Bad Radio Reception, Especially AM

[T3CHNO1D]

If anyone is still having problems with their AM reception, I have a 2014 Explorer XLT, with Sirius XM, the AM was very poor to nonexistent. The dealer replaced the head unit under the dash due to water damage caused by a windshield leak, didn't fix it, they replaced the whole cable from the front to the back as well as the rubber antenna, still bad. After a year of fiddling, I unscrewed the antenna and put a borrowed one in, which seemed to fix it, but it stopped working after a week. I then wiggled the base that the antenna plugs into and poof, it worked better than ever.

It turns out there is a small PC board in the base that has a bunch of circuitry on it as well as the Sirius antenna, and there was a cold solder on the board. The only part that wasn't replaced was the base of the antenna unit. Part FM5Z18936A or FM5Z18936B.

Turns out Fiesta, Focus and Flex use the same antenna base and have SSM's for this for certain VIN's, the Explorer did not. SSM # 44263 and 32064.

After all that work, it was a simple poor solder.

Hope this helps someone out there.

 

[peterk9]

Welcome to the Forum T3CHNO1D.
Thanks for posting that info.
Please add the trim level of Explorer to your profile so it appears in the margin. Thanks.

Peter

 

[Bmc041]

Radio Reception

In May I purchased a 2013 Explorer Limited (10.5K miles) that was loaded with options. After a couple of days I realized I realized there was something wrong with the radio. Contrary to the majority of people in this age of FM and Satellite I like to listen to local news, weather and talk shows on AM. I took it to Ford a week later and the only issue was the antenna was a little loose. They also suggested getting an AM amplifier. Another week and the reception hasn’t improved significantly. I called Ford Customer Service Relations and they suggested I get a second opinion. So off to another Ford dealer, the service manager suggested it could be the radio, the cable between the radio and antenna, the antenna or bad grounds. This was encouraging but again they couldn’t find problems. The AM and FM reception fades in and out very quickly and seems to be very sensitive. There have been other owners with the same issue. I passed these onto Ford for their technical personnel to review and the answer was that it was “an undesirable characteristic of the vehicle”. So I just purchased Fords top of the line SUV with problematic radio reception with no answers and no one seems committed to help resolve this issue. If there are other owners that have experienced the same problem I‘d like to hear from them.
Thanks,

Gerry