Suddenly have bad/no AM reception?

I have a 2010 Golf TDI with an RNS510 and I suddenly have bad AM reception. The AM reception became very poor or nothing, while FM and Sirius are fine. I held down the setup button for a long time and on both AM and FM it says "ANT1: Off" and "ANT2: On" And ANT1 is poor or weak with AM, but good with FM.

Should both antenna be "On"?

This happened 2 days in a row. It was fine in the morning for half of the commute and then went bad at the end. Then it was bad from the get-go in the afternoon all of the way home. I checked a small radio in the house when I got home and it was normal, so it seems something is going on with the car radio. I have VCDS, but didn't check yet for codes.

Any assistance or insight would be great!

I've had similar (but not exactly the same) radio issues. Just a week ago, the AM and FM both malfunctioned. The volume went way down.... and twisting the volume knob had no affect. Also, there was distortion on all stations. SiriusXM was OK. I turned the radio off and left it off. Next time I started the car everything was back to normal. This has only happened once.

More frequently, SiriusXM will disappear completely. Nothing. After turning the radio off for a while, it's back to normal again. This has happened maybe four times in four years.

^^Mine did it two days in a row. It came back in the morning after the first bad day but then went out again. Maybe I'll get lucky and it will be back again today and stay on. Actually, it happened one other time a long time ago, That time I thought it was local interference and had nothing to do with the radio, but now I wonder.

This morning the radio worked, both ANT1 and ANT2 were "on" and the signal was good or weak, but not poor. So it seems I have an intermittent ANT1. I wonder where ANT1 is and what is the likely cause. I'm going to start a new thread!

ksing44 said:

This morning the radio worked, both ANT1 and ANT2 were "on" and the signal was good or weak, but not poor. So it seems I have an intermittent ANT1. I wonder where ANT1 is and what is
the likely cause. I'm going to start a new thread!

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You listen to AM radio! Right on.... Not sure many still do. As a hobby I play with radios and MW band is pretty cool. You can get stations 400-600 miles away at night.

^^I listen to AM for local radio stations, sports or talk about local and other things too. One of the AM sports channels migrated to FM, but they also continued with another AM broadcast. I have Sirius at the moment and listen to their shows a bit, but it's often less appealing because of the lack of local flavor.

The good news, AM worked all day yesterday! I'm monitoring the ANT1 signal now, so I'll see how often I lose that signal. I'm also going to scan with VCDS to see if there is a stored antenna fault. If it's bad, I'm hoping it will be an easy replacement of the antenna amplifier that is supposedly under the trim in the hatch door.

Gotta get your Rush fix somewhere... I have always enjoyed playing with AM to see how far away a station you can hear on a cold night. We have two antennas in this car? That's interesting. Learn something every day. That's why I lurk over here instead of the wailing-and-gnashing-of-teeth-we-hate-VW-and-diesels thread.

I believe Ant 1 is the in glass antenna and ANT 2 is the shark fin. on my '14 JSW Ant 1 is the only listed antenna on AM. on FM both are on. I believe it uses the sharkfin for RDS. On XM its shark fin only(ant 2).

I almost never listen to FM, my radio is on AM unless the family is in the car and they cant stand it.

^^
If I push and hold the "SETUP" button I can see both antennas (ANT1 and ANT2) are "on" with FM or AM. It also shows the signal strength, good, weak, or poor, but it doesn't indicate which antenna the signal is coming from. There is also a bar graph that varies by signal strength.

I do listen to conservative talk shows, even though I don't fit the conservative category except maybe the spending part of things. I think they'd generally say I'm socially liberal, but fiscally conservative. Depending on the show and the host, sometimes it turns me off and I just can't take it anymore, but there are some good things too. We have a new afternoon guy in Philadelphia, Rich Zeoli. He's funny and generally a happy guy.

Whatever it takes to get though the daily commutes!

So about a week ago my AM and FM reception tanked. Stations I can usually listen to almost 90 miles away from the station now turn to static around 50 miles. I had this issue in the past with a certain car charger that I used for my dash cam. Once I put a split bead on it the issue went away. But that charger isn't even in the car anymore. Radio shows the proper antennas working but even when the signal is okay it shows as poor. Guess I get to yank the dash to check connections.

I never found out what my problem was. It resolved itself. From reading it sounded like it's more likely the connections around the hatch or at the outside antenna, although I think mostly it was older VWs and they had corrosion.

Your car is so new. Is it still under warranty?

2009 JSW here so might not apply to your situation. the whip aerial/sharkfin contains the AM and the side window 'antenna' contains the FM. I had to replace the antenna base to get AM working again.

ksing44 said:

I never found out what my problem was. It resolved itself. From reading it sounded like it's more likely the connections around the hatch or at the outside antenna, although I think mostly it was older VWs and they had corrosion.
Your car is so new. Is it still under warranty?

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My car is WAY past the 36k warranty period. not that I would trust the local dealer anyways.

Tried the Satellite radio on the way in this morning, I do not subscribe because the signal is normally marginal. It did not work but for maybe 30 seconds on my 52 mile 1 hr commute. So guess I will drop the headliner this weekend to check it out.

Checking behind the radio seems like a good idea too. I never did it, but in some posts I've seen it looked relatively simple to get the radio out and take a look. That has to be easier than pulling the headliner. Maybe you'll get lucky and it will just be something loose on the back of the radio.

Good luck!