Weak FM radio reception in 2010 Prius?

I don't have a solution to the problem, but I just wanted to add my brand new Prius 2010 III (built in June) to the long list of models with bad FM reception.

Toyota doesn't seem to have done anything yet in newer cars to address this problem. I already complained to Toyota customer service with a detailed e-mail. I will take it to my local dealer next. I'll post any outcome of this, positive or negative.

 

I'm not sure this has been addressed in this thread, but are you guys aware that the XM Satelllite antenna is built into the base of the AM/FM antenna?

I just had XM Satellite radio installed in my 2007 Prius and the tech purposely but the satellite antenna on the right side of the roof.. away from the AM/FM antenna. He said there could be some interference from the 2 antennas.

Food for thought. Hope this helps. Marvinh

 

I bought my Prius III in June 2010, and FM reception is poor. I drive my Honda Accord 2007 on the same route every day, and the FM is great.

 

Good thought, but over here in Europe we don't have satellite radio and yet still have similar FM problems.

Having swapped the Prius head unit for one (a Kenwood DNX5220) that I know worked well in my local area in my last car (a Honda CR-V), without a massive improvement in FM radio performance , I'm pretty sure that most of the problem has to stem from the car itself, either from a poor antenna system or interference.

I don't like the Kenwood (far too slow to boot and it has a cranky interface), but I'm sticking with it for the time being. The next thing I want to investigate is fitting a high quality antenna in place of the stock one. This looks relatively straightforward to do and 'may' improve things. If so, then it should be a relatively cheap fix. All I need to do is find a source for a very high quality aerial.

Jeremy

 

Jeremy,

Not sure what's going on with yours - but here in the US it is well documented that new HUs have much better reception.

To restate my observations:
2010 Car1:
Radio1: Stock radio very very poor reception (FM)
Radio2: Chinese unbranded HU - better - but not really much (FM)
Radio1 again (while radio2 was in China being fixed) - same poor reception (predictable)
Radio3: Chinese unbranded HU2 (manufacturer swapped it out due to many problems) - very good reception - as good/better than our Lexus and my old stock Xterra.

2010 Car2:
Radio4: Stock radio - very very poor reception (same as radio1 - can't even listen to FM in Laguna Beach).
Radio5 (and hopefully last): Pioneer Z110BT. Really good reception overall - everywhere. I even pickup 91X (91.1) clearly from San Diego (60+ miles away).

Maybe there is something with your weird antenna leads in the UK - but here it is clearly not the antenna.

Other general observations that seem somewhat proven - Sharkfin antennas yield slightly worse reception. Putting on a longer whip antenna doesn't do much.

The last strange one is - it seems to occur on all 3 radios - stock, stock JBL, and NAV JBL.

 

rrolff,

This Fm problem is certainly tough to pin down to a specific cause, I think. Your observations are not dissimilar to mine in some ways. The Chinese unit I fitted for a short time worked a little better than the standard radio and was certainly more sensitive. It did still suffer from signal break up, like the standard radio, in places where I could get a good signal in the Honda.

One major strength with both the Chinese unit and the Kenwood is that the signal quality degradation is more graceful. I can't think of a decent way to describe it, other than the say that the stock radio was very harsh and noisy when it started to lose the signal, whereas with the other two radios partial signal loss seems far less obtrusive.

 

Guys - can anyone tell me the customer care of Toyota Japan? I am escalating this issue to HQ.
Customer Care Germany told the dealer to make an official request to the technical department and that "we expect a solution to be presented shortly". A week as gone by and nothing happened, although I have notified the first time this issue back in October 2010. This action from Customer Care was initiated only because I wrote them again after not hearing anything from them since April. I don't think they are at all taking this issue seriously, Toyota included.

So, who do I write to in Japan?

 

I have a 2010 II and have the same problem. Toyota has changed the radio 3 times. I have a place in my driveway that has poor FM reception, I stop and turn off the car, then turn on accessories only and wala reception is perfect, I put my foot back on the brake and start the car and the reception goes back to poor. I am convinced that there is interference when the car is running causing the poor reception. I had a 2006 Prius and had great reception but there was a cover over the High voltage motor, the 2010 does not have a cover over it. I have been trying to escalate within Toyota will keep you posted.

 

This mirrors my experience; I've now tried three different radios in my Prius and none work as well as the one in my last car. I'm going to try an experiment next week to see if I can reduce out-of-band noise from getting in to the radio front end, in the hope that this may ease the problem. I've ordered an in-line high pass filter that rolls off below the FM band. This will stop AM working (not a problem for me, as I never listen to AM) but should also filter out any noise that's below about 50MHz, which I'm hoping may improve things.

