Not pro-touring...installed aftermarket stereo and suddenly have tons of static??

[DarkoNova]

Not pro-touring, but I've never had this problem so I figured I'd post here. I have an 03 Taurus and I just installed one of my old Alpine head units in. Got a Metra dash kit and wired everything up. Install went easily. I've noticed that for some reason, my favorite radio station has a lot of static. Sometimes it's not so bad, sometimes it's basically static-ing to the beat. But I tried a couple other stations and they're basically crystal clear. CD's are clear. iPod is clear. I have another newer Alpine head unit in the Nova right now. I was thinking maybe the one I'm using is just old and something internal went bad? I was gonna swap it out after work tomorrow. Other than that, I don't know what else to do.

Any ideas? :hmm:

[DarkoNova]

This thing is weird. When I first installed the head unit the station had static just sitting in my driveway. But yesterday and today the station comes in crystal clear while sitting in my driveway. Still clear driving down the street. After a few minutes though it usually starts acting up again...

I remembered that I had a long antenna cable somewhere in my box of miscellaneous crap. Not sure where it came from, but I thought maybe I'd use that...maybe the antenna cable that came with the installation kit was just a cheap piece of junk. Unfortunately, the female end of the cable doesn't really fit on the cable that comes out of the antenna. The male end that plugs into the back of the head unit fit perfectly, though. So there goes that idea.

I'm thinking that since it's only the one station that does it, it's most likely the head unit itself... gonna see if I can swap it out with my other Alpine real quick but I'm kinda limited on time.

[vette427-sbc]

You needed an antenna adapter for that right? I rarely see the ford style ones fail, but its not uncommon for other ones to give intermittent reception. Maybe you got a bad one? Odd that all the other stations come in clear though...

[DarkoNova]

Yeah, it was basically just a longer cable to go between the antenna and the head unit.

My newer Alpine unit is a lot better, but there's still more static than with the stock head unit. It's basically like going through spots with a weaker reception. With the stock head unit it basically just got a little less clear. But with the Alpine it gets static-y...it's tolerable, but I'm going to look into different antennas or better adapters. I remember reading about a "high power" antenna or something...

But yeah, it's weird that it only happens with the one station...

[Nophix]

Alpine is notorious for bad reception.

One thing you can try is running a ground strap from the radio chassis to the car chassis. The added ground helps channel interference.

[MonzaRacer]

Also Taurus are notorious for bad neutral safety switches, well what ever its called as Ford changes names so often. They will have radio issues, turnsignal issues, windows activating totally stupid stuff.