Weak FM radio reception in 2010 Prius?

I think we have plenty of data points - 2 different Toyota HUs (stock and Eclipse), Kenwood - and someone posted Pioneer.

 

I need to add another piece of information - my radio problems are not happening "in fringe areas" - actually I had reception issues in clear line of sight of the trasmitter of the radio itself!
Actually it is the Olympic Tower in Munich (more here Olympic Tower Munich FM radio Stations) - this is the radio tower transmitting all FM radios in Bayern.... I was driving underneath it (not directly underneath) and in clear line of sight of the antennas with no buildings or tree near me, and the reception (or signal reproduction) was just as bad.
I wrote again to Toyota today, after the dealer told me it was all OK and to turn off Reg/AF setting - which actually did not achieve anything...
I simply said to them that the radio is defective. I am curious of their answer.
But I think that until Toyota Japan does not acknowledge the problem, Toyota Germany cannot do anything really...
Question: how do I find the month/year of production of my Prius? it was delivered to me in mid-Sept, but I don't know where to look for its production date...

 

The signal strength close to the tower can be very low, there is a signal shadow. The best comparison is to test the reception in the same position with different cars/receivers.
I didn't find manufacturing date as well for TM Europe vehicles. US versions have it on B pillar, driver's side, I read somewhere.

 

:rockon:I have been following the “Weak FM signal radio reception†thread. After I received delivery of my 2010 Prius in mid-November (an October build), I was anxious to check out the radio. I have the base radio with the single CD player. I must say, surprisingly, that I am quite pleased with the radio – both AM and FM. I listen to the car radio often and the reception has been very good. I also have a 2001 RAV4 and the reception in the Prius is decidedly better than my RAV’s radio – especially the fringe areas. Does anyone else get good reception with the stock radio?

 

I live about 40min drive from Fort Worth texas and I get great FM and AM reception best I can tell....

 

I think California in general has decent reception - but it depends where you are. You can't listen to the radio when in Laguna Beach...

 

Would anyone know of a reason why FM static is non-existent when the car is not in motion, and worse in motion?

 

Possibly another design "feature". The low level signal path likely takes it near a source of "noise" - like the inverter...

 

Because the Prius is basically a Square Wave generator on wheels. The electronics that run the car are all computer driven. In order for the processors to clock data properly, the processors need to be synced together so the data streams do not have timing errors, which would be BAD Egon, thus there are usualy clock pulse generators to run the processors at the proper speeds required for proper operation.
The Clocks run anywhere from 1 Mhz to Hundreds of Mhz. Guess where the FM band is...66 Mhz to 108 Mhz and thats just the start! There are also Harmonics that are generated from the clock generators, Harmonics are multiples of the Primary Frequency, I.E. 2 Mhz Primary, 4 Mhz Secondary, 6 Mhz 3rd order.. hopefully you get the idea.
In a perfect world, all of this Electronic Data Noise would be 100% Shielded and Suppressed.
Well the world ain't perfect and neither is the shielding on the electronics. There are possibly some grounding issues that permit leakage, or a data cable is not properly shielded, thus also permitting leakage. It's not just the Prius. Many modern devices that are "HiTech" can emit RF Noise which is why there are standards that are set by the FCC and have to be met by the electronics manufacturers. Europe and Japan have their standards.
Also the fact that the 2010 Pius Radio seems to have a "Front End" that's either deaf as a post to distant RF, like the station you want to hear, and susceptible to "Near Field" RF Sources like the Data Noise that's being generated and emitted by the car.

The reason it changes is the amount of data that's being processed as the car drives changes. If it were a "Normal" car, I would suspect the whine produced by the alternator that's not being properly filtered by the suppression caps.

But it's a Prius, so count that one out!!!

Personally I blame the radio manufacturer, it seems like a crappy radio, sorry, but in my world I calls 'em as I see's 'em. Way too any folk are voicing concerns about the noise and lack of reception problems. The radio needs to have a better Front End to eliminate these problems. The only way that's going to happen is Toyota does a recall, and give you a better radio. Or you could always rip what ya got out, and install something way better. There are many posts out here on that subject!

 

I have no problems around Los Angeles, but I rarely listen to fm radio. If I want music it's mp3 player or phone.

 

I do listen to the radio around Los Angeles and can tell you it is much worse (everywhere) with my new prius than my 94 camry.

 

To pakitt:

Yes, my wife's work vehicle is a Gen II Prius with the longer antenna. I swapped it for the Gen III and did not notice a great difference in reception quality. I suspect the problem is not in the antenna, but in the tuner (which I have to suspect is cheap...a great oversight in my book from a company touting a technically advanced vehicle). I have looked into aftermarket radios but I have not turned up a match for the 2010...maybe in a few months.

 

I think there are many posts - some claim aftermarket work better - some claim it does not. There are 3 radios. THe highend is an Eclipse (which is a good supplier). I am quite sure the issue is between the antenna and the tuner.

 

Agreed. Just got a 2010 Prius II and the reception is *significantly* worse than my old 2002 Prius. Driving the same roads in the San Francisco Bay Area and the same stations that were crystal clear on the '02 Prius are static-y and not really listenable.

 

ni_ca please refer this to Toyota - the more people complain, the higher the chance of a recall-fix from Toyota.
PS: I have a meeting the first week of Jan with my dealer to do a test drive with another Prius on the same roads I drive with the same radio stations I have trouble listening to. Let's see how that goes.

 

Hello gents,
I have to chime in on this one and yes my reception is much worse than my old Matrix with the standard radio.
I am a ham radio operator W3PO, and I experimented with a mag mounted VHF antenna; a slight improvement.
I have to join KK6PD on this. Atop the noises inherent of the car itself, the radio on the model II is a rather inadequate piece of junk.

 

I just replaced my HU this last weekend with a Pioneer 4100DVD. Although I am thrilled with the sound quality, it only marginally helped the reception issue. With that said however, the new unit deals with the weak signal much better. Instead of unbearable cracking voices with the old unit, voices are still pretty clear, just not in stereo when reception gets bad. The extra power is great and makes the stock speakers sing! In all, a worth while upgrade.
Peter

 

I concur with the poor radio reception, on the same roads listening to the same stations, the reception is not as clear as it is in our Honda Oddessey or the Land Rover LR3 that preceded my Prius III. It fades and has static where the other two were crystal clear.

I also was dissappointed with the XM satellite reception which is not as reliable as it is in the Honda and did not choose to subscribe.

 

I've been in this thread for some time - my stock (II) HU gets poor reception, a replaced HU (aftermarket) got slightly worse reception, so I was thinking it was the signal.

Just got my aftermarket HU back (separate audio thread), and reception was one of the thing I asked them to look at.

I got the HU installed today, and I get better reception than I do in our Lexus in my garage. I guess that's another data point for poor quality HUs. The swapped HU works much better than I could have imagined...

 

That's really good news. Glad you finally got it back.