[Alan l.]

Happened a few days ago. Driving to the gym with the radio on and everything sounds perfect. Parked the car and came back out about an hour later. Once i started the car the radio reception was total crap. It sounded like a POS radio with static reception in all and every station. Played my ipod and the sound was fine. Went back to radio and the sound was still crap.

I had to hold down the volume button for 20 seconds to reboot the whole idrive system and everything went back to normal after that. has this happened to anyone before?

this is on my 2009.5 335 with idrive

Alan

[golf4501]

Originally Posted by Alan l.

Happened a few days ago. Driving to the gym with the radio on and everything sounds perfect. Parked the car and came back out about an hour later. Once i started the car the radio reception was total crap. It sounded like a POS radio with static reception in all and every station. Played my ipod and the sound was fine. Went back to radio and the sound was still crap.

I had to hold down the volume button for 20 seconds to reboot the whole idrive system and everything went back to normal after that. has this happened to anyone before?

this is on my 2009.5 335 with idrive

Alan

Not on my 335, but this same thing happened on my E46 330. Only once, lasted until I restarted the car, and never occurred again. Just wrote it off as gremlins...

[tys90]

My reception also experienced a sharp drop off randomly about 3 months after I got it. I took it in and they told me everything was fine and that the car won't be able to get stations more than 30 miles away (??? sounded dumb to me). It's been that way since, about 6 months now. I can still get local stations but it has poor reception and I don't know what to do to even try to fix it.

[mikey0120]

Originally Posted by Alan l.

Happened a few days ago. Driving to the gym with the radio on and everything sounds perfect. Parked the car and came back out about an hour later. Once i started the car the radio reception was total crap. It sounded like a POS radio with static reception in all and every station. Played my ipod and the sound was fine. Went back to radio and the sound was still crap.

I had to hold down the volume button for 20 seconds to reboot the whole idrive system and everything went back to normal after that. has this happened to anyone before?

this is on my 2009.5 335 with idrive

Alan

Why aren't you listening to SIRIUS?

[GTiceman]

sorry to bump this thread but did anyone ever solve this issue?

[SpmnE9zero]

I also was having trouble with my reception, or at least I thought it was my reception. Turns out it was every time I turned on my rear defroster. The rear defroster was interfering with my radio reception. had to replace my rear glass as one of the defrost lines broke or something. Never had another problem with it.

[GTiceman]

thanks Spmn that is one possibility I guess but I havent been using defrosters and mine seems sporadic as to how long it takes before the sound issue, I guess it could be a poorly shielded wire as well

I am also thinking that maybe the Fakra connector in the rear is to blame, I did a CIC retro and I never had an issue with my old radio so I might take a look at that

[kvanriper]

I have had the same issue on my 2011 328i. Today I put the fob in and was listening to the radio for few minutes before turning on the car. When I turned on the car all channels were static with no reception. The bluetooth worked fine, drove home and still all static.

The other two times it did it, lasted only for about 5 minutes then all reception came back.

[richb811]

Starting to experience the same issue with my car. Stations that are close by still fade in and out, get random static.

The service guy at Bloomfield said it was an issue with HD radio frequencies overriding the regular FM frequencies and the switch between the two causes the fadeout, although I am not sure how much I believe that.

Anyone else have more information on this?

[Leightonm]

I've just had this problem on my 2007 335i. The FM radio was working fine now it has a really poor reception. The CD works fine. I have rebooted the idrive but this didn't work.

Has anyone else had this problem? Is it a problem with an aerial connection?

Thanks

[bigjilm]

I've had the same problem twice on my 2011 335i with the 2010 Hifi system in it. Both times, I had to reboot the entire car to get any reception at all (turned off the