I'm finding the Bolero radio system is not living up many DAB stations and they usually lose reception anyway. Have others found this? What's the cure ? I live in hilly Brighton, but our previous cars  (Golfs) didn't have this problem.  Ta.

Have you tried a retune 

No, I've not tried a retune. I have tried scanning for stations but it found none. 

I've tried a retune and can't find any DAB stations. 

I thought I would chip in, my 18 plate Skoda Fabia Monte Carlo estate seems to be having issues with the Dab radio.

 

About two days ago from now (11 June 2018) all was fine with my Dab radio, however in the past 2 days I've slowly lost reception to the majority of radio stations or flat out lost signal all together to some stations.

 

I've scanned, scanned and re-scanned to some success, as of writing this post I now have BBC Radio 1 to Radio 4 with no issues however when selecting the stations on the infotainment I get the no signal icon for about 5 seconds and then I hear the station come though. 

 

Quite a strange issue if I say so myself, I will keep looking for anyone else who's been having issues with the Dab recently.

 

Footnote: I have taken out my dashcam and mobile phone from the car to see if these bits of tech were interfering with the signal. No improvement to the Dab reception has been made with these out of the car.

 

Edit: the Fabia has the Amundsen system not the Bolero as mentioned above.

Edited 11 June, 20187 yr by Townsy

Last month I have lost a fair chunk of DAB reception, it’s either to do with the radio or wherever the antenna is as I have a MK 3 Fabia Monti which has a glass roof. I have returned it many times with no change, I have a portable DAB radio which is now in the car with me now and that works ok in the car. I took the car for a service a couple of days again and they said there have been many issues with DAB reception. I used a courtesy car from them and that DAB was no problem. any idea?.

If your portable works then it suggests it's the unit in the car, always handy to have the following two links, you could check your car for computer program updates  - https://updateportal.skoda-auto.com/ and recalls (as if they would) - https://www.skoda-auto.com/services/recall-actions?state=OK&aid=jn7v1ef8-47qa-wsyi-5w76-0cxblc1kp49i

 

Also check out DAB and in your area to see if the problems are general or with (VW) Skoda, a little research and you can at least stop short some of the excuses that the lazy employees might give.  Good luck and who knows you might have a reasonable car Dealership, in England, to deal with, nice to report on good service when you get it.

 

https://ligo.co.uk/blog/how-do-i-fix-dab-signal-problems/

 

https://radioandtvhelp.co.uk/problems-with-digital-radio-dab-reception/#/DAB

 

https://getdigitalradio.com/?s=Postcode+Checker

 

Edited 27 February, 20224 yr by nta16

DAB reception in our late 2015 Fabia having faded away over the past months to the point where there is none at all, regardless of where in the country we drive, I thought I would see whether anyone can shed light on this... but no. As an electronics engineer with some understanding of what's involved I had thought it might be an antenna problem just on our car but from reading the posts here it seems that the issue is more widespread.  I would suspect a poorly specified component in the radio receiver itself, one which has drifted out of tune, but to be honest in this age of "chuck the old one away and fit a new" that's purely academic.  So now it's FM only, which works fine, unless there's a ready fix.

Maybe one way to check if it is an aerial issue, buy a cheap DAB car aerial and drape it over the passenger seat back and see if things improve over what the car's aerial "provides" - I did that for another reason, I bought a used DAB radio to replace a non-DAB radio in my old Audi S4, I did not even connect up the 12V supply to that cheap Halfords windscreen DAB aerial, I just plugged it into the aerial socket on that DAB radio - and the results were very good, as far as I was concerned, I only did that to quickly check that this used DAB Audi radio did work before I handed it in to get CP sorted out, and before I started retro fitting a DAB aerial as per factory.

I think I've read before that there's a DAB aerial amplifier in the car so it might be worth checking that.  Cars built during Covid and the ongoing chip shortages seem to possibly have lower quality "radios".  IIRV ( which is always suspect)  they might have been lower before that in the Fabia judging by posts (IIRC) and difficult to tell unless comparing like for like.

 

My wife's car is an early 2015 build and the DAB reception was fine yesterday on two different stations.

 

Which is why I've suggested I've suggested buying a cheap windscreen DAB aerial, really to try to work out if it is the radio or the aerial.

Thanks for suggestions so far - I need to get my head under the dashboard and find out where everything is.  There will be some delay, I have more pressing things to deal with!

 

BTW, I would rather take advice from people like you who have practical experience, but a quick Google trawl found several "experts" suggesting a full reset of the radio might fix it.  Do we believe that?  Could it be a software fault?  I somehow think not...

Considering a software issue, most of the software issues will show up from day one, so I'd be sticking with suspecting it is just a radio issue or an aerial issue - of which there are a few parts, the aerial actual antenna(s) and its/their connections to the aerial amplifier, the aerial amplifier itself or any of its connections which are its inputs and output/power supply - the aerial output/power supply to/from the radio and finally the radio. Getting into the connections area of the radio and confirming that everything is still connected would be my first action, if everything looks okay, then maybe do as I did, and buy a very cheap DAB windscreen aerial complete with amplifier, and just connect the aerial to the radio without bothering to provide it with power. Doing that should narrow down the possibilities - if you are lucky!

 

 

14 hours ago, rum4mo said:

Which is why I've suggested I've suggested buying a cheap windscreen DAB aerial, really to try to work out if it is the radio or the aerial.

I wasn't disagreeing just suggesting not to discount the possibility of faulty amplifier.

 

 

13 hours ago, GlennC said:

Could it be a software fault?  I somehow think not...

 I doubt it but again I'd not entirely rule it out, I'm always weary of updates as so many with MS at least seem to fix one thing and bugger up another that then needs another update that does the same and so it goes on, if the first program lasted  7 years and is easy to get hold of and reinstall I would try as I like things that are quick, easy and very inexpensive repairs.

 

Always best to start at the begin and basics on repairs as you know you can't often successfully move on until the very basics have been double (or treble) checked.  A couple of times a mate's company that I worked for wanted to take on trainees that had been on electrics courses and the mate would give them a faulty piece of equipment to check and I suggested instead giving them a fully working piece and just remove the fuse from the power plug, both young applicants instantly had the cases off without asking any questions eager to put their electronic learnings to use, after a few minutes he explained.  I got caught out when on site and was told by my mate all the power sockets in the room I was in were live and started to check why the equipment I'd pugged in wasn't working to then be told that the double socket I was using was the only one not live for a reason I forget now, he'd made a mistake but of course it was my fault for taking his word for it without checking.

 

I've been told and seen others told "it won't be that" for it turn out to be 'that' - and of course Sod's Law if you start the checks and diagnostics at one end the fault will be at the other end.