I recently purchased an '01 Cabrio. FM reception is very good. However as a commuter I often listen to AM for traffic info. The AM has a constant "tick tick tick tick" sound. It does not vary based upon the engine speed so I don't think it's ignition related. If the reception is very strong on a station it will fade away. But if the station is weak just about all you hear is the electric tick tick sound. Any ideas?
TIA, Jay
Fascinating. :) But seriously, anyone have an idea what I can do?
Jay
Listen to the radio with the key off. Do you still here the "tick tick tick tick" sound"?
Buy another radio? I'm serious. The non-Monsoon head unit in my '99.5 Jetta was the most marginal car radio I've used in 20 years. There might be some way to shield it from the back, but I will admit to no idea of how to go about that. Or it might be possible to check the spark plugs and see if there's a type that's better-shielded than what's there now.
Wish I had more specifics....
sd
Interesting. Yes, the tick tick tick sound is *still* there. Even with the key out of the ignition. What does that mean?
Jay
That cuts out a lot of possibilities. (Hmmm. My car radio does not even play with the key out of the ignition.)
Next listen to a portable radio near the car tuned to a weaker station. Do you hear the ticking on it? If not, buy another radio for the car.
Otherwise move the portable maybe 1/4 mile away from the car. Do you hear the ticking on the portable radio? If so, I am surprised; that Russian woodpecker idea begins to have some merit, but I don't think that it was on .55 to 1.6 MHz even in its notorious past days. So I would look to some local source of noise. A radio capable of best dealing with impulse noise has something called a "noise blanker". I don't know if any car radios offer that feature.
Volkswagens do allow you to turn the radio on without the key. It's a feature, not a bug. Interestingly the radio turns off when you turn off the key, but even after the key is removed you can turn the radio back on. It's pretty cool.
Perhaps it is a country or year thing, but my VW radios wouldn't/won't play when turned on with the key removed.
Everyone seems so interested in the "radio works with ignition off" thing, that I wanted to put in my two cents.
Mine works with the ignition off too, but the last time I had that dash apart, I saw what a hackjob it was back there. The previous owner must have had a nice stereo in and took it out when they sold the car. A lot of stereos I have seen have two power inputs, one for main power and another from the ignition to indicate if it should be on. If someone did a "hackjob" on your stereo at some point, maybe they just hooked it up wrong. Or maybe its all hooked up right but the spliced wires are providing an easy way for interference to get to it? Could it be a bad ground, or a bad Antenna? Or did the Antenna get unpluged at some point?
Anyhow, if someone had it before you, take a look at the state of things back there.
Original owner, factory radios.
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