Stereo Losing Radio Reception

[Racer Boy]

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?

[jimmythemufflers]

Bought my 2003 3 years ago with no stereo at all, just a hole in the dash. The dealer was going to order a new one from porsche however I made a deal that I'll pick out an after market one much better than oem (imo) Bluetooth, usb inputs, outputs etc. I didnt know nor did this little exotic dealership know our cars have very funky wiring for the head unit & speakers, i still dont know what it is! They had to run brand new power, ground and all 4 speaker wires to get the dam thing to work. New speakers, new head unit and my radio is less than sub par. FM is less than adequate and AM doesnt work at all. I have a short commute and have Pandora or spotify on so i dont care enough to get it fixed.

I did take out the oem amplifier in the front trunk. I dont see how but maybe that affected it?

Where is the antennas on these cars? I have been out of the car audio scene for a while but I remember antenna boosters that hook up between cars antenna cable and the head unit. It is supposed to, well, boost the antenna. I dont think I helped in any way so good luck! If all else fails look into satellite radio.

[Racer Boy]

The antenna booster is on the passenger side windshield pillar. I ordered a new one from Pelican, hopefully that will fix it. I'll update this thread after I try that.

[pjq]

I'll be interested how you make out with this project. I also have poor radio reception with OEM radio.
I read somewhere on one of these forums you have to make sure the ground screw or single amplifier connection to the frame is on bare metal not on a painted surface.
I kinda think that connection was at the top of the windshield frame center, maybe under the convertible roof latch location?

[Racer Boy]

The antenna booster is on the passenger side windshield pillar, it's pretty low on the pillar, just above dash level. I would've thought that it would be mounted higher, but it's not.

The thing that's different about my issue isn't that reception is bad, it's non-existent.

[Racer Boy]

Just an update on this, since I replaced the signal booster, the radio has been working fine. I haven't had the chance to drive for several hours straight, but on the 1/2 hour long drives I've been able to do, the radio has been working fine. So far so good!