Radio problems

[John Francini]

There's two possible problems:

a) the antenna and/or its cable has gone bad;

b) the radio itself has gone bad.

My guess is that it's more likely to be the antenna rather than the 
radio, especially if this happens on both AM and FM.

Does this car have a normal fender-mount whip antenna?  If not  -- 
you'll definitely need the dealer to solve the problem.

Why? Because if there's no fender-mount antenna, then the antenna is 
built into the glass of either the windshield or rear window.  Not 
particularly "user-serviceable".

My suspicions: corrosion where the windshield antenna connects to the 
antenna cable, a bad antenna cable, or a broken antenna wire (embedded 
in the glass).

HOWEVER, if has an ordinary whip antenna, then things are a bit easier. 
You can still have corrosion at the antenna-cable junction or something 
wrong with the whip itself, or the antenna cable might have gone bad. 
The good news is that the repair is much simpler and cheaper, since the 
windshield won't need to be replaced.

Hope these help,

John Francini



On Apr 26, 2005, at 18:00, Cooper Fox wrote:

> Okay, so this is off topic and probably way too
> general to get help on.  But, here goes anyway.  I
> have a 1999 Chevy Malibu and the stock radio has
> suddenly decided to not pickup lower powered signals.
> Portland stations(we live approx 50 miles away) that
> used to be clear now do not come in at all.  At first
> I thought it was atmospheric interference, but I just
> checked the same stations in my wife's car and they
> are fine.  Does anyone have any ideas as to what the
> problem could be.  Yes, my next step is to have a
> mechanic look at it.  Thanks!
>
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