My FM Radio sounds horrible - please help

[M5Express]

I have a Z-130BT and I live in Miami, FL, we have strong FM signals around here.

 

My FM radio stations sound like AM radio stations. Hissy and poor reception. I've tried Analog setting and it still sounds bad. Digital setting sounds just as bad or worse. Auto switching D/A) is bad too.

 

Do I have a problem with my tuner?

[devious]

I didn't notice the vehicle it was installed in from your post ?

 

Anyhow, you probably have a diversity antenna like I do in my Toyota 4Runner.

 

Instead of one antenna jack from factory radio harness, there are two! One normal sized one, then a smaller sized one, plus a third wire.

 

If you have a diversity antenna system, them you need to crimp off the smaller connector don't use it, and only connect the larger one.

 

This is probably what your installer did.

 

 

You need to take the third wire from the three wires from antenna wiring cluster, cut it and send it 12v Power.

 

I made sure to tell my tech about this issue for diversity antennas, and sure enough when he came to the antenna wiring from the truck, their where three wires there indeed like I researched from the Toyota forums.

 

I told him about this mod, he did what I said, and I seem to be able to tune am and fm stations fine, so he must have done the mod right, otherwise I would have very poor reception like you are experiencing.

 

hope this helped.

[King_corral]

Ha I think I have this in my 08 Chrysler 300? I know I needed an antenna adapter for this but I noticed that I had this little yellow pieced wire in my stock hu that didn't plug into anything in my new 130bt do you know if this is the same problem for me?

[devious]

Probably.... if you have bad reception and more then one wir from factory harness, then you probably have a diversity antenna. Need to send power back to one of the wires in your antenna wiring bundle.

[bmwrider]

I had same problem, turned out to be the traffic tuner was bad messing with the HD reciever, according to installer. Do you show any sources for the traffic feeds? In miami you should have several sources and they should show.

[skittr]

I didn't notice the vehicle it was installed in from your post ?

 

Anyhow, you probably have a diversity antenna like I do in my Toyota 4Runner.

 

Instead of one antenna jack from factory radio harness, there are two! One normal sized one, then a smaller sized one, plus a third wire.

 

If you have a diversity antenna system, them you need to crimp off the smaller connector don't use it, and only connect the larger one.

 

This is probably what your installer did.

 

 

You need to take the third wire from the three wires from antenna wiring cluster, cut it and send it 12v Power.

 

I made sure to tell my tech about this issue for diversity antennas, and sure enough when he came to the antenna wiring from the truck, their where three wires there indeed like I researched from the Toyota forums.

 

I told him about this mod, he did what I said, and I seem to be able to tune am and fm stations fine, so he must have done the mod right, otherwise I would have very poor reception like you are experiencing.

 

hope this helped.

 

I was asked to finish/fix another installer's job putting a Z130 in a Mercedes S430 and have the same antenna issues; staticy, cuts in and out, no reception. I get good reception when factory wire is disconnected from the Traffic unit and I'm holding metal, but when I put the two together it starts to distort/static.

 

I tried moving the antenna wire and the traffic unit around in the dash to see if that might help but the signal was pitiful to non exsistant... Owner wants them out of sight so not many options besides in the dash either. Any chance you have a picture of how you wired yours? I've searched the forums and googled for the past 2 days and nothing I've found works. I checked all the wiring and I can't see anything that's connected wrong... But to be honest I haven't installed a stereo/system in 2+ years lol. Any replies/thoughts/advice is greatly appreciated and thank you ahead of time!