AM Radio Problems in an 07 GT

[Roddez]

You know that you are getting old when you listen to ABC AM radio... I'm not listening to Radio National yet, bu 702 isn't far off. Or maybe I'm just reliving my youth with the DJ's that used to be on JJJ.

Well, at least I was until my Macintosh started to play up. It all started when I was backing out of the drive the other morning and I stalled the car. I blame SI Drive (Subaru Idiot Drive *) but when I restarted the car, the radio was quiet. I switched to FM 1 & 2 and CD with no problems, but changing back to AM and the radio was silent. No static, just silent... Manual tuning and scan didn't help - even winding the volume up to 40 did nothing.

When I got in the car at the other end of my journey and started the car the AM radio came on for about 2 seconds then went off again. Strange....

I have been monitoring it over the past few days and sometimes it works perfectly for a while, then it starts to get interference and it will stop working. Then it will come back and go and come back and go... Most frustrating when you are trying to listen to Australia demolish the Pakistani cricket team...

The car can be moving or stationary when the problems arise. It does not appear to be heat related and tapping on the front of the Mac unit doesn't resolve anything, nor does swearing at it in German.

Fortunately it's still within the warranty period and I'll be taking it to Subaru next week for them to have a look at it. I thought it could be an aerial problem, but that would only work if there were two aerials, one for AM and another for FM.

I'll keep you posted.

* Subaru Idiot Drive is that little switch that makes the driver (me) look like an idiot. You drive around in S# mode for a while, then drop it back to I. When you do drop it back to I, you need about 20% more accelerator pedal movement to get the car moving from a standing start. Likewise, when you are in S# mode, you need about 20% less pedal... So in switching between modes you either stall it at the lights, or sounds like a learner who hasn't mastered the accelerator/clutch ratio!!! Or maybe it's just me...

[Adrian2627]

Maybe your Mac is trying to tell you something!! AM should have gone the way of John Laws by now. Ironically he was on FM here in the mountains but you get the idea.

I hope you don't have these throttle adjustment problems while flying. I know we could adjust the throttle positions in the Hornets but if you stall in a flying bus things could get interesting

[Ric]

Fortunately it's still within the warranty period and I'll be taking it to Subaru next week for them to have a look at it. I thought it could be an aerial problem, but that would only work if there were two aerials, one for AM and another for FM.

My money is on the antenna amplifier failing.
AM uses much lower frequencies than FM. It's quite conceivable that the low frequency part of the amplifier has failed.
Tapping on the side of the back window might have an effect.

[nytrojen]

Electrical engineer Ric to the rescue!

[HODMAN]

Hey Rod

If you happen to get an opportunity to view the rear of your deck (even though its a warranty job)
I would go nuts if you could get a photo or diagram of the pin outs for your facelifted Mac HU.

This would go a long way to resolving an issue Ive had since late last year. (I am currently out of options)
Ref:http://forum.liberty.asn.au/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=7097

Sorry I cant help with your original thing. I can only throw more weight behind Ric s suggestion.

Cheers
HOD

[Roddez]

Well, I took the car in to Subaru today and they did some basic trouble shooting. The tech had the trim around the unit off in seconds and checked that the aerial was connected. He then performed some percussive and decided that as the car was still under warranty that he would just order a new head unit.

So I will see if I can get the old unit when they replace it.

[Ric]

I'm interested to see if that fixes it. If it's the antenna amplifier, it won't make any difference...

[neverland1]

Jst. A thought , could it have been when u stalled it the first time the signal from the unit caused the mac amp to go into 'over protection' mode and shut down the amp? And that the static on AM is causing to much noise making the amp think it's getting over voltage signals from the headunit?
Just my 2 cents
Dave

[Roddez]

Jst. A thought , could it have been when u stalled it the first time the signal from the unit caused the mac amp to go into 'over protection' mode and shut down the amp? And that the static on AM is causing to much noise making the amp think it's getting over voltage signals from the headunit?
Just my 2 cents
Dave

Maybe. But it does work on FM and CD?

[neverland1]

That's true Roddez I forgot to take that into account lol Thats what happens after you have a couple of beers and try and ponder the worlds problems haha

[Roddez]

Well, the new head unit finally arrived and was installed today.

I now have a reliable AM radio and a new problem. There is a whine in the audio system that is proportional to engine revs. It took the mechanic for a drive to try an identify a different issue and as soon as we pulled out of the driveway we both looked at each other and commented on the noise...

It turns out that the audio unit was not new, but reconditioned. Another is now on order to try and correct the new noise...

[wannawagon]

I have the same issue, went crackly and then stopped, (actually have started a thread) just wondering where the antenna amp is?, also was the original problem fixed?.

Same MY 07

[clinch32]

Can anyone shed some more light on this issue as Iam having the same issue??
MY08 GT

[Raging Bull]

Has anyone had anymore luck with this issue?

I just bought an MY09 3.0R Spec B and the AM is not working at all. I've heard some slight static and even a faint connection but mostly it detects nothing and just scans through finding nothing not even static. Really dissapointed with this as it's still a relatively new car and I mostly listen to AM radio. Will have to use the AUX via digital radio instead for a while.

[Ric]

Has anyone had anymore luck with this issue?

I just bought an MY09 3.0R Spec B and the AM is not working at all. I've heard some slight static and even a faint connection but mostly it detects nothing and just scans through finding nothing not even static. Really dissapointed with this as it's still a relatively new car and I mostly listen to AM radio. Will have to use the AUX via digital radio instead for a while.

Any chance the back window has been tinted with a metallic film?