Ilive in Orange County California, a metropolitan area south of Los Angeles. I bought a used 2001 Dodge Intrepid with 15K miles in January 2002. This car has the AM/FM radio with cassette and 4 disc in dash CD player as an integrated unit. All functions worked perfectly. In July 2002, the power on the unit began to go off and on by itself while the unit was turned on, as if the ON/OFF switch was turned off and on. The dealer replaced the original unit with a second unit which worked perfectly as before. In September 2002, the off/on problem recurred and the dealer replaced the unit with a third unit. By December 2002, all AM stations on the third unit sounded distorted and the dealer replaced the unit with a fourth unit. The fourth unit also sounded distorted on AM stations, particularly on AM 1070 (a very strong station) and I returned the car to the dealer on December 22, 2003. The delaer is now saying that AM 1070 is a TV broadcast band and this is what is interfering with my radio. The dealer says there is no fix for the problem. However, I do not get that problem on my Mazda and Ford trucks. There are very few tall buildings in the area. I did not have the distortion problem on the first two units (although I did have the off/on problem). Does anyone have any suggestions for a fix? Many thanks. Bill Stanley (email
wdstanley@earthlink.net).
The ground wire on that vehicle is a braided wire. It may have come loose from the stereo. I would try to check both ends to see if it secure. Also be sure the antenna is in securely. Make sure the car batterys negative terminal is secure. It sounds like a ground problem.