Xt5 Fm Radio Reception

[alicecat]

We have had our Xt5 for just over a year. The FM radio reception has always been pretty weak. Last week it was in for service at a main dealer, so I asked them to check if antnna cable was plugged in / damaged.

I'm not convinced that they actually looked at the cable, but the lonly fault they identified was interference from rear wiper motor and suggested trying a replacement motor! I can live with The Archers going a bit crackly for a few seconds whilt cleaning rear windscreen and, since antnna is on rear roof, the cable almost certainly runs with rear wiper lead so interference is quite likely. What I don't like is that overall reception is far worse than my VW Sharan, which relies on a little bit of heated rear window foil on rear side window to gather its signal.

Has anyone else experienced similar problems?

[Plutus]

We have had our Xt5 for just over a year. The FM radio reception has always been pretty weak. Last week it was in for service at a main dealer, so I asked them to check if antnna cable was plugged in / damaged.

I'm not convinced that they actually looked at the cable, but the lonly fault they identified was interference from rear wiper motor and suggested trying a replacement motor! I can live with The Archers going a bit crackly for a few seconds whilt cleaning rear windscreen and, since antnna is on rear roof, the cable almost certainly runs with rear wiper lead so interference is quite likely. What I don't like is that overall reception is far worse than my VW Sharan, which relies on a little bit of heated rear window foil on rear side window to gather its signal.

Has anyone else experienced similar problems?

Hi there.

I'm new to Rav too and find the same problem. Here in Cumbria there are a few radio black spots but the Rav struggles nearly everywhere with Radio 4. We do not have this problem with our other 2 vehicles - both with standard radios and one with HRW aerial. Looks like it's not one of Rav's strong points.

Peter

[jamster]

We have had our Xt5 for just over a year. The FM radio reception has always been pretty weak. Last week it was in for service at a main dealer, so I asked them to check if antnna cable was plugged in / damaged.

I'm not convinced that they actually looked at the cable, but the lonly fault they identified was interference from rear wiper motor and suggested trying a replacement motor! I can live with The Archers going a bit crackly for a few seconds whilt cleaning rear windscreen and, since antnna is on rear roof, the cable almost certainly runs with rear wiper lead so interference is quite likely. What I don't like is that overall reception is far worse than my VW Sharan, which relies on a little bit of heated rear window foil on rear side window to gather its signal.

Has anyone else experienced similar problems?

Hi there.

I'm new to Rav too and find the same problem. Here in Cumbria there are a few radio black spots but the Rav struggles nearly everywhere with Radio 4. We do not have this problem with our other 2 vehicles - both with standard radios and one with HRW aerial. Looks like it's not one of Rav's strong points.

Peter

[Manxrav]

Have no problems at all with mine. I can pick up BBC Radio Cumbria, BBC Scotland, plus heaps of NI stations and Irish Rep stations and our 3 stations on the Island

Clare

[shcm]

Hello Alicecat,

You don't actually say which model you have, but if it is a 4.3 (and this will also apply to the T180), I have a sneaky feeling that the bluetooth phone interface in the satnav/radio may well be de-sensitising the FM side of things in the radio slightly. This would make weak radio stations "weaker" if you like.

I've no conclusive proof and haven't done much testing, but the reason I say this is after having the head unit removed from the vehicle, it seemed to have problems finding RDS-TMC info again (which is also broadcast on FM). My phone interface was set to "AutoConnect" meaning it would be making bluetooth transmissions looking for the phone. After turning "AutoConnect" off, the TMC channel was found quite quickly. Maybe a co-incidence, but if you have yours set up like this, maybe worth trying "AutoConnect" off, to see if it helps any.

FM (88-108MHz) and bluetooth (2.45GHz) frequencies are far enough apart, that in theory, a very close transmission from bluetooth should not affect FM. Filters within both FM and bluetooth receivers should see to that. However, it's not unknown for this kind of thing to happen and it wouldn't totally surprise me if it was.

As far as the antenna is concerned, I'm not convinced that the current trend for short antennas towards the rear of the vehicle, do anything to help the radio get a reasonable amount of signal. It seems to be more a case of styling over good engineering and also the case of practicalities like getting the vehicle under barriers and into garages (e.g. see dave.m's side stripe post), without bending the antenna. The fact that an antenna pre-amp is present in the vehicle tends to support this.

There are some wacky (and dubious) antenna ideas about, but generally to be any good, an antenna has to be at least a significant fraction of the wavelength concerned, to be anything like efficient. I would bet that if you replaced the present antenna with something approaching 75cm, that reception would be improved (provided previous antenna impedance/matching is compatible). Of course, an antenna of that length may well be too ugly and too troublesome.

Rear heater antennas present their own set of problems, but I will stop now as I sense you lost interest some time ago.... :D

[alicecat]

Thank you for that; far from losing interest, I was interested and impressed. That is the most comprehensive and useful response I have ever obtained from a forum! Mostly they (not necessarily the TOC forums) yield responses of the order of "I don't know anything about your question but I thought I would respond anyway..."

I am unclear about the model designations of Toyotas, but ours is a 2007 model year, similar to current model. It has indeed got the bluetooth gizmo which my wife leaves on auto-connect (in fairness, it is her company vehicle!) She is away for a couple of days, so I will disable auto connect and see if matters change. Your thoughts on antenna length make a lot of sense; the one fitted is a bit silly - more like a 'phone antenna.

Apart from inadequate size, the rear central roof- mount position means that I have to remove the antenna if carrying anything on the roof. I liked my old Maestro, with Honda-inspired telescopic antenna in the A-post, so that you could collapse it from the driving seat if entering a car-park, etc.

[shcm]

OK, you have a RAV4.3 (3 for 3rd generation) like myself.

Another thing that can mess up FM reception is all the electrical "noise" from all the digital electronics in ECUs on the vehicle. It's not uncommon for digital signals to have a rise time around 10ns. Without careful design this can lead to interference/noise in the FM band, especially around 100MHz.

Vehicle manufacturer's usually get very upset if ECUs radiate crud in the FM band and we usually have to take great care with the design, so that they don't.

It's not unknown for a complex radio/sat nav to interfere with itself, due to having both digital electronics and sensitive radio circuits in the same box.

Cheers

[bitman]

not sure if this is any help, but does the rav 4 has an antenna amplifier? my previous c220 did had one and they can go wrong ie not working any more... giving a bad reception.