We recently bought an '03 Mercury Sable. It has the stock AM/FM with CD radio. I have never had a vehicle with worse FM reception! The radio stations here are all local within 15 miles. These stations come in loud and clear at home and in my other vehicle!
Anyone else experience this with these radios? What have you done to fix it, short of replacing the complete system?

 

If the antennas are connected and are working properly.. it may be time to replace the car radio unit.

 

"If the antennas are connected and are working properly.. it may be time to replace the car radio unit."

This is the second time I got a similar response! First, how do I know if the antenna(s) are connected and working properly?
1) There is one visible antenna on the left rear fender. It is chrome/silver. It is a one piece mast and looks to have a wire wrapped/spiraled along the length of it like a candy cane or Barber sign. Is there a plug at the antenna under the trunk liner?
2) I am not able to find a typical antenna plug at the radio, looking under the dash. I have not pulled the unit out because I don't have a pair of those ridiculously priced pieces of wire to remove it but, I have crawled upside down under the center of the dash to look. I can see a rectangle shaped plug up there but, that is about it.
3) Why the response "It may be time to replace the car radio unit"? I have never in nearly 40 years of owning vehicles had to replace a radio due to reception problems. Are you telling me this is a common issue with these particular units and replacing them is the only solution? I really don't want to go and spend the money on a new receiver plus the cost of the mounting kit to properly fit it in the dash to go down the road and find I still have the same problem!
4) If it is more likely fault of the antenna, replacing it would be acceptable but would still be a royal P.I.T.A., being mounted on the rear fender!

 

If I'm not mistaken...If you pull the trunk liner away from the antenna area, you will fine a module behind it. The antenna plugs into it, then there is another antenna lead that goes from the module up to the radio unit. It's possible, and I've seen it where the rear module is bad and I've also seen it where the antenna wire casing is worn thru by the rear seat area. I presently have a bad antenna module on my 04' Freestar that causes me to get crappy reception exept for one station (Uses a higher output). Unplug the antenna lead that goes towards the radio and see if your reception increases. If so, then the module is bad. That's how I found my issue. I unplugged the antenna lead from the module and the stations came in loud and clear.

 

It is raining today but, I will look into this!

 

Well, finally got weather decent enough to pull out the trunk liner and look into this. Yes, there is a "module" under the liner. All I did was pull out the antenna lead and plug it back in and reception was better so, I loosened up the ground wire back there in that area, I'm assuming for the module, and tightened it back up, creating fresh contact. All the stations that came in weak are now coming in much clearer. I am thinking 10 years of the connections not being bothered just needed some wiggling around to regain their contact. I will probably get back in there and put some electrical contact grease on the plugs once this damn weather clears up.

 

The Audio system in this car was not like any other. It used the ACP (Audio Corporate Protocol) for the sound system. The radio is in the trunk on the left hand side, underneath the matting, if memory serves correctly. And this was a really comon problem with them.

 

sound like a really stupid place for a radio to me given the amount of possible moisture in trunk of any car

 

I agree with that 110 % ... I am not sure if it is the radio per se but, there definitely is an aluminum cased box mounted under the liner on the left side! There are two rectangular shaped plugs and the antenna lead coming out of it. I also noticed, there is moisture/water sitting in the lowest area of the fender back there. There are also some sort of vents under the front edges of the bumper. It has been raining alot so, it is possible for moisture to have splashed through those vents but, what a crappy design!
Sounds like replacing the Audio system would be a total rewire just to bypass that box! Plus a different antenna because the lead on this one has a female center instead of the conventional male center pin found on the rest. Looks like FOMOCO found a way to stop us from replacing these systems with something decent!
What tod, what to do ...

 

you could just replace the whole nine yards with whatever kind of sound system you like and hide the antenna behind the radio or in the dash out of sight