Poor radio reception issue? 1.6 D style +

[Bigyam]

Hi all, Having an issue with my radio over the last few months i cannot pick up a good radio signal it crackles and then loses the station completely, and starts to search automatically , i have had the unit out and checked the aerial in the back which seems ok no obvious breaks ! I wiggled it but made no difference ! is it hard to get at the aerial end under the roof liner i have peeled a bit of it back but i'm afraid of making a mess of it, Has anyone else had the same issue could it be the unit ? any help would be greatly appreciated cheers Nige Oh it did work ok when we 1st had the car 10 months ago , Thanks

[lfcrule1972]

I had a similar issue that eventually turned out to be down to a third party usb adaptor I'd plugged in. I basically wanted to double up the USB ports and bought a griffin one from ebay. Unfortunately this caused crackling and radio interference/loss of signal until I removed it.

Once I realised this was the offending part of the puzzle I bought a more expensive one from TomTom and have never had the issue since. Do you have a similar adaptor fitted ?

[Bigfeet]

Check to see if the radio is in RDS mode, makes a difference!

Check the aerial outside, unscrew it and look at the base - there should be no rust. Also is the aerial standard as the smaller GPS aerials looks good but offer rubbish reception.

[streettweeks]

I had a similar issue that eventually turned out to be down to a third party usb adaptor I'd plugged in. I basically wanted to double up the USB ports and bought a griffin one from ebay. Unfortunately this caused crackling and radio interference/loss of signal until I removed it.

Once I realised this was the offending part of the puzzle I bought a more expensive one from TomTom and have never had the issue since. Do you have a similar adaptor fitted ?

I made the mistake of buying a griffin on Ebay .. absolute crap it was hardly charged anything barely kept my TomTom alive and it broke within weeks.

[Bigyam]

bad radio reception

Hi, Thanks for your help It is a 2012 model and does not have a usb plug just a aux jack plug as far as i am aware , it is in rds mode but makes no difference checked the airial which is standard and rust free ! still doing it but some tomes when i get up on higher ground it works but always goes off again as soon as i near home or other bad receptoion areas ? It used to be ok and my clio works fine ! I had heard that some cars use a power lead for the aerial any body know if the DS uses one ?

[Bigfeet]

One other thing, are you using the correct aerial for the car, the reason is that the standard factory unit is a bi-tune aerial (or something!) and changing it for the smaller GPS aerial does affect the signal quality.

[Bigyam]

One other thing, are you using the correct aerial for the car, the reason is that the standard factory unit is a bi-tune aerial (or something!) and changing it for the smaller GPS aerial does affect the signal quality.

Yes all standard fittings and sorry for the long time replying, (Months) and it is still bad reception

[Bigfeet]

Next step would be to try another head unit, your dealer should be able to help with that otherwise the other issue could be the radio base.

At least you have tried the first steps

[granolamonster]

I'm having the same problem with the same model. It is really weird we have two cars, one prehistoric car gets reception everywhere for all stations and yet recently the much newer DS3 doesn't get reception for certain stations. Is there a way to do a reset of the head unit? Also, how do I get the damn thing out to check the back of it as per previous posts?

Thanks

[lfcrule1972]

Normally you need head unit removal keys to take them out - your dealer might be able to get it out for you..... Sometimes you can buy the keys in Halfords too, failing that see if there are any on eBay

[Bigyam]

Hi all, just an update , today whilst preparing the car for a long trip i thought i'd have another look at the aerial in the roof so i pulled back the roof lining and removed the aerial as i had to unplug the aerial's cable to do this i examined the plug so i switched on the radio and put a bicycle spoke which i had lying around onto the centre prong in the plug ! and boom the radio picked up a perfect reception !!! so i'm guessing the aerial base unit which looks like it has a printed circuit inside it is kaput so im going to get a new base , at the moment i have used a piece of HT cable from a motorbike i had lying around, the type with copper wires inside not the silicon type ! forced into the prong and taped it together and then just laid it inside the roof liner it works, but not as good as the spoke lol

[JimmyFlan]

Bigyam, any tips on how you pulled back the roof lining? I had a quick go and it feel like its brittle and going to crack. Cheers