Rep Power: 0

Well not my reception, but my girl's reception in her 2k1 Civic EX. Recently, she had a Clarion VRX-610 monitor display unit installed into her car along with a universal TV tuner and CD/DVD/VCD player. As expected, the TV tuner reception is pretty bad but I guess we could remedy that with a second antenna or even a powered antenna. The problem is with the am/fm reception. It just sucks, nothing but static. I mean, it was bad before but now we can't even listen to the radio while the car is parked in her driveway! Is there anything we can do? Anything special I should look for when I take her unit out tonight?

If you're going to say take it back to that place where it was installed, we did that twice already. It always works when we're there but once we leave reception goes to $hit. I'm sick of dealing with them, and I'm ready to just have the whole thing replaced. I have a crappy Pioneer DEH-230 in my car and my reception is like a million times better than hers. What do you guys think?

 
Rep Power: 0

Might be time to an aftermarket powered antenna [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG].. the OEM antenna is nothing more than some mesh witing at the top of the rear windshield..

 
Rep Power: 0

Thanks Mohawk. I've been leaning toward that route too.

A quick question though. When my girl had the DEH-230 in her car, the reception was decent, but not phenomenal. Now that she has the Clarion, her reception is almost nil. Does tuner capacity vary THAT much from headunit to headunit? Or do you think there may be something wrong with the Clarion unit itself? I've tried running the stereo with the antenna cable connected and without, there's almost no difference between the two of them!

Another question on the side, where would you recommend mounting (window mount) interior TV antennas for best reception in a 2k1 Civic?

 
Rep Power: 343

My AM reception sucks *** too, but my FM is good.... pisses me off that my AM is so crappy because I can't listen to Rush Limbaugh!! [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/IMG]

 
Rep Power: 337

my reception was absolutely horrible for over half a year......

then i pulled the right C pillar and saw that teh antenna amplifier was unplugged....

id check all yoru antenna connections, including tv reception.

 
Rep Power: 0

if ya get tints kiss the reception goodbye...happened to me...thank god I make my own CDs...

 
Rep Power: 0

I have my windows tinted and I don't have a problem with reception at all.
I actually get just as good reception now as I did before the tint, why would tint kill your reception?
also
what state(s) or part of the world do you guys live in? are you close to a major city, is bad reception a common problem in your town?

-Lowtek

 
Rep Power: 0

Thanks for all the replies guys. It turns out that a loose antenna outlet plug on my girl's headunit was the actual cause of the problem. After that was fixed, all the reception came back! I didn't know about the C-pillar plug though. I'll have to look at that if her reception ever goes bad again.

As for the TV reception, it's pretty good considering we live in Los Angeles. I had to hook the tuner up to two antennas just to get decent reception. Some areas are bad, but I didn't expect perfect TV reception in a car. Maybe if I get a higher end tuner that has its own signal amplifier we'll get better TV reception.

Machina, my girl has had her car tinted over twice now and it doesn't seem to be affecting her reception. Maybe the people that worked on yours cut one of the antenna wires on your rear windshield?

 
Rep Power: 0

Replaced stock HU with Blaupunkt and had terrible reception, especially AM. Tried antenna booster from Crutchfield with no success. Ended up installing short roof mounted MDX/Si style antenna and now all reception is terrific. Funny how you don’t hear much about this problem from Crutchfield and other electronic suppliers.

 
Rep Power: 0

Hey guys, I've read a few of the posts about radio reception, and to tell you the truth, I haven't checked the AM reception. But my FM really sucks. I've had 2 Sony HUs since the stock tape deck. The reception on the first one was perfect. All the radio stations in the area came in. But I bought a newer and better HU and the reception went down the drain. When I bought the new HU, I also bought subs, capacitor, and amp, and installed them all at the same time. I do notice when the bass hits, the reception gets even worse...so I know the subs are affecting the reception a little. But when I turn the amp off, the reception is still as bad. I checked the antenna plug in the back of the HU and it's not loose. And the antenna amplifier in the C pillar is also connected fine...but I found another problem?? When I unplug the antenna amplifier, the reception doesn't change...it doesn't get any worse than it already is. Does that mean the antenna amplifier is broken? I wired the power cable for the amp on the driver side...which I'm pretty sure is the opposite of the antenna. I don't know if this affects anything, but I wired the RCA cable from the HU to the amp on the passenger side, which is the same as the antenna cable. Does grounding the HU to the same spot as the amp solve this problem?? If so, where is it originally grounded, so I can find it? If you know how to fix this problem, I'd appreciate any help. I can't just listen to my CDs forever.

 
Rep Power: 0

Foom,

You've got a lot going on. I'm assuming the CD player sounds fine.

First thing to do is make sure you have a good ground. You can test by running a temp wire from the negative battery terminal back to the ground wire or radio chassis.
I know when I installed the antenna amplifier it didn't change FM reception at all, it just changed the AM. So un-plugging the amplifier may not make that much of a difference. Knowing everything I went through to troubleshoot the problem I would borrow or buy a cheap exterior antenna and plug it into the HU and see if that solves the problem. If it does you can install a good roof mounted antenna. Otherwise you'll have to start looking elsewhere