Rubbish Aerial Reception Mk2 Ford Focus

[DJ_Andy_M]

17 hours ago, Mackovtr said:

I am getting poor reception and when I plug a usb connector into the cigarette lighter port it gets even worse. Where is the radio earth connection to check?

Sounds like a case of CCC. Cheap Chinese Cr... Some of the adaptors you can get give off so much EMI (electromagnetic interference) due to poor testing and quality control standards it's stupid. P.s next time check the date on a thread, if its really old, start a new one as otherwise it creates unnecessary bumps of topics.

[FatHead1979]

19 minutes ago, DJ_Andy_M said:

Sounds like a case of CCC. Cheap Chinese Cr... Some of the adaptors you can get give off so much EMI (electromagnetic interference) due to poor testing and quality control standards it's stupid. P.s next time check the date on a thread, if its really old, start a new one as otherwise it creates unnecessary bumps of topics.

Some of us like zombies though! 

[Pt123]

 

 

""Here's what fixed it: I took the trim panel off the driver's side A post: pull the door seal down a bit, get your fingers behind the trim panel and pull it towards the middle of the car.

There's a M/F connector on the blue wire. I just separated (pull it apart with your fingers)it and clicked back together again. MW all sorted.""        ashmicro

 

Brilliant post... sorted in 10 mins.  Thanks

[Pt123]

On 8/20/2016 at 4:36 PM, ashmicro said:

I'm late to the party here. However, I've only had my mark 2.5 Focus for a couple of months. I was having the issue with Medium Wave. With the ignition off and they key out, MW was noisy, with what sounded like a police siren in the background. With the ignition on, it wiped it out altogether. I tried messing about with the aerial threads, checked the base, ran an extra earth to the head unit. Nothing.

Here's what fixed it: I took the trim panel off the driver's side A post: pull the door seal down a bit, get your fingers behind the trim panel and pull it towards the middle of the car.

There's a M/F connector on the blue wire. I just separated (pull it apart with your fingers)it and clicked back together again. MW all sorted.

 

 

Brilliant fix   as above post ....I,m new to this

[Botus]

I got the car from my sister (in Southampton) bought up to east berks area and the radio search couldn't find a single station, I rang her up and said did you not notice you can't tune a single station.  She said, Oh it was always a bit *****.  I looked up on forums and everyone was saying its the earth to the roof scratch off the paint it works.  I looked at this and fitted a separate link wire to the heated screen earth and the aerial .  It made ZERO difference.  No station on FM found.  Even if you tuned to known powerful broadcasts that any other car works OK with, I had nothing.

Then another weekend or three later, I'm taking it all apart for the umpteenth time and as I was reassembling (back on to the roof) with radio running all of a sudden perfect reception.  Nearly fell out of the car.  Thought magic quick tighten it up...... and as I nipped it up the final 1/4 turn the radio goes totally dead from signal point of view.

clearly something is going on, so I'm fiddling with my earth and tightening / loosening / generally f****ing about, when I realise that earthing was the very problem stopping it working at all.

The design is a total f*** up.  Its the very fastenings Ford have that earths out the mounting bolt via its washer and kills the aerial dead .  So I ground back the stupid washer by about 0.5mm of its diameter and no matter how ham-fisted you are you can't possibly earth the antenna connection to the car body..... and thus it now works exactly as Ford intended but designed all wrong.

yet not a single forum has ever noticed this total f** up of a design flaw.... like that we had 5 years of perfect reception on all stations.  but sadly with 5G being implemented round here CP have taken FM signal strength to about a 1/4 of what's required and DAB down to less than a 1/16 and so its all a bit academic these days

one simple redesigned mounting washer taking 15 mins to fit and most focus' between 2005 to 2016 would ever have had a reception issue

[F0CUE]

Wonder if one of these would help..

https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Booster-Inline-FM-AM-Aerial-Radio-Signal-Antenna-Amplifier-Car-Stereo-/152960978004?_trksid=p2349526.m4383.l4275.c10&_mwBanner=1&_rdt=1

[dtulip8]

1 hour ago, Botus said:

I got the car from my sister (in Southampton) bought up to east berks area and the radio search couldn't find a single station, I rang her up and said did you not notice you can't tune a single station.  She said, Oh it was always a bit *****.  I looked up on forums and everyone was saying its the earth to the roof scratch off the paint it works.  I looked at this and fitted a separate link wire to the heated screen earth and the aerial .  It made ZERO difference.  No station on FM found.  Even if you tuned to known powerful broadcasts that any other car works OK with, I had nothing.

