Weak FM radio reception in 2010 Prius?

Well this has been a fascinating read.
I can report that my wife's 2011 II with the base radio has much better reception than my recently acquired 2010 III with Bluetooth and the JBL. A shame, really.
:/

 

So I asked Toyota to have a look at this at my last service - they said they would need a few days with the car to pull down all the headers and check the cables and amp; Radio is still under warrantee, so any parts would be covered, but labor would not. And it sounds like a lot of labor. Are there any specific places that are more likely to cause this tan others? I thought I might be able to peek at the antenna base by pulling the cabin light fixture, but it did not want to come out. There also seems to be no easy way to get at the radio connections, is there? Boy, in the old days it was a hell of a lot easier to swap and repair radios!

Has anyone else had their base radio FM reception CHANGE from good to terrible of their Gen 3 Prius?

John

 

I followed Jeff Cooke's advice of partially unseating the antenna plug to the head unit, and it worked! (I made an account just to say this)

I had to fiddle around with the plug until it was lined up properly and then I used zip ties to keep it in the exact spot (pictures below)
It might be worth a try, just move the plug around until you get reception
Fully plugged in: What worked for me:

Heres what I did:

 

Thanks! I couldn't quite expose that part of the radio - I have to look further into how to get more access - is that on the side, bottom,or top of the radio? Looks like it might be the left side, but I am not sure.

John

 

The 2010 Prius is my 4th Prius and the radio reception is terrible. I suspect it's a grounding issues on the radio, only because plugging a charger into a 12V power supply changes the clarity of the station, but that's just a guess,, I'm not an audio expert. I travel throughout the midwest and the 05', 07' and 08 Prius were very consistent in reception so I didn't even think about checking when I purchased the 2010. (Now I just use an MP3 player if I'm more than 35 miles from a station.)

 

Unfortunately this is the bad thing about the Prius Gen3 (before facelift - I don't know if with the facelift they fixed it). FM radio never worked, so much so that I had Toyota pay me back the equivalent value in services (about 450€).

 

My 2010 Prius had terrible FM reception, which was made obvious every time I drove my wife's Honda CRV and listened to the same stations.
We used a dashboard removal tool to pry loose the covers surrounding the radio and then removed the 4 screws holding in the radio. It slipped out easily exposing the rear of the radio. The antenna plug was not as tight as you would expect. Leaving the radio on, as we slipped the plug in and out the reception on what had been some of the weaker stations improved.
On the white antenna plug there are some silver tabs embedded around the plastic part of the plug. Using a very small screwdriver, we bent those tabs out from the plastic. When the plug was reinserted it was much more secure than it had been as a result of that adjustment. We found the point with the best reception as the plug was reinserted and then began the process of reassembling the dash area, leaving the radio on the whole time to make sure the reception didn't change from the plug being bumped. Soon the dash was back together and the radio reception was much improved, perfect on several stations that were not worth trying to listen to just yesterday.

 

I just traded a 09 Prius for an 11 Prius 3 and thought I was losing my mind with this radio issue. I'm glad to hear it's not just mine, but I'm disappointed that there's not much I can do about it. Oh well at least I have Bluetooth ‍♀️

 

I got a pretty good improvement by replacing the short stubby antenna mast with a 31 inch mast

 

Link to the mast?

 

look for a 2008 rav4 mast

 

How is Bluetooth connectivity with the 31" mast? I've been thinking about upgrading to longer antenna but there some with and without Bluetooth support. thanks for sharing about the 31" I'm thinking about that now

 

I don't know about blue tooth, but I had to cut the screw down a bit for a good fit

 

So you haven't sync connected a Bluetooth device to the audio system yet?

 

I don't own a Bluetooth device I guess

 

SORRY, I just noticed that this post has not been replied to since October 2017...

I don't think bluetooth uses the outside antenna.
I just did the antenna trick and this worked for me as well. I put spacers and a zip tie to hold it in place. The space was about the same as RedthePrius.
By the way, I noticed in RedthePrius picture, his antenna connector is on the bottom. My antenna was plugged into the upper port. I tried the lower port and it would not fit. I have the Prius 5 (no, not V) model with Navigation.
Does anyone know what the other port is for?
Thanks everyone for their ideas!
I don't like using the Aux/BT for 3 minute trips to the store, so since FM stopped receiving I just drove in silence for the few minutes I was driving. If I remember correctly, the FM stopped receiving about 1 year ago.

Alan