For over a year now, I have had intermittent static, weak signal and generally poor radio reception on our 2001 LW300. I had hit a low branch with the antenna a while back and the radio seemed to get worse at that point. Turned out to be a 5 minute job to fix. Had tried replacing the antenna with a borrowed one from another saturn and it had no effect. Last week, I noticed that the interference went away when the left hand side windshield pillar was bumped... Today, took off the plastic cover (remove round plastic cover, remove 10mm bolt and snap out). Found there is an in-line connector for the antenna and it had become loose. Shoved it back together and taped it in place to prevent it loosening again. Radio is perfect.
fyi- along side the antenna wire runs the hose for the rear window washer. I was pleasantly surprised again (the first time was replacing the heater core was a 20 minute job) with the accessibility of the components. Most cars I've worked on have the wire bundles inside the pillar which make access to harnesses nigh impossible.
Oppie