Radio reception

[Plodders]

Took delivery of my 2.0FSI Avant in October - still getting to grips with all the toys.
The car is fitted with the standard Radio/CD player and a sharks-fin aerial (which I think serves the Radio and the car phone) - I live close to the Derbyshire Dales and have to pass through to reach Manchester airport and other destinations in Cheshire.
This is the first car I have owned where I have lost the FM radio reception completely - to add insult to injury I detected poor reception on both the M1 and M5 motorways recently.
Since both my previous Volvos had rear window aerials and never suffered from loss of signal anywhere (even in the depth of Borrowdale in the lakes)I did not expect any problems.
Any other sufferers? Or have I got a duff one?

[GH20TDI]

I have a 2.0 Tdi avant, and I thought (am sure) that the fin is for the phone (as some don't have it) and the radio aerial is in the rear window (left side or both sides, can't remember at the moment) - I imagine a wire is lose!

I have excellent reception all the time, so you must have an issue with the connection somewhere.

[Plodders]

Thanks GH20TDI - there appears to be a electronic box behind a removable panel in the RH side panel of the boot - wonder if this is the amp?
For £30K and German you don't expect to have to find all the loose connections - but looking at other threads it appears to be a popular gripe.
Wonder if the wire coat hanger will work - it lasted on my MKIV Cortina for years.:banghead:

[STAGMAN]

I have a 2006 Avant with sat nav. I also do not think the radio reception is good. I reported it to the dealer, who said there was nothing wrong with it, or with the intermittent headlamp, or the smoking and high fuel consumption!!! So I would be grateful to hear if there is a well known problem.

[ianmandlindaf]

I have a A4 S Line that I bourght in November and the radio reception wasnt that good either! on my previous car I could listen to my local radio station for 25-30 mile further up the M3 than I can now, but that did have an external arial so that may be the difference who knows?

[JohnH]

Radio reception on my '07 Avant is pretty good, the head unit is the Multichanger/MP3 upgrade with Bose but I doubt that matters.

The aerial seems to be incorporated into the two rear side windows of the Avant ? I have a separate Nokia integrated car kit with the aerial above the windscreen and haven't encountered any interference even when using bluetooth.

I only ever listen to FM (or MP3/CD) though so can't comment on AM reception.

[turbo steve]

i have just bought a 2.0tdi s line avant with sat nav and the radio reception is really poor. where should i look for loose wires?