BRZ's very poor reception - Toyota GR86, 86, FR-S and Subaru BRZ Forum & Owners Community

theredtape · 08-18-2012, 09:50 AM

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...

brad fischer · 10-04-2013, 11:09 AM

My new BRZ has poor FM and NO AM reception. Is this common? I have the base car "premium'' so I don't think it has HD radio? Anyone found a way to improve reception? I unscrewed the little antenna and it made no difference at all to the weak FM signal, on my best station I get 0 to 1 bar on the signal strength Icon.

ZionsWrath · 10-04-2013, 11:13 AM

Please buy a mini USB drive and get with the times

Otherwise if it always has bad reception take it to a dealer

I have no idea of my radio reception I only use it once in a while to check traffic and the AM works fine

brad fischer · 10-05-2013, 12:23 PM

The antenna wire behind the stereo was not fully connected. Now my AM and FM works well with 4 bars of signal strength.

08-18-2012, 09:50 AM	#1
theredtape Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2012 Drives: civic,vfr,BRZ Location: Seattle Posts: 176 Thanks: 80 Thanked 66 Times in 32 Posts Mentioned: 4 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s)	BRZ's very poor reception 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... __________________ Because Racecar.

10-04-2013, 11:09 AM	#2
brad fischer Member Join Date: Sep 2013 Drives: 2013 BRZ Premium Blue Manual Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 11 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post Mentioned: 1 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s)	My new BRZ has poor FM and NO AM reception. Is this common? I have the base car "premium'' so I don't think it has HD radio? Anyone found a way to improve reception? I unscrewed the little antenna and it made no difference at all to the weak FM signal, on my best station I get 0 to 1 bar on the signal strength Icon. Last edited by brad fischer; 10-05-2013 at 12:24 PM. Reason: typo

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10-04-2013, 11:13 AM	#3
ZionsWrath Thanks Join Date: Apr 2013 Drives: BRZ Location: NY Posts: 4,163 Thanks: 5,989 Thanked 3,100 Times in 1,498 Posts Mentioned: 38 Post(s) Tagged: 3 Thread(s)	Please buy a mini USB drive and get with the times Otherwise if it always has bad reception take it to a dealer I have no idea of my radio reception I only use it once in a while to check traffic and the AM works fine

10-05-2013, 12:23 PM	#4
brad fischer Member Join Date: Sep 2013 Drives: 2013 BRZ Premium Blue Manual Location: Ontario Canada Posts: 11 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post Mentioned: 1 Post(s) Tagged: 0 Thread(s)	The antenna wire behind the stereo was not fully connected. Now my AM and FM works well with 4 bars of signal strength.

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