Then another weekend or three later, I'm taking it all apart for the umpteenth time and as I was reassembling (back on to the roof) with radio running all of a sudden perfect reception.  Nearly fell out of the car.  Thought magic quick tighten it up...... and as I nipped it up the final 1/4 turn the radio goes totally dead from signal point of view.

clearly something is going on, so I'm fiddling with my earth and tightening / loosening / generally f****ing about, when I realise that earthing was the very problem stopping it working at all.

The design is a total f*** up.  Its the very fastenings Ford have that earths out the mounting bolt via its washer and kills the aerial dead .  So I ground back the stupid washer by about 0.5mm of its diameter and no matter how ham-fisted you are you can't possibly earth the antenna connection to the car body..... and thus it now works exactly as Ford intended but designed all wrong.

yet not a single forum has ever noticed this total f** up of a design flaw.... like that we had 5 years of perfect reception on all stations.  but sadly with 5G being implemented round here CP have taken FM signal strength to about a 1/4 of what's required and DAB down to less than a 1/16 and so its all a bit academic these days

one simple redesigned mounting washer taking 15 mins to fit and most focus' between 2005 to 2016 would ever have had a reception issue

I've come to realise that Ford's are full of seemingly simple design muck ups, like changing the cambelt on the 1.6 destroys an AC pipe, the engine cover isn't fitted properly and allows water to drip into cylinder heads and cause misfires etc.

[Botus]

Quote

JUST realised its not a washer…. it was 5 years ago,,,,

Its the fixing bolt that shorts on the antenna.... grind 0.5 mm off the diameter of the bolt head and it no longer shorts out the antenna when tightened fully

 

 

[Ray.seymour]

I just bought a mk2 focus 2010 plate and the reception goes when I turn headlights on any ideas.

[StephenFord]

I know it's an old thread, but a perennial problem! I had horrible issues with bad reception, which I never really got to the bottom of, but a replacement roof mount & aerial totally cured. It's such a relatively cheap fix that extensive 'fault finding' seems futile...

 

[MrRedman]

I clipped a magnetic suppressor round the cable on mine (I think that’s the name)it worked perfectly after that 👍

[StephenFord]

30 minutes ago, MrRedman said:

I clipped a magnetic suppressor round the cable on mine (I think that’s the name)it worked perfectly after that 👍

I tried these at some stage too, for me, I may as well have rubbed a magic genie lamp! This is what you are talking about...

[MrRedman]

4 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

I tried these at some stage too, for me, I may as well have rubbed a magic genie lamp! This is what you are talking about...

Yes they did the trick 

if it’s still affecting the lights I’d look for a bad earth somewhere 👍

[gary teasdale]

On 8/19/2014 at 7:58 AM, ARRIVAMAN said:

I have found if I switch off the engine the reception on AM is as good as ( my FM while I'm driving ) just wondering if it's a suppression fault or is that a memory from my past ?

Quote

the problem with static on a focus mk2 while the engine is running is nothing to do with new Ariel's or bad earth wirers. its all to do with that thin roof support between the dash and the roof on the drivers side right next to the door. you have to carefully remove the plastic cover. underneath there is a load of wirers. amongst them is a plug connection. all you do is disconnect it. blow into it and replace. now turn on the engine then the radio select radio 5 on am and the sound should be clear. replacing the plastic cover is tricky so you may need some help. I found the static does build up again so you have to repeat the process as and when. hope this helps.