Poor radio reception on E46 M3

[fastfishracing]

Hi All,

I'm finding the radio reception on my E46 quite poor. It's not terrible, but there's fuzz where I wouldn't get fuzz on any other cars I've had.

Is it generally poor due to using the rear window as the ariel? Or should I check it out further?

Thanks
Jon

[mpowermark]

hmmm i had a similar problem with mine, i got back from being abroad for a week, got into my car that had been sitting in the airport car park all week and turned it on and found the radio had terrible reception, all the stations are listen but all bad reception, i thought maybe it was my ariel but the tv had perfect picture. I eventually brought it into BMW and they hooked the car up to the fault diagnostic machine and they discovered there was a fault with a small part that basically links the ariel up to the radio.....something like that anyway lol, Anyway it turned out to be expensive fix, over £500. That day i realised just how handy it is to extend ur car warranty

[jezrider]

there is a small amplifier in line that boosts the radio signal, this could be your problem or the connections to this unit. I am not sure where they are located on e46, they are behind the quarter panel trim on e36 so may be worth a look there.

[ju6121]

i had a similar problem in my car. Handed it over to BMW Dealer to get bodywork repaired, when i took it back i found i had no radio reception. When I took it back to the dealer they quoted me around £400 to fix. I thought this was a tad expensive so I took it to my local car audio shop. They quoted me £100 and in the end reduced it to £60 as all they had to do was plug a connector back in. My advice would be to do the same if anyone has a similar problem, take it to your nearest car audio shop

[blackspider]

Normally one of two things;

Either the aerial diversity is failing-this is a long unit that sits behind the n/s rear 'c' pillar trim by screen.
Or the connection from diversity to the screen has over heated and the contacts have burnt/corroded...mainly at the rear screen connection..same place as number one.

Generally we dont have problems with reception because the screen has 4 fm aerials to catch the signal...except MW,but to get a good signal for mw your supossed to have a 75 metre mast.

[Fastfishracing]

Cheers guys, it's going into BMW on Tuesday for some investigations, so they're going to check this out too. Let you know, cheers.

[fastfishracing]

BMW say it's the actual rear screen - £490 fitted.

I bought the car from an independant dealer and as it's not covered under warranty, they asked if I'd put it through the insurance and they will pay the excess. Which I guess I don't mind.

I've checked with my car insurance and I can claim, but the question is, should I trust there nominated suppier (one of the big windscreen replacement companies) to do the job? They say they will get a genuine BMW screen.

If I'm not happy about it then I can tell the dealer that it's not covered and see if they will pay the £490.

I'd appreciate some opinions on this!

Cheers.

[blackspider]

Should be fine as long as its genuine....alot of dealers stuggle to do screens,where as a specialist can do them very quickly and correctly...We sublet to a local company

[fastfishracing]

Thanks. I'll let them go ahead.