I've been having this problem with radio reception for a while and finally was able to put my finger on what triggers the problem.


Call me old, but I listen to mostly AM radio. It seems that very often I lose my AM reception after I open the doors. It doesn't seem to matter which door, but the reception is always fine until I open a door.


After I open a door, I lose my reception for several minutes and then it will come back. often times it comes back after going over a sharp bump.


My initial thought is that there is a pinched speaker wire that is shorting out the radio and causing it to appear as a reception problem. I'm convinced that it is not a pinched speaker wire because FM and CD are unaffected.


I've got two videos to illustrate the issue (hopefully they will come through). In the first video, the AM reception is fine. After opening an closing the driver's door the reception is fine. But the instant I open the passenger's door I loose reception.


why the passenger's door and not the drivers? hard to say, but 5 minutes before that I had gotten gas. The radio was coming in fine and as soon as I opened the driver's door, I lost radio signal.


hopefully, here's a link to the first video:


http://vid1137.photobucket.com/album...psq1edabta.mp4
(sorry for the bad video, try not to get motion sickness)
Notice how the reception goes away as soon as I pull the handle but before the "door ajar" alarm sounds on the dash.


in the second video, taken right after the first, you can hear the AM reception is gone, but FM coming in fine and the CD working fine (Dora in all her glory!)


http://vid1137.photobucket.com/album...psxkqoknkr.mp4


Is it possible that the BCM is emitting some kind of interference that is coming through on AM? This is a relatively new problem that showed up in the last few months.


any ideas?

 

Would you say the interference begins the moment the interior lights come on? If so do you have any LED lighting installed?

 

No LED's at all.


I would say "yes" to the dome light interaction, but that doesn't explain why it didn't do it with the driver's door, but did 5 seconds later with the passenger's door (video #1) but did it with the driver's door 5 minutes earlier at the gas station.

 

I hate intermittent symptoms...

All I can think is maybe the speed volume is turned all the way up to 7. Here's how to check it.:

• Speed sensitive volume (if equipped): Radio volume changes automatically and slightly with vehicle speed to compensate for road and wind noise. Recommended level is 1–3. Level 0 turns the feature off and level 7 is the maximum setting. To engage the speed sensitive volume feature, press MENU until speed VOL X appears in the display. Press TEXT/SEL to increase < or decrease > volume compensation levels. The selected level will appear in the display.

 

Boy I hear ya there!

I'll double check, but I'm pretty sure I have it set to '3'
I follow your logic, though.

It did it again tonight and I got it on video. It was fine, then I open the drivers door and nothing. Then I lean over to open the pass. Door and before I can reach the door, the radio wigs out.

Realm wierd, but I swear jt doesn't do it unless a door has been opened. It will be fine for the whole trip, then wig out when you open the door .... Very odd.

 

I think I may have the actual cause nailed down.

It's not when i open the door, it is when I move (slide) in the seat to exit or reach for the other door.

Static electricity!

Now ... How to keep it from interfering with the radio.

 

Hmm, interesting.. Try to touch metal and see if it discharges the static electricity?

 

Maybe the antenna plug on back of the radio isn't all the way in. If just the tip is making contact and the outer casing is not, then there could be a loss of shielding issue going on here.

 

Did you ever have any luck fixing this? i'm having a somewhat similar but different problem, while driving the AM will cut out every couple of minutes FM is never an issue, open and close the rear vent windows and it comes back for a short time. seeing as how the antenna is in the rear passenger vent window I'm wondering now if It's A static electricity issue caused by kids fingerprints on the window and opening it temporarily discharges the window????

 

Never any luck fixing it.

Something I've just learned to deal with.

It's worse in the winter, but pretty much any time I slide my butt on the seat the AM reception will fade out as soon as mu butt leaves the seat. Grounding myself to the door frame makes no difference, and I have been unable to devise a way to exit without creating the issue.

5 min later, all is well again.

Yours sounds like a shaky connection at the window. I wonder if you could touch up the solder and see if that helps?

 

After poking around a bit more I think you're correct on the antenna wire connection, wiggling it definitely makes a difference. Have yet to nail down whether it's the wire or the connection yet though...

 

How about the wire at the connector?