2007 C5 Very poor on AM...

[Lynyrd Skynner1]

Hi All , Just joined the forum today , I have a 2007 C5 Exclusive 2.0 hdi the learning curve starts here ..the AM reception is very poor , and I love Talksport so I need it working , the radio has no sat nave, just getting noise cant tune any channels ,it did work on the M25 on Wednesday but the nearer I got to Leighton Buzzard the worse it got , I have had a some ideas/help of where to start looking for a fix just thought I would ask here to ....

Thanks in advance..

[Paul-R]

As was remarked in your welcome post, it's quite possibly the aerial/amplifier. That would be my first port of call. If possible I would temporarily run one of those old-fashioned aerials that clip on to a window or roof gutter to the radio to see if this improves things. An alternative would be a mag-mount as used by taxi drivers and radio amateurs.

The standard aerial is amplified so if that fails then not only is the signal is not amplified but the strength is reduced as it squeezes through the now defunct circuitry so a simple external aerial should do the job. I've not done the job on a Mk II but it shouldn't be too difficult to extract the radio. Who knows, you may find the aerial isn't even connected!

[Paul-R]

Should've asked first of all. How is the FM reception? If that's good then the radio may be at fault. An external aerial will help decide that.

[Lynyrd Skynner1]

thanks for the reply and sorry I should have mention the FM is perfect ...

[Paul-R]

Then it might be the radio at fault as I think if the aerial/amplifier goes faulty that will affect all frequencies.

I'd still pull the radio out and try a separate aerial if possible though.

[Peter.N.]

If you get a few feet of wire and connect it to the centre of the aerial socket, you can do this with the radio still in the car, just pull the radio from its housing. It could be the radio but if the FM signal is strong where you are it could still be the amp that is faulty.

Peter

[Lynyrd Skynner1]

Thanks for the replies gents will give your info a go ....

[xantia_v6]

A faulty active antenna will probably affect AM more than FM, because the impedance mismatch between the antenna and cable will be much worse at low frequencies.
There is also the possibility that the head unit has been wrongly configured for a passive antenna, which would stop the head from providing power to the active antenna.

[Lynyrd Skynner1]

Well tried to have a look at the ariel from in side the car , removed the rear light in the headliner hope it would line up with the ariel base but no joy so I had ago at dropping the headliner at the back , partly removed a side trim but it started getting a bit to involved and lost confidence so put all back together again .....just was not confident of getting back together again neatly ....