Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob175
Can a faulty coil cause AM radio interference? Intermittently, I get AM radio static that increases and decreases with engine RPM......not all the time just occasionally comes and goes, but only on the AM band. Coil? Plug? Radio? (1998 stock Becker radio) ...........ideas?
|
It could do. A spark gap is a simple form of transmitter, think of lightning, my lightning detecotr picks up the noise to about 4,000 miles away, mainly in the kiloherts region, so below AM band. Spark noise is amplitude in nature so causes much more problems on AM (amplitude modulation, low frequency in KHz) than FM (frequency modulation, high frequency 88-10MHz).
If the coil and plug is working correctly then the spark is inside the engine and is therefore metal shielded, it should give some suppression.
If the coil is breaking down some of the [spark] energy could be realesed across the coil body, outside the engine and it would create more electrical noise.
Years ago you used to have to fit a capacitor/suppressor across the power lead to the radio, although this might have been to attenuate noise from the alternator as suggested by JFP.
2001 Porsche Boxster
Hybrid Mode
