Weak FM radio reception in 2010 Prius?

I have a Generation III Prius, no package. I have read this thread. I do not live in a heavily congested area. I set my radio on a NPR station yesterday, drove fifty-three miles without any signal loss or noise. The signal was still showing a strong ST. The performance level seems to be the same as I had on my 2005 Camry which had only the windshield antenna. The next time that I am in a more congested radio area, I'll try to make note of the FM performance and report back.

 

My 05 has bad reception, too. Really, really bad. How bad? FM stations get static and go mono at 20ish miles and cut out at 40 (70 miles being "normal").

How do I know this for sure? When my previous car had some work done, the mechanic had completely disconnected the antennae at the base. FM stations got static and went mono at 20ish miles and cut out at 40. The Prius has EXACLTY the same sound. When I finally discovered the error (several wasted trips back to the repair shop and a year later) I snapped the cable back in and , voila perfectly normal reception!

Toyota needs to fix this.

 

We have established that Europe has an amp - but no one has found the amp in the US - do you knmow where this "pre-amp" is? The Euro antenna connects to the 50ohm antenna jack (there are two antenna jacks on the back).

Though Europe is also reporting poor reception.

 

Hi there from the info that I got from the TIS website, it shows that the preamp is located above the rear passenger seat, in above the headliner, on the right side of the car, as you face forward from the rear!

In the Gen II, it was located in the base of the antenna mount. I have the drawing from TIS for the Gen III, I will update this post when I get home from work tonight!!

 

So it is nearly impossible to get at - pulling the headliner (I believe) means removing trims from everywhere..........

 

Well, in a word .....YEAH!

 

My FM seems to work fairly well, but I am usually in a strong-signal area
and I do not have good comparisons.
The XM is not good enough to subscribe to.
The AM and FM probably use the same antenna, right?
Is there a different antenna for XM?

So, it would appear that the AM/FM preamp is not plugged in,
not getting power, or "broken"?

My Prius-III + Nav was made at factory "5".

 

I went to the dealer this last Saturday to have the winter tires mounted and they had a look at the radio, but they found nothing wrong with it. The only advice was to set the AF/REG off - which I did (and then played around with it a bit) with no difference in reception whatsoever.
To me the design is simply not good enough and there is noise being injected after the antenna. Why? because I was in an area outside of town where I remember clearly that my Polo would really struggle and instead the reception was kept.
Until Toyota acknowledges that there are enough people complaining and that something might need to be fixed, nothing will happen.
How do you discover in which factory was the Prius made? I was told there is only one factory in Japan where all the Priuses are being assembled, right?

 

I've had my 2010 Prius III for 10 days and love it, except for the radio. The static is horrible. The Sienna that I traded in never had any issues with reception in this area. My only solution for listening to my favorite FM public radio station is to listen to it on AM. Not perfect reception, but better. Hoping for a solution. It's a definite bummer.

 

I have tested a longer antenna on the Prius and nothing really changed. There is still static and pops/clicks every now and then - you cannot get more than 10 secs of noise-free reception. On the other hand, though, it seems that the radio receives in areas well known to me and friends in the area to be completely devoid of signal.
So, since the dealer has checked and says that everything is according to specs and nothing is wrong (and I believe him, since the rest of the radio, the functionality and the sound is fine with CDs, MP3s and iPod), I am coming to the conclusion that the noise is injected by the car, *after* the signal has been amplified. The noise does not affect the rest of the CD functionality, which means it is in the receiver part of the radio *only* (otherwise the noise would be other from other audio sources as well, if the noise was injected on the lines to the speakers).
Now I only need to tell Toyota about it and let's pray God that they will find a root cause....and a fix.

 

I request that this thread go back to the Main Forum, as a Sticky. Maybe that way those of us who are suffering now will have a better chance to get Toyota's notice.

Every car we've had in 15 years has been better. The 1994 Integra has an external antenna (used to be pop-up-down via that tape mechanism that breaks in the face of ice--now permanently up) has fine reception; the 2001 A4 has in-glass antenna that was not as good; the 2010 Prius is even worse.

Has there been any response, anywhere, from Prius Team? While they are marketeers, they can surely rely on technical back-up.

Since most of us are consumers of radio, not designers of reception systems, is there anyone reading PriusChat who has real expertise in analyzing why we are having problems?

I too will be contacting Toyota with this complaint, but I am unsure about exactly who to contact.

 

I'm at the point to trying an external radio to the aux jack......

 

I have noticed the same issues... the FM radio is pretty poor... XM is always cutting out. I have a Sirius Stiletto portable unit that I take from car to work truck and it plays soooo much better than the Prius radio. Very few blank outs unless I am in a heavily wooded area.

What really frosted my buns was when we were away and had a lousy little Ford Focus rental car.... XM radio, nice color display. Showed full song title and artist and sometimes the year it came out REALLY nice. Prius = ugly washed out two-tone display... shows part of the artists name and after scrolling down show part of the song title. Pretty poor but I don't think that Toyota is going to change out our crappy substandard radios!

 

Update, MY BAD, I thought you were talking swapping antennas, not radios...
try the antenna swap...

now back to original posting reply...
That would actually be a GREAT idea!! It will certainly either prove the factory antenna has a problem, or that the receiver ears are as deaf as a post when it comes to listening to RF signals!!!

