Dinsley

We have a 2006 Civic Hybrid. Compared to all the other cars I've had, this one has the worst radio reception. FM signals that I can usually pick up from neighboring cities are now floating in and out. Is there an antenna upgrade somewhere? Or some other fix-it ?
Thanks.

sotony

Out of any of the 06 civics, I thought the hybrid would get the best reception since its the only one with a traditional mast antenna. They did this to get better isolation from the EM fields created by the battery stack in the trunk of the hybrid. (The non-hybrid civics have their antennae integrated into the rear window; apparently the engineers thought this was too close for comfort in the hybrid.)

Do you notice any difference in reception when the hybrid assist is maxed out under heavy acceleration as opposed to when you are cruising mostly on the gas engine? The fields created under the first scenario should be larger, and could interfere more with reception than in the second scenario, where the batteries are closer to dormant. (Not that I think that is okay at any rate--why couldn't they just stick the antenna in the A piller like gen 6?)

Dinsley

There doesn't seem to be any correlation between the electronic or gasoline engine activity and the radio reception. It's just a distance thing. Thanks.