Hello Everyone. I have a problem with my Freestar that I cannot figure out. When I bought the Freestar, it had an AM/FM radio so I decided to buy an in dash 6 cd radio off of ebay. When I got it home and installed it, everything worked fine except the AM. My wife listens to a ton of AM so I ordered another radio, only this time it was a single CD MP3 radio and the same thing happened. No AM. I took it to the dealer and he checked the antennae and told me I have put the wrong radio in and that's why it won't work. We decided to just buy an aftermarket Sony single CD and have put that in. Guess what? Same issue. No AM reception at all hardly.

From what we remember, the original radio radio worked fine, but why would these additonal Ford radios and an aftermarket not work. The Ford radios had identical brackets and plugins. No modfications were made and I changed them out in about 3 minutes flat. We are just very frustrated. The ford dealer tells me it is the radio but I don't know if I buy it. He gave me a part number for the correct radio that should go in there and I have not been able to locate one. Even if I did, I'm not sure I would want to take the chance. Can someone please help me understand. Please.

Mark

 

I don't have an exact answer for you, but I believe that the AM anntena is in the windshield and that might have something to do with it. I don' know the circumstances surrounding the radio R&R as far as the connection for the AM side, you may check the chasis for the radio itself as being the connection... I don't know for sure. I do have a question for you though. I have been entertaining the thought of accesing the Auxilliary option of my radio, but I need to get into the dash. How did you open the dash? I doesn't look easy.
Sorry if I wasn't much help, hope your info can help me.
Dave

 

I believe your factory radio antenna is located in the right rearside window. It looks like a defroster element but it is the radio antenna. Maybe the OEM Ford radios have a circuit that makes an adjustment for the AM to utilize this window antenna.

I would suggest you pick up a cheap old-school metal mast antenna from the auto parts store and temporarily connect it to one of the aftermarket radios you have purchased. If the AM works with the temporary antenna then you have solved your problem.

In this case, you may wish to mount it permanently if you can find a good spot. I'm not sure if there is clearance somewhere in the front fender for this type of antenna. You can even install one of those motorized antennas if you are handy.

Another good thought could be to buyone of those flexible shorty rubber antennas and mount it above the windshield in the center of the roof ala VW style. This will take some more work, though, and you'll probably need to remove the headliner to get it installed properly.

Good luck.