A person can hardly hear the radio in my daughters car. The stations are staticy with not much volumn. The cd player works and the volume is fine. What’s going on?
The antenna connection might be loose or the cable faulty. If not that, then there could be an internal problem with the radio. Make/model/year?
Concur w/Texases … likely an antenna problem. If the antenna doubles as the rear window defogger, the foil pattern on the rear window could have become disconnected at some point. It is possible to repair usually. You’d know there was a problem b/c the rear window wouldn’t defog properly when you turn on the switch. Also, check the ground connection per the paragraph below.
If the antenna is the kind were a wire-like thing pokes up, you know, where you put that Styrofoam ball, first thing to do is make sure it is poking up as far as it should. Pull it up, then put it down, then pull it all the way back up. That might fix the problem just by doing that. If not, see if you can see where the wire from the radio connects to the antenna. To get a good strong signal, there has to be a good connection, both for the antenna, and for the ground. Use a DVM to make sure the antenna ground wire actually connects with less than 1/2 ohm resistance to the car’s chassis ground.
Still a no go? It’s possible the connection on the other side of the antenna wire is loose. Where the wire plugs into the radio. Determining this may be simple or very difficult, depending on how the radio is situated.
Everything connected and ok and still the radio is no good? Buy a new aftermarket radio. Car radios are not very expensive these days, and most new ones come with memory-stick mp3 function, which really expands the functionality of the radio. You can now play pre-recorded podcasts which actually interest you on your way to work. I think if most car owners had this, they’d never go back to a plain old car radio.