| arauch |
| My 2001 MDX has very uneven radio reception on AM in Northern New Jersey. Several inquiries at the dealer's service team have gotten nowhere. Then, I discovered something very strange; if I stopped my car in areas where the reception was poor, and then shut the engine off, while allowing the radio to stay on (with the ignition key in the "partial" on position), after about 2-4 minutes the reception would suddenly become PERFECT!!!! When I turned the car back on, the heavy static immediately returned. How can this be? The only think I can think of is that it is somehow related to the operation of the electrical system. Any ideas? Any guess would be appreciated! I am going to the dealer for standard maintenance in 3 days. |
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| mcclendons |
Does it really take "2-4 minutes" for good reception to return, or is it immediate when engine is turned off?
A bad spark plug wire (or several other ignition parts) can produce substantial problems with AM. Used to be a big problem with high performance unshielded wires in 70s/80s. Would be my only guess...... |
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| edepa |
quote:
Originally posted by mcclendons
Does it really take "2-4 minutes" for good reception to return, or is it immediate when engine is turned off?
A bad spark plug wire (or several other ignition parts) can produce substantial problems with AM. Used to be a big problem with high performance unshielded wires in 70s/80s. Would be my only guess......
I guess I've been having a similar concern, my reception on mid Long Island has not been very good. I assumed it was the radio system or a lousy antenna design. I'll have to try stopping on time and seeing if the reception gets better. It is one of my few disappointments with the X.:27: |
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| DaleB |
quote:
Originally posted by mcclendons
Does it really take "2-4 minutes" for good reception to return, or is it immediate when engine is turned off?
A bad spark plug wire (or several other ignition parts) can produce substantial problems with AM. Used to be a big problem with high performance unshielded wires in 70s/80s. Would be my only guess......
It is likely noise being introduced because of a bad ground, or other faulty connection. Some filtering may be compromised also if such is used on the alternator, or other electrical connections.
BTW no spark plug wires, per se there are individual ignition modules mounted directly on the plugs.
A bad connection at antenna (at the radio or the roof connection) can allow noise to override the received signal also. The closest noise source of course is the engine, but with a good strong input signal, it will not be heard. It will be 'buried in the grass' as they say. The time delay would suggest something 'noisy' is slowly decaying in strength after power the engine is turned off, not sure what that would be, but that noise source maybe acting normal, the fact the radio picks it up is not normal . |
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| arauch |
| yes, it really does take 2-4 minutes for the static to go away; it is not immediate. Very weird. Thanks for the guesses. I would love to hear how my Long Island poster did with his experiment. By the way, during the 2-4 minute period, I opened and closed the driver's door once (not that it should matter, but I thought I'd mention it). Any other ideas out there? |
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| edepa |
quote:
Originally posted by arauch
yes, it really does take 2-4 minutes for the static to go away; it is not immediate. Very weird. Thanks for the guesses. I would love to hear how my Long Island poster did with his experiment. By the way, during the 2-4 minute period, I opened and closed the driver's door once (not that it should matter, but I thought I'd mention it). Any other ideas out there?
I'm not sure when i'll get to test this, but I'll sure let you know how it turns out. If not by saturday, i'll be gone a few weeks. :2: |
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| frostyra |
DaleB: do you think there's any chance that this could be some kind of static buildup problem when running (serpentine belt, maybe?), followed by a slow bleed-off of the static charge after the engine is shut off? It's the only scenario I can think of that might cause the 2-4 minute delay before good reception.
I also have a lot of static on my AM, even to some extent on the local 50KW station, but no worse than on my '93 Explorer. One of the big gripes about table radios these days is that nobody pays any attention to the AM design, so that most AM radios really stink. I wouldn't be surprised if the same is true for car radios. |
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| DaleB |
quote:
Originally posted by frostyra
DaleB: do you think there's any chance that this could be some kind of static buildup problem when running (serpentine belt, maybe?), followed by a slow bleed-off of the static charge after the engine is shut off? It's the only scenario I can think of that might cause the 2-4 minute delay before good reception.
I also have a lot of static on my AM, even to some extent on the local 50KW station, but no worse than on my '93 Explorer. One of the big gripes about table radios these days is that nobody pays any attention to the AM design, so that most AM radios really stink. I wouldn't be surprised if the same is true for car radios.
Yeah, I don't know, it's weird at best. Maybe he needs to have one of those truck grounding strips dragging on the ground :D
At least we don't get shocked when sliding into our seats anymore. If we did it would probably wipe out half the electronics as soon as we touched something!
I agree on the radio though, I have had better radios in 'lesser' cars. |
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| srpbep |
Radio in my Accord blows away radio in MDX for reception.
Acura dealer recently gave me a Camry [!!] when we had MDX in for some warranty work ... Camry radio had better reception than my Accord radio ...
Complained about MDX radio to Acura dealer ... "written reply" on workorder = no problems found at this time ... "verbal reply" = yeah we know, all MDXs have reception problem .... |
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| edepa |
quote:
Originally posted by srpbep
........................Complained about MDX radio to Acura dealer ... "written reply" on workorder = no problems found at this time ... "verbal reply" = yeah we know, all MDXs have reception problem ....
Unfortunately, that is what i suspect, the radio/antenna combination in the X is below par, more befitting a lesser car. I guess cd's will help me forget that part. Now, how do I learn to use that poorly positioned driver's cup holder that makes me feel i have to do contortions to get my container of coffee out? Horrid positioning! :rolleyes: |
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| craig02mdx |
| any TSB's on reception problems? |
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| selborne |
| I too have crappy AM reception. I recently went to a local drive-in movie theatre that uses an AM transmitter for sound. Every car in the place had no problem receiving sound except for me. All buzzy static. I noticed the 2 minute buzz cutoff mentioned by arauch. I also noticed that when I used the driver side lock the buzz returned for a while. But even without the Buzz.. the sensitivity of the AM side of this radio appears to be below any other car radio I have ever seen. |
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