I'm working on the theory that the radio has a very broad band front end (in order to receive AM and FM) and that there is a lack of selectivity in the FM section of the radio, making it susceptible to out-of-band noise. If I can reduce the level of sub-FM band noise getting into the radio, by fitting this filter at the aerial socket, then I'm hoping it may improve things.

I'm certain that the car generates a fair bit of noise, particularly as when I did the same experiment as you (going from ACC to READY) I got the same result - loads of radio noise once it goes to READY, but fine on ACC.


Jeremy

 

Jeremy would you reply to me if you found that the filter worked, since I know nothing about radios I will take to a good radio place here in ohio and see if they can do the same thing with my radio.
I am already frustrated with Toyota, the service manager said I done everything I can do here's the number to call. Thanks for your reply.

 

Sure, no problem - if this improves FM reception I'll be shouting from the rooftops!

The filter I've ordered is intended as a way to reduce radio ham interference on FM radio, but will need modifying to change the connectors, as it comes with standard coax type connectors. This should be a big job, though. The filter is sold by the RSGB, the group that look after radio hams here in the UK, but I would think the same thing is available elsewhere. It was £10, around $15 or so, plus postage.

Jeremy

 

Just wanted to give you an update, my service manager got in touch with Toyota in California and said they are aware of the problem and are working on a fix. There are 2 radios that have a problem one will get the fix in about a month the other on should be fixed by the end of the year. I am not sure which radio is in the Prius but with my luck it will be the one that gets fixed by the end of the year but at least they are working on it.

 

I really hope that what your service manager said is the truth and that we own the radio that gets the fix in "about a month".

Interesting for me that I need to get this information from Ohio, rather than from my service manager in Munich, Germany, who also gets no information at all from Toyota Germany.

Thank goodness there is internet.

I am still escalating this issue with the radio and Germany's Toyota Customer Care to Toyota HQ in Japan.:typing:

 

Something to ponder...

Do you have the same radios we do in North America? Your station frequencies are different. You have 9khz AM spacing vs 10khz in NA, you FM station frequencies end in an even number of 100 khz such as 98.2Mhz while they are odd numbered in the such as US 98.1Mhz.

The data systems like RDS are also different in Europe and the US.

They could use the same radios with some secret switch to convert them between Euro/NA standards or they might not.

 

The EU and US market radios are significantly different, even though they look similar when installed. Apart from the functional differences (RDS, frequency spacing, DAB/HD/satellite radio options etc) the EU versions also have different aerial connectors and the rear panel looks quite different. Additionally, EU JBL audio systems do not need the PAC interface, the JBL amplifier works directly from the head unit speaker outputs with just a single power amp turn-on wire.

It seems improbable that inside the different casing there is the same radio, with a switch to change between markets. My guess is that the radio fitted to EU models is a different model to that used on US models.

This reinforces my belief that the interference/poor reception isn't primarily a radio problem (although I'm not disputing that fitting a better radio gives an improvement). I'm convinced that the car is the source of the FM radio problem, all the more so because the same Kenwood DNX5220 that worked very well in my Honda CR-V doesn't work much better than the stock radio in my Prius.

Jeremy

 

The planets must have aligned, as I have received today an email from my dealer informing me that an update for my radio is being shipped to him this week.
I booked with him a meeting next Tuesday. The update is software and "on 3 CDs" that he is allowed to keep 14 days only. After this time he needs to send them back over to the German HQ as they "are in limited number" and only sent to dealers requesting a fix for the radio.
Whatever, as long as it gets fixed.
The fact that it is a software (firmware) upgrade makes me wonder whether the Prius radio is all digital with direct conversion from RF to baseband with a high speed ADC, or some other form of digital radio. I don't see otherwise how a software update could change the performance of a FM radio.
Why 3 CDs? I have no clue.
Why sending them back after 2 weeks? maybe to avoid leaking proprietary firmware that could be analysed - or maybe the CDs cannot be at all easily copied.
Again, whatever, as long as it gets fixed. Will let you all know how it goes.

 

I was just thinking....(yep, I know)....How nice it would be if someone went to the trouble of temporarily installing the Prius HU in a "Conventional" auto (lay it on the seat/floor) & post the results....Just thinking....

 

Just purchased a gen iii a few days ago and immediately noticed the bad reception. I live in LA with very strong radio signals and never had these reception issues with my 2004 Prius. My problem is clearly interference static, not low signal or fading static. It is similar to driving past some one with an FM transmitter. Either a radio wire from the antenna is not properly shielded or another car component is not shielded and is causing problems. The way to test this is to hook up a portable radio to the aux and listen for static (separate antenna and connecting wire). Has anyone done this?

 

You should read this ENTIRE thread.......been there done that!

 

Sorry. I am going to complain to my dealer. I would also like to complain directly to Toyota. Is the "customer experience center" the best place to do that?