will be underneath the plastic inner fender liner.
It doesn’t sound like it’s readily accessible. As a non-car repair person, do you recommend that I have someone look at it instead?
If you’re not comfortable looking at it yourself, yes. It won’t take someone who knows their way around these areas too long to look at either connection.
Just switch to satellite radio - you won’t regret it. I can’t believe FM (much less AM!) is even still in business.