I have a 1996 Volvo 850, and the FM radio stopped working this afternoon. At normal volumes you can't hear anything, but if you turn it up it's nothing but static. The AM radio and tape player both work perfectly.

I have the base stereo, if it matters.

EDIT: I just searched and found this link. But I would appreciate it if somebody would give me advice on what I ought to do.

 

Most likely something in the radio itself. Volvo radios aren't known for lasting the longest.... Go to your local Best Buy and have them install you a nice aftermarket deck!

 

Radio stinks anyways.

 

I have an alpine deck with my ipod direct connected... lol.. all my speakers are aftermarket.

 

I usually just connect my iPod with one of those cassette adapters, but it's just nice to have everything working.

 

Have you checked the antenna?

 

>Radio stinks anyways.

80% of the time you hear commercial. When they actually play music, it's the last one you want to listen to[8D]. You keep changing channels, only to find despair that "everyone else is doing it". Tapes & CDs are a must for me.

If the antenna & coax cable connection appear ok, the problem is probably in the FM receiver circuit (resonant circuit).

Or, you could try "technical tapping"; bang it with your hand to see if it comes back to life[8D].

John & Axel, what'd you think?


JPN

 

I'm trying to check the antenna, but my inexperience with removing panels from cars has prevented me from getting to it. [sm=helpout.gif]

 

^You don't remove the panels. You want to remove the inside matting on the drivers side to look at the antenna.

I have to do that because my antenna won't come out, but I hate radio. If it's not a commercial, it's a song that they've played twice in the last hour...

 

Luckily we have several decent radio programs here. A nice mix of interviews, political comments, comedy and music. In my other car I have a Pioneer MP3/WMA player and a multiCD in the trunk and I barely ever use them.

 

Ok, upon inspecting it, I noticed nothing that seemed wrong. What should I be looking for?

 

At this point I would look for a used unit or just to go with an aftermarket unit. If it were mine, though, I would try to fix the FM receiver circuit.

eBay, junk yard, ask forum members, etc...


JPN

 

Do you have any friend that has an 850? You could swap head units in a couple of minutes to see if the problem is the antenna or the HU.

 

Oh, remember to have the radio code if you swap HUs.

 

Hi everyone,

Sorry, I was out of town last week and missed this thread.
Axelm gave very good advice.
If you don't have a Volvo radio you could test the
antenna with another radio hooked directly to the car
battery and some temporary speakers. It might or might
not give you an answer, but it doesn't hurt to try. The
only other easy approach I can see is to try replacing
the antenna (expensive if that's not the problem).

Axelm your car is a lot like mine, mostly the same problems
with the exception of the cat. lol

Kanji, how are you? Aaargh, I just got back from New York,
2500 miles of driving over 4 days. I would open the radio and
check solder joints and connectors if the radio is at fault. Unless
this corrects it or you see something visual the next step is a
schematic and a high quality signal generator, oscilloscope
etc. A lot of this type of equipment use custom IC's that
are available only to the manufacturer and schematic diagrams
are not available.(Designed to make it impractical to repair
unless the manufacturer does it).

Best wishes, John

 

Hi John,

Thanks for asking, I feel quite miserable in Japan.

Soldering is always fun, except it has to be done really quick or some components would be fried.

I didn't know that some IC's were not replaceable with Radio Shack versions. I thought they were just generic logic gates, but I guess I didn't know any better.

When it comes to radio & electronics, I would follow J Telectro, Axelm & Tech's advice.


JPN

 

Hello, I was just searching this very same topic and came across your post about your FM not working anymore in your 96 850. Did you ever resolve it and if so how? Thanks so much!