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Rear window heater interferes with DAB radio reception


vgnils

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Anyone else experienced this? I noticed today that when activating the rear window heater, the DAB radio went silent immediately. Came back when I turned the heater off. Leaving the heater on, the signal slowly returned, but was unstable.

 

I can see from googling that this is a common problem across many brands and also for FM radio. Causes suggested include poor earth connection and/or damaged rear windows heater wires, or simply interference because of closeness of antenna and rear heater wires (more likely to happen if radio signal is weak to begin with). Some have had rear windows replaced under warranty and this solved the problem; others have been told this is normal.

 

So what's the case with the Fabia Mk3...? Where's the antenna located? I have an estate with a panoramic roof.

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Found a few threads that show it's happening to Skodas too:

 

 

But it's not clear whether this is really an indication of something faulty or if it is normal behaviour when reception is poor to begin with.

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Never had a problem like this. It surely isn't 'normal' unless the electrickery folks at Skoda CZ are amateurs....and incompetent  amateurs at that.

 

stand you ground and insist it be fixed, FOC.

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@vgnils Yep, with the Pano roof, the antennas are definitely incorporated into the windows.  In regular roof cars, that have factory-fit DAB - the roof antenna base has the DAB circuitry in it. 

 

My car has regular roof antenna, no DAB, but the rear window seems to have all the radio antenna stuff already there. Indeed, on the right-most vertical element - the one with 3 gaps in it, if you follow it to the top of the screen - there is a separate 300 mm horizontal  bar, that looks very like a dipole arrangement (though it's not a dipole). It may just be coincidental, but that 300 mm multiples nicely up to 1.5 metres - which is the VHF band that current DAB is on ( 200MHz +/- ( a.k.a. the "1.5metre band" ). ( somebody mention "Amateurs" above ?? ;)  ) 

 

That Volvo thread above, mentions grounding - and that is the most common reason for that kind of problem. If the dealer has good tech people, they should be able to find the Ground connection(s) for the rear hatch. The hatch should have electrical ground with the rest of the car. The antennas may have a separate ground.

As your DAB problem has just started, it may be that grounding connections have come loose, or maybe have some corrosion ( electrolytic ) that's stopping ground at Radio Frequencies (RF). It may be fine at 12V DC, but not at RF. 

 

But, that's all just guessing !

 

Edited by Dithane
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  • 1 month later...

Update: The dealer has had a look at this and they found a faulty "frequency filter", but said they wanted to replace all the wiring in the rear hatch to be sure. Will be done in the beginning of March - I hope it solves the problem.

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  • 3 years later...
On 21/02/2018 at 09:54, vgnils said:

Update: The dealer has had a look at this and they found a faulty "frequency filter", but said they wanted to replace all the wiring in the rear hatch to be sure. Will be done in the beginning of March - I hope it solves the problem.

How did it go, did this resolve the issue?

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Llyod15,

the DAB situation in Europe is different to UK and Norway switched off FM to go over to DAB the end of 2017 so perhaps vgnils issue might (or might not) have involved a hang over from this.

 

If you have problems with certain stations they might be all be on the older (UK) DAB or all be on the newer (UK) DAB+, as the UK adopted DAB early we started and continue to use the older DAB.

 

Or this has DAB+ or not idea has has nothing to do with your issue.

 

See a list here, sorry I'm not sure if it's up to date you'll have to check as my tea is now ready. - https://getdigitalradio.com/23-national-stations-are-now-broadcasting-in-dab/

 

Norway’s FM Shutdown, Six Months Later - https://www.radioworld.com/columns-and-views/norways-fm-shutdown-six-months-later

 

Edited by nta16
ETA:
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Llyod15,

sorry, I meant to also put that obviously it might be the other way round and those DAB+ stations are the ones that are picked up well and it's the other stations.

 

Or this has DAB+ or not idea has has nothing to do with your issue.

 

Edited by nta16
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All stations are fine. Unless the rear heated windscreen is turned on. DAB loses signal on all stations and causes interference on all FM.

 

I'm just wondering if the filter replacement worked... Not sure what Norway switching of FM is relevant as discussing DAB

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10 minutes ago, Llyod15 said:

All stations are fine. Unless the rear heated windscreen is turned on. DAB loses signal on all stations and causes interference on all FM.

Yes that sounds like a filter problem but I'm no expert by a long way.  Sorry I wasn't and can't help.

 

In the late 1980s one of my Skoda Estelle 2 had the radio aerial in the rear screen heater and that caused interference when switched on, AM and FM then of course 

 

 

14 minutes ago, Llyod15 said:

Not sure what Norway switching of FM is relevant as discussing DAB

vgnils' location is shown as Oslo, Norway, as they were the first to switch off FM so going to DAB only, perhaps they had some learning issues, tends to happen at these type of events.  Sorry I just realised perhaps you too are not in the UK, as you have only your site name on display. 

 

vgnils last visited the site 15 March 2018 but might still view the site or receive a notification of your post if he had that set up and still on the same 'address'.

 

Hope you get sorted.

 

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