Mungo

Have one of these in my Golf, and am getting very poor radio reception - anyone esle with similar experiences? (CD play is excellent...)

Edited to say it's a Blaupunkt. (Although if you've got one, you'd know that).

[Edited by Mungo - 8/5/2002 4:55:27 PM]

audio g man

Blimey, I'm famous...lol

Maybe the mast you were sold by VW is duff.

It's possible that the aerial is a powered one, but the 12v supply is not connected. Some expensive roof and wing mount aerials (Hirshmann for one) have a separate wire which needs a 12v supply. I have seen this type of aerial on VWs in the past.

Something else I've seen on many VWs is a booster fitted to the end of the aerial wire behind the h/u. This also needs a 12v supply. It's a small silver cylindrical thing.

Ironically, I had a similar complaint from a customer today who also owns a MK4 Golf. I fitted a JVC unit for him on Monday. I'm not sure yet when he's bringing it back for me to fault-find and hopefully fix. I'll try a diffent mast and get hold of one of these boosters to try. I think Autoleads can supply them. I'll keep you posted.

Edited to say, I just a another thought. It could be a shabby earth either at the aerial itself or the h/u's earth. It might be worth having a look behind the headliner and/or running in a new earth wire for the h/u.

[Edited by audio g man - 8/7/2002 11:37:36 PM]

hades

I think that should have the same tuner unit as my Los Angeles MP72. Appears to have better radio reception than either the stock Subaru unit or the temporary unit I had stuffed in there whilst waiting for the LA to arrive.

Have you checked the aerial adaptor, earthing etc.

Mungo

I'm going to give the aerial plug and socket a clean up tonight - I'm thinking they might have oil/wax on them as protection after manufacture.
It's really annoying - I'm getting NO reception for MW/LW and really patchy FM reception, even for BBC stations.
How can I check for earthing?

audio g man

Was the radio reception good with your previous unit?
If it was then chances are, the new unit is at fault or the aerial isn't pluged into it properly.
Try putting the previous unit back in just to compare or borrow a different unit and try that.

Mungo

Hi Audio G Man

I was hoping you'd look in!

The car is new, so there wasn't an old unit. It's an Euro-import Golf TDi, which came without a radio (or aerial). I bought the Seattle from Halfords (great shop ) and fitted it myself - the car had the two ISO connectors and an aerial connector fitted.
I bought an aerial from a VW dealer (the bee-sting type) and screwed that into the fitting on the roof. I've cleaned up all the connections for the aerial at both the headunit end and the aerial end.
I swapped in the headunit from my Scoob (Kenwood 5090), and that also had the same poor reception, again particularly in MW, so I guess it's not the Seattle.
Is this a known problem with Golfs? Is there anything I can get to boost the signal? The aerial is providing some signal, as there's no reception without it.

Cheers for your help

hades

Aerial could be faulty - you will get some limited reception from just a long aerial cable. Or cable could be broken somewhere along.

Can the aerial unscrew from its mounting? If so, you can check continuity of the cable with a multimeter. Also check at that point if unsrewing makes any difference to reception. Or just try a different aerial.

Mungo

Thanks for all your help guys - the Autoleads suggestion got me onto their website, where I found the following advice:

"After fitting an aftermarket head unit - unable to receive week radio stations

All late VWs have an amplified AE which needs powering. Use PC5-52."

Not sure what the PC5-52 is or how it works, but I'm off to get one! I'll let you know if it works.

Cheers
Guy

[Edited by Mungo - 8/8/2002 11:45:07 AM]

Mungo

Oh dear. Now I've got my PC5-52, how do I connect it?
The aerial obviously plugs on one end, and the aerial cable goes to the headunit, but to what do I attach the flylead?

Any help gratefully received

audio g man

You wana connect it to the ignition live supply.
Am i right in saying, the flylead is white?

Mungo

The flylead is actaully blue, and the technical help at Autoleads have told me to attach it to a 12V source, whcih I have and voila! Perfect (or at least normal) radio reception!
I guess VW's OE stereos have this connection & amplifier built in, but it's seems a weird set-up...

Thanks for your help!

audio g man

Cool