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Renault Scenic - Poor Radio Performance*fixed*

57K views 19 replies 17 participants last post by  ours2012 
#1 ·
A couple of months ago I posted a request for info on poor reception from the radio and asked if other users had a similar problem.
there were several posts that agreed that the radio reception was poor with the radio not picking up many stations and the head unit always going off station and trying to retune its self,

Well after 4 visits to the dealer and 4 days lost with new arials new leads new head units etc.etc they eventually contacted reanult and renault advised the dealer to look for
a poor earth contact, this they did and this they found,

the radio is now perfect and tunes in loads of stations from far and wide, and stays on station with out any problems .

the moral of the story being you just have to keep perservering with the dealer until eventually they contact renault for advice and not get fobbed off as they tried to do
several times.
 
#4 ·
I have no radio signal on my 2001 Laguna II. Took it to a main dealer and they recommended I have a new head unit. Before doing that I went to Halfords bought a £6 aeriel and plugged it in the back of the head unit. Hey presto perfect reception. Glad I didn't spend £100's at the dealers and it shows they don't even do the basic of checks.
Therefore I assuming its the aeriel feed to the head unit. Could this be the earth problem and how do i check it please?
 
#6 ·
oooh...

this is a problem I get with my 02 Scenic. My old Ford Ka had a great radio which tuned in and kept the tuning brilliantly.

This new one seems to not have understood the concept of RDS. I drive across the country every day and it seem snot to want to retune to a stronger signal ever. I'll try the top tip about the earthing though. Ta.
 
#9 ·
Exactly the same problem on our 2006 Grand Scenic, tried new Aerial Base, Lead and no improvement. Might try holding an earth wire on the Aerial Base as there is no actual earth wire connected to it, just a co-ax and a positive feed. Any news on this appreciated. Seems to be a problem with late 2005 on Scenics / Grand Scenics.
 
#10 ·
I have looked everywhere and can't see where this dodgy connection would be. The aerial base screws directly on to the roof of the car and has two cables, a co-ax for the antenna and a positive feed for the booster circuit (electronics in the aerial base). I have looked at all related subjects on this forum and none give any specifics about the Scenic II and it's problem other than to say that dealers have fixed the issue with help from RUK technical assistance. Our radio will still not auto-tune into any stations on FM or LW but you can get weak reception if you manually tune frequencies that you know.

Does anyone know what the common problem is on these stereo's as I am about to try changing the head unit and wonder if this is going to make any difference?
 
#12 ·
I also have a problem with the radio on my grand scenic
I took the radio out disconected the arieal and put my hand on the radio antenna socket and it worked great so re plugged antenna back in and got very poor reception soooo i think its got to be a short on the antenna lead. now what do i do ??????
 
#13 ·
I've got this exact same problem on my 58 plate Scenic II. Very weak reception indeed and can't see anything obvious from the aerial mount at the back of the roof.

(btw my Twingo radio reception, which is only a slightly different head unit and looks like the same aerial, is perfect!)

Does anyone know of a solution for the Scenic IIs? :confused:
 
#14 ·
Hi There, Eventually got this fixed after changing the aerial base, cable and head unit (doh.....) It turned out to be the antenna itself. Half way up the mast there was a tiny little indentation and a bit of the outer plastic coating was chipped off. After discovering that a 12" piece of wire placed in the aerial base gave amazing reception I had decided this had to be the cause. Cutting back the outer plastic revealed that the copper track that spirals around the outside of the fibreglass mast had completely corroded away. I assume at some point that this must have hit a car park barrier or something at that height and water had got inside the mast and rotted it away. £12.99 from the local dealer and for the first time ever we can get all FM stations including some of the weaker ones. Expensive lesson learned by my mistake in thinking the problem was inside the car!! Renault senior tech said to get a cheap antenna (£5) from Halfords and plug it in - if the problem goes away then it is definitely aerial related that is where I decided it was not the head unit anymore and set about working it out once and for all.

Job done.
 
#18 ·
I had a similar problem with my 57 Grand Scenic; poor FM reception except for the local BBC station. Examined my aerial to find a very small nick which looked like it could not be a real problem. Replaced the aerial with a Renault part and all works fine now.
Thank you.
 
#19 ·
Head melted with mine. 2006 Megane estate. Tried an ariel base from a breakers and no good, that could have been goosed too mind. Ant 2 coming up in check on HU. Tried an aftermarket HU but no good either but rules out HU being the issue.

Been searching the net and forum for weeks and have sore eyes looking at screens for info with no definite answers. Doesnt seem to make any difference to signal sticking a copper cable into the aerial port on HU directly either.
 
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