Mercedes-Benz Forum banner

bad AM reception

7K views 24 replies 16 participants last post by  benzbug 
#1 ·
Hi everyone,

I've done a search on this topic and came up with nothing. I seem to have very bad AM reception on my radio, sometimes non-existent reception. However the FM reception is fine. Anyone else have this problem or any idea what the problem could be?

Thanks
 
#2 ·
My AM reception sucks also, ignition noise, poor sensitivity. Seems like starting in the Mid 90's AM sections on radios got cheap and lost sensitivity and selectivity. Even in town some stations have static or ignition noise.

Isn't just Mercedes, our Honda was the same way. GM used to have very good AM sections on their radios, My 04 silverado is pretty good, way better than my 07 420, but not near as good as my 95 S-10 was.

I guess they think people only listen to AM in town, and don't use AM on the road in remote places where you want to pull in a station 100-200 miles away.
 
#3 ·
My AM cuts out under bridges and high voltage power lines. But I admit, the AM sounds only slightly better than the weather band.
 
#5 ·
Give the

am/fm diversity amp a thump on the side of the head:eek:.If that does not fix it inspect that the wires are all in place.
 
#7 ·
Up

in the little flap along the edge of the headliner drivers side rear window.
 
#11 ·
And checking

that you don't have metallic tint on the windows.
The window antenna hates that stuff.
 
#12 ·
Growing up in Northern Michigan I used to listen to WLS AM out of Chicago (300 mi away) to catch the latest top 40. Now living in Chicago with the W210 I can barely get WLS 50 miles away from the city.
Of course now instead of instead of Art Roberts, Clark Weber, Fred Winston and Larry Lujack........It's Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.
 
#18 ·
My radio works fine . . . now

My AM reception was just as bad as all the comments I read on BenzWorld, and doing as OhLord says and give the little amp a rap up aside its head only was a slight - and temporary - help.

As a ham radio operator, maybe I've lost all my fear of such things, but what I did worked. I got up in there and removed the amp and took it inside to the workbench and opened it up and went over it with a jeweler's loop looking for cracked solder joints. I touched up a couple of them with a small soldering iron and put it back together. Now, my AM reception is just as good as anyone could want. Evidently that little amp isn't designed to take even that tiny amount of jostling it gets.

If you're timid about tearing an electrical thing like that apart, why not take it to a TV repair shop? They do things like that every day.
 
#20 ·
My AM reception was just as bad as all the comments I read on BenzWorld, and doing as OhLord says and give the little amp a rap up aside its head only was a slight - and temporary - help.

As a ham radio operator, maybe I've lost all my fear of such things, but what I did worked. I got up in there and removed the amp and took it inside to the workbench and opened it up ...
Could you show exactly where the amp is. I tapped the said area all the way from head rest of the back seat to driver head rest, don't feel a thing. Maybe some pictures of the location and of the amp would help a lot.
 
#23 ·
So I went nuts and tore into the white princess. Took out the back seat, removed the plastic door sill cover and lower trim to access the passenger side rear pillar. The cover has clips like a door panel, just more difficult to remove. Is there a tool for those? Under the cover is an AM anti interference capacitor. There are two wires, one from the windshield antenna and another that I assume goes to the radio. I could not remove the one from the radio so I cut it off. I examined the solder and noticed no issues. Very frustrated I re crimped a new connector on the radio wire and put it all back together. It worked for now. I have AM reception. It was very difficult and I am not happy with the job I did, but it will do for now. I did not take any pictures. I was temporarily insane. I assume the connector was bad, or the jostling of the box or both fixed it. When I replace my rear sunshade, I will remember my camera.
S
 
#24 ·
I have an E320 1997 pre facelift RHD estate, I have intermittently poor FM reception which drives me mad, it appears the aerial in built into the LHS rear luggage compartment window, I have found the little flap with what I presume is the amplifier and unplugged and replugged the aerial, it makes a slight difference so I am obviously in the right area, I guess the next thing is to try to get the thing out. Anyone any ideas how, short of a chainsaw.
Many thanks
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top