Batboard

It's a radio install...

In my work Crown Vic PI, I recently swapped out a POS aftermarket am/fm radio for an old radio that fits the slot (the stickers seem to indicate it was originally in an Explorer). The CD player and tape deck work just fine. The problem is with the radio stations - they seem to come in an out, as if the antenna plug was loose. I've checked it twice, and it's tight.

If the vehicle is sitting still, it doesn't seem to be as bad. The POS radio had reception problems, but not like this. Is it possible the antenna is lousy? The antenna plug not the perfect fit? Any known problems with 2004 Crown Vic PI radio problems? Any suggestions?

This is my 8 hour office, and I'd like to fix it. Any advice/suggestions welcome! I'll be more than happy to provide more info.

Gordon

Im just throwing things out there,,,,,,,,,,,,, touch the center pin of the antenna coax and the antenna to see if it is not shorted,, wigle it when doing it to see if it is the connector...... the coax my be bad.... take the radio with a short pice of spare wire andplace it in the radio in the center of the moto connector then touch ground with the other end of the wire and see if the radio station come in if they do it is the antenna..but you still dont know if its the coax or the whole shabang......you may just try to put a mag mount outside of your vehical with the right connectors hook it up to your radio with something as simple as a VHF 1/4 wave antenna on it and see how you recive.... if that works its surly your factory antenna........ if that doesn't do it you may have some kind of interference of some sort.....it could be anything... I hope this may strike some ideas to help you...................

In the trunk, under the package tray is the actual RF unit for the radio, which is where the back glass antenna plugs into.

Look there, and I'll bet the antenna connector is loose.

Ford has an external RF unit, seperate from the head unit in the dash....nice, huh?

007 wrote:In the trunk, under the package tray is the actual RF unit for the radio, which is where the back glass antenna plugs into.

Look there, and I'll bet the antenna connector is loose.

Also check where that wire connects to the antenna on the glass. When I got my windows tinted, they yanked that off and I got the very problems you described. If it's off, you need to buy rear window defroster "adhesive" to reconnect to the glass.

Thanks for all the help. According to the Ford Dealer, it's (d) none of the above.

Apparently when Ford starting providing power to the rear for remote mount radios, they forgot to take care of moving the am/fm antenna out of the rear glass. Now, when you key up a two-way that's remote mounted (we have remote mount Spectras), you fry a filter or something in the am/fm which ruins the reception. I got this third hand through the Chief, minus the technical details. It's not known if there's a cure (i.e. shielding, etc), other than to keep replacing the blown part....which makes zero sense.

Gotta love auto engineering. It's gonna make for some LONG nights until a fix is found.

I'll try to keep everyone updated. It's interesting - has anyone else run into this?

Gordon

Hmm.. so this is where the rumor that new CVs will go back to the fender mounted radio antenna instead of in-glass antenna comes from.

That's what I was thinking, but forgot to add it to the end of my last post.

Gordon

Is this for the '05 CVI?

I got to thinking after reading the initial post the other day. Why don't you just remove the factory stereo and replace it with a decent aftermarket model....you can remove that pesky unit in the trunk and just patch the antenna cable straight into the window antenna. The stupid thing can stay there and won't be an issue any more. Might not be a great answer but it beats the hell out of not having a radio at all....

Matt

The car was initially ordered with *no* stereo - the fleet dealer installed an aftermarket Audiovox (crap, I might add) in lieu of a factory radio.

Also, according to what I was told, as long as the antenna itself is in the glass and we have remote mount radios, the blow outs will keep happening anyway. The folks at the Ford dealer are trying to find a solution for us - they're pretty solid when it comes to helping us out.

It may come down to improvising some sort of external antenna. I'm keeping the hole saw handy.

Thanks for the thoughts.

Gordon

Go to a junkyard and pull a hard mount antenna off of a Taurus or Explorer and mount it to the same spot on the Crown Vic. Then you have one more antenna I'd just bybass the whole pile of junk, antenna and all.

KG6EAQ wrote: I'd just bybass the whole pile of junk, antenna and all.

Don't know what you mean...but I'm tired from working on the truck - new CD changer and cleaning up the radios...

For work, what annoys me to no end is that it's a '04 car - and you'd think they'd would've realized there'd be a problem.

We aren't the busiest department, and some days/nights without am/fm makes for a L O N G shift.

Gordon

I meant bypass all the factory stereo crap but the speakers. Put in a new antenna and route that to the existing aftermarket stereo. Ditch that whole Ford RF unit you are refering to.

The RF unit is for the factory stereo's they put in though aren't they? Wouldn't bipassing this unit and adding an aftermarket unit solve the problem? Maybe I missed something....

Matt

KG6EAQ wrote:I meant bypass all the factory stereo crap but the speakers. Put in a new antenna and route that to the existing aftermarket stereo. Ditch that whole Ford RF unit you are refering to.

Duh.

That is a great thought, and one I will share. I only wish I had thought of it first!

As I said, I stand ready with the hole saw or whatever means to add an antenna. Chief asked if that would look cheesy -- I told him it's one more antenna on a police car. Who's gonna notice?

Robert, credit will be paid for your suggestion if it comes to it.

Gordon