Removing Pioneer stereo

[xain]

HI chaps, I''m going to try to fit an aerial amplifier to my Pioneer stereo to get over the *awful* reception. However, I don;t know how to remove it, I didn''t get an special widgets with the car. I believe these are fairly standard dealer fit, so has anyone out there done this before? Cheers Xain

[RichB]

Coincidentally I did this to my Griff last weekend, although sorry to tell you it didn't make a scrap of difference. The amplifier was about £12.00 from Tandy and was easy enough to fit but (for me) it didn’t work. Another owner I know has a similar aged Griff as mine (03/99) and his reception is pretty good so I have no idea why the difference? I think next I will try a proper aerial (inside the boot perhaps) and also earth the head unit directly to the battery to avoid interference. Oh and yes you need 2 x little keys to 'pull' the head unit out of it's casing. A Pioneer dealer should be able to help you. Rich...

[ATG]

Boot seems to be fairly transparent to radio waves. I was trying to find a good place to position a GPS antenna last night. The removeable roof panel attenuated the signal enormously (is carbon fibre a conductor?) so anywhere in the cabin was ruled out. However the boot lid made no apparent difference to the reception at all. I was getting the same signal strength with the antenna outside the car as in the boot. I guess the boot would be equally good for housing an FM aerial. Where is the aerial fitted as standard??

[RichB]

quote:(is carbon fibre a conductor?) ...[quote] well Carbon certainly is.[quote]Where is the aerial fitted as standard??

I don't think there is one as such, just a bit of wire dangling behind the dash somewhere! Rich...

[Jason F]

When I got my Stereo changed the Fitter said he`d fit a booster into the Back Window bit, and I now have a fantastic radio reception. Try there ?!! ( For a new one, cause as it works that clearly won`t be the standard place ) Edited by Jason F on Friday 17th August 09:28

[xain]

Cheers fellers, I found a use finally for the plastic bag of bits that's been floating around in the boot since I bought the thing (2nd hand) The metal strips in there are the stereo removers. I added the booster and it boosted everything including the noise. :-) But there's obviously a dodgy connection on the earth to the antenna (a red wire on mine) because as I waggled this it improved and went bad.

[fordy]

quote:[quote](is carbon fibre a conductor?) ...[quote] well Carbon certainly is.[quote]Where is the aerial fitted as standard??

I don't think there is one as such, just a bit of wire dangling behind the dash somewhere! Rich... Is the roof carbon fibre - i thought it was fibre glass, made to look like carbon fibre - surely it'd be alot lighter than it is if it was carbon fibre???

[Paul V]

I wouldn’t earth direct to the battery, you will pick up loads of alternator noise. I you could try the screen-mounted aerial for Halfords and just stick it to the body behind the dash, probably be better than a dangly bit of wire By the way have you heard of CD’s

[xain]

Yeah, but the news gets a bit stale after it's been burned to CD, plus I'd miss Chris Moyles! Xain

[RichB]

quote:By the way have you heard of CD’s

quote:By the way have you heard of CD’s

Yep got a few hundred and 6 x stacker in the Griff fact is it niggles me and when a bit of my car isn't doing what it should do I have to fix it! p.s. tried earthing direct to the battery and it is identical to earth through the loom. :-( Rich...

[Paul V]

I know from my big stereo days that good earthing is essential, if you have interference there are some in line suppressors that work. The head unit can make a lot of difference, when my car was kitted out it had a older pioneer unit, once I traded up to a newer model I lost a lot of interference. You could try one of the car stereo shops, they maybe able to help. I would say go to one of the cheaper shops that still sell the good brands, smaller companies seem more willing to help.