If it's the antenna system, that can be corrected much easier than the radio itself. I still am not convinced the RF amp that's up in the rear headliner is not involved in this problem. I would love to see the data sheet for this unit. RF Gain, how many dB? Noise Floor, Bandwidth..you know that tech stuff...

A co-worker friend of mine says he has NO problems with his 2010 FM system. Of course we roam in one of the most RF saturated cities in the US. If he had the problem said he woud be willing to tear into it with me. Nelson is VERY resourceful in the world of RF, as am I. We were partners for years on a show at the Network. That would have been a fun little fix-it adventure!
But, like we both say, If it works, dont fix it!!!
So we will not be tearing into his Pearl V/AT!!!

Let us know if you do this. and what your results are!!!

 

Just wanted to add that the antenna of my Prius has been tried out by a friend on his 2005 Renault Clio and guess what? it worked perfectly fine. This means, that the antenna itself is not the problem.
The noise is injected after the signal has been picked up properly by the antenna and certainly before the loudspeaker amplifier (CDs/AUX/MP3s always play fine).

Question, does the FM problem also show up on people having the navigation system or only those who the radio/CD player only???

 

OK, you have really piqued my technical curiosity!
Just how EXACTLY did you do the swap????
Walk us through it step by step, please!!!

 

I believe if you read deep through the thread, there is a clear issue. The issue has nothing to do with the antenna.

RF design in the big scheme of things means you match your antenna with impedance - to the receptor (roof jack). That antenna is a small piece to the Prius.

People have tried different antennas (older Prius, sharkfin etc), with worse performance. I'm guessing (due to the MOST basic design concepts) that this antenna was "matched" to the vehicle by Toyota - this is so basic, we can assume it happened..

So where do you go - clearly running a VERY LOW LOW signal through a roof, and through some 3+ meters to the head unit is a tough task for anyone... BMW has mastered it (we had one - and it was rock solid where we live). Toyota did not.

I bought an antenna amp to try - which is connected at the back of the radio (antenna input). The amp just amplified the bad.

The fix is either a different, more shielded cable (better grounds), moving it through the car in a different path, or most likely both.

I am guessing it was designed in Japan (different frequency - but similar design) - which is saturated with FM signal. Testing in the US headquarters (Orange County/LA) does not help - as this area is saturated, and shows decent signals. So I'd guess testing was the issue. Never assume.........

Once you move remote - even a bit, the radio shows issues. I have shown issues with AM (most alarming as this signal doesn't really care about hills), and FM. I have a neighbor who bought one 2 weeks ago, and does not listen to AM FM, but uses the satellite. I asked her about the reception - her answer? She doesn't listen to Am FM, but the satellite cuts out repeatedly in a clear signal area (meaning flat area).

Not sure if there is a separate antenna for sat - but if it uses the same, you get GOBS more data points....

That said, to run a new cable through the roof means pulling the headliner (and gobs of associated trim) - probably 1.5 hours to a skilled tech. Then adding a fix.

I'm not holding my breath.

You are talking possibly $200+ at Toyota's cost............ That times XXXXXX cars means we will have a massive up hill battle to get real reception.

I do however agree that this should move to the main page, and be a sticky.

 

It's easy to remove - and has a common connector - this is why/how people have tried older Prius etc....

 

Now rrolff, please let Pakitt answer the question.....
There is a reason I asked HIM, his procedure.
Letting the other the fellow students GUESS what he did..... DOES NOT COUNT....

Pakitt where are you?????

 

I simply screwed the antenna off the Prius and found another car (the Renault Clio) that had the same screw size and swapped the 2. Simply screw/unscrew.
I have to another thing - which makes the whole topic very interesting.
Independent of the antenna used, when I go in an area where I know the reception of my previous car would almost completely fail and the radio station was covered with static and breaking up, the Prius simply got going on like as if nothing happened. It had a bit more static, but nothing major like with the Polo (my previous car). Moreover, in an area known to be completely devoid of any signal to the Polo (road among trees in an hilly area) the Prius kept the signal....
So now....my opinion is the following - the whole antenna-receiver path is OK. What is not OK is between the FM receiver, amplification and before the mix to the final amplifier to the speaker. CDs and MP3s and iPods play just fine, so for me the noise is generated internally. And exacerbated when the signal fades. Is this noise due to interference from the electronics and electric motors? I don't think so - the noise has no recognisable pattern. I mean, you hear the radio, but every 5-20 seconds you hear a popping sounds, a short his, a bit of static here and there....
So for me, the noise is injected by the radio receiver itself, maybe due to the electronics of the car, maybe. I have sent this information to the dealer who was inquiring with me if the Reg/AF on/off setting provided any benefit (answer was no, unfortunately) and I am waiting to see his reply. I am pretty sure that other people who have bought the Prius at the same dealer are facing the same issue. Surely the fact that most people today do not listen to FM radio much, makes this a very difficult problem to make a decent statistic of.
Again - has anyone tried the FM sound reproduction (to me it is not a reception issue anymore) on a version with the navigation system? has anyone tried to listen to a radio via the AUX input to see if reception is any better than the Prius - or just as noisy?