996 antenna poor reception

[tsandfor]

Please help. My 99 996 with factory radio has poor reception. When I take the radio out, unplug the antenna lead and install a piece of copper wire, the reception is very good. Perhaps it is a bad antenna booster? Windshield is original. Where is the antenna booster located, how hard is it to get to, and what is the approximate cost? Appreciate any help very much.

Tim in Bridgewater, NJ

[RFM]

The antenna amplifier is located on the right A-pillar, behind the trim which is easy to remove. No idea of the U.S. price but can not cost much.

[kahdmus]

Just looked up the amplifier cost, $468...can that be correct???

[Loren]

Just looked up the amplifier cost, $468...can that be correct???

996-647-105-00 Antenna booster -- US MSRP $97.53

[HalM]

Just looked up the amplifier cost, $468...can that be correct???

I think many of us have similar issues. If you replace the ampliflier, please post with your results.

Thanks.

[nbeihl]

I have the same issue. Let me know if you come up with a solution.

[fillzplace]

I recently purchased a 2004 C4S convertible, and noticed that the factory Bose stereo had surprisingly bad reception, even in a large city such as Vancouver. After doing quite a bit of searching in the various forums, I decided to have a look at the antenna amps located in the A and B pillars. Well, it turns out that there was NOTHING plugged into the outputs where you expect the connection to go to the windshield antenna! I suspect that most of the people that are reporting poor signal reception on their factory radios have had their windshields replaced at one time or another, and that the aftermarket replacement window either doesn't have the required connections or the installers had no idea how to hook-up them back up.

Where does that leave us folks with poor reception? I decided to give it the old college try, and simply used some old ear-bud audio wires (almost no shielding to speak of so you can just use the main copper wire) and soldered one wire to the "pin 1" connection, and the other wire to the "pin 2" connection on the "top" connector. You can notice the difference right away just by connecting a wire to each of the pins. If I recall correctly, pin 1 is for FM and pin 2 is for AM (nothing on pin 3). I have included a picture of the final result. You just leave the other end of the wires terminated separately (no connection, and closed off with electrical tape) and run them up the A pillar and over towards the middle light assembly. I pulled them to the visor mounting hole closest to the interior light, and left them in that area.

While the "fix" isn't perfect, at least I can pickup AM radio stations to listen for traffic announcements, and the FM stations are pretty good now - way better than without the makeshift antennas. If anyone knows what connectors actually fit into the amplifiers, that would make the installation a little easier. I carefully pried open the amplifier casing and solder the wires to the connector pins inside the case which is a little more work. Doing it this way leaves the output connectors un-touched, so that they can be used again with the proper windshield.

Interestingly, doing the same thing on the passenger side amp had no effect - perhaps that one is actually defective in my car - I'm not going to worry about that one until the next time I get a new windshield, at which point I'll have them connected properly to begin with.

I hope this helps.

[GOB]

It may be completely unrelated, but you may want to search for poor FM reception on the Cayenne forums and see what the "fix" is (removing shielding on A pillar) and see if perhaps this helps you fix the problem without having to spend on anything but your time for the effort required.