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Old 03-17-2016, 04:21 PM   #1
Racer Boy
Racer Boy
 
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Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 946
Stereo Losing Radio Reception

My '02 has a Becker CDR-220 stereo, which I'm perfectly happy with, except for one issue; it keeps losing radio reception. It will work fine, then suddenly you get nothing but static.

The PO told me that he went over a bump and it lost reception, so I got the two radio removal tools and pulled it out to re-seat the antenna lead in the back of the radio. That didn't work, so I kept messing with it, and suddenly, radio reception! Unfortunately, that was short lived. It seemed like it stopped working when I went over a bump, but I was on a stretch of very bad road, so it may have been coincidental.

Once again, I pulled the stereo out and re-seated the antenna lead, but again, that has been short lived. Since then, it keeps happening, and it may drop the reception when the car is standing still or driving, it seems to be random. I was going to take a look at the little signal amplifier device mounted on the passenger side A-pillar, and when I loosened the bolts that hold the sunvisor to the windshield header, it started to work again!

Of course that was again short-lived, it stopped working shortly after that. But then the next time I use the car it does work, but only for a while. Today it was working, but I went ahead and checked out the antenna amplifier on the A-pillar. This time, when I loosened the bolts to take the sunvisor off, it stopped working. I pulled the trim off the pillar, and took the amplifier thing off the and looked at it, thoroughly checking the connections and where it mounts to the windshield frame. Nothing made any difference.

It may just be coincidental that it stops working when I am taking stuff apart, but who knows? It's really aggravating!

I've done a search and didn't find anything, and did the same on the Rennlist. The only thing I've been able to find is where people have had bad amplifiers that didn't work all the time, not where it has been an intermittent issue.

FYI, the aux input (I disconnected the CD changer and have an iPhone adaptor) works just fine, it is only on the FM and AM bands that it does this.

Anybody had experience with this problem? What do you think it is? The radio unit itself? Cable? Amplifier/booster thing?
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