Toyota GR86, 86, FR-S and Subaru BRZ Forum & Owners Community - FT86CLUB

Hey guys my stock head unit really sucks when it comes to reception. I had just blamed it on living in the "sticks" but I was on the highway and in the city yesterday and it was as bad as ever.

Two different things are happening. In FM mode the connection to the station will bounce between hd radio and regular stereo mode which makes a noticeable change in sound quality. This is a minor annoyance and I know I can turn off the hd radio but now that I know how good it sounds compared to the regular radio I don't want to go back. I just wish my new car would function as well as the single din head unit I installed in my old car.

The other problem is in sat mode. Some times it works perfect and some times it almost doesn't work at all. It just cuts out all the time. I was driving for 10 minutes and during that every 5 or so seconds the radio would go static for a second or two. It doesn't just go quite while it try's to reconnect either, it makes that sound like when the cable use to go out on CRT televisions(remember the snowy TVs!). One second I am listening to some decent sounding sat radio and the next PPPPSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHTTT(thats the sound :p).

I know other people are having issues with reception, anyone find any good ways to increase reception? Is this something I should hound the dealer about? The thought of a tech ripping off my dash covers to fix my radio on my other wise awesome car upsets me a little...