Hello all.

This is a minor concern of mine but I figured I'd post it and see if anyone can help/has suggestions. My AM radio has been acting up. The signal is strong (I'm in a big city) but the quality is garbage. I get about 90% static, this is when I'm driving. The funny thing is, when I pull in my driveway and cut the ignition off, the signal is perfect. My FM radio quality is great. Does anyone know why this might be? I'm not a fan of the S60 not having an antenna. At least they could be like the Accord or the BMW and put some sort of stub antenna or whatever they call them on the roof in the back.

Thanks!

 

I experience this frequently, and believe it or not what works for me mosttimes is to lock/unlock the doors via the power lock switch. It seems like this simple electrical signal sent through the car's system does something to clear the interference on the radio. It's happened too many times to be just happenstance for me. Give it a whirl, and let me know if it works for you too.

 

In the old, old days, resistor style plugs made the difference in many cars, i.e., they cut down on the static in the AM band. Are you using OEM type spark plugs? Another possiblity would be a bad plug wire that is arcing. Sometimes you can observe the engine compartment with the engine running at night, with no other lights around and can find sparking/arcing that will point to a bad wire.

Just some thoughts...

 

This is actually a somewhat common occurrence. Volvo dealers know about it. It might be either corrosion on the antenna lead or it may need the "brass strip" fix. You can try to hunt the solution down yourself and fix it or you can have the dealer do the work. Here is a thread from a while back mentioning the problem:

https://volvoforums.com/forum/showpo...18&postcount=4

 

I tried Business_Socks suggestion and fixed the same problem for me. When I had taken the car in for this issue 2yrs ago, the dealer did not help.