Radio problems

[jbernie1]

Okay, I need the help of the technical gurus of the forum. My Vibe has a serious radio problem. On long trips, the radio will be working just fine when sudden, it will lose stations. When I try to get other stations, nothing comes in. It is as if the antenna just loses the ability to pick up stations or there is a short between the antenna and the main unit in the dash. The only way the radio start functioning again is after I shut the car off for several minutes. Then it works again for small period of time before it drops the radio signal again. I have a factory installed nav unit, if that means anythng. Any help would be greatly appreciated. With my car having 19000, it is still under warrenty so, I guess any repairs would be covered.

[ebslopp]

sounds to me like a problem with either the antenna connector being loose or a problem with your radio itself. Your best option would be to stop at the dealer when it is failing and have them check it out.

[ColonelPanic]

I'm wondering if you may have a problem with the antenna amplifier that our cars have... Perhaps it just gives up after a while when you're out on the road? Does it affect both AM and FM?Definitely have the dealer take a look. Can't say that I've heard of anything like this, other than folks that have hooked up aftermarket stereos and have dismal tuner performance due to the amplifier not being connected.

[itshers,butifixit]

This happened to me once also. Soon after that I put in a aftermarket stereo system w/ a seperate powered antenna. Now its like I have XM, too many channels to chose from. Most local stereo shops have the aftermarket powered antennas. The one I bought is about 15" long and has 3 wires; power, ground, and the antenna. I stuck it inside at the top of windshield in that shaded area you can't see from outside the car on the passenger side. Pretty simple to install if you have some mechanical skills.

[Sub-Vibe-R]

Quote, originally posted by jbernie1 » On long trips, the radio will be working just fine when sudden, it will lose stations. The only way the radio start functioning again is after I shut the car off for several minutes. Then it works again for small period of time before it drops the radio signal again. I have a factory installed nav unit, if that means anythng. For me it looks like heating protection...Could it be possible you head unit become very hot when this happend? had this kind of trouble with one of my amp in aprevious car. The amp was working for a while an all of a suddent just stop working. I had to turn it off, wait a couple a minute to let it cold down and it stats working again.But,anyways, it is covered under warranty, take it to the dealer and have it checked. It can be possible you nav system has an overheating problem.

[themrfreeze]

For what it's worth, Volkswagens use the same type of antenna as the Vibe (called a "Fuba" antenna). There's actually an amplifier between the antenna mast and the radio to boost the signal the antenna picks up. Failure of the amplifier is VERY common in VWs (and it failed in my Passat too), which resulted in only being able to pick up strong FM stations. Fixing it required the removal of the entire headliner to get at the amplifier, which may very well be the case with the Vibe as well.

[Jahntassa]

I would have to agree with Mr Freeze. It definitely sounds like the amplifier in the antenna is crapping out. Most likely some sort of failure which is causing it to maybe overheat (like Sub-Vibe-R suggested).I doubt it's the nav itself, as I haven't had those issues with my Nav, and for JUST the FM tuner circuit to fail on the system is much less likely than the antenna amp crapping out. Short term, you could buy a seperate powered antenna, but i'd definitely take it to a dealer and have them look at the antenna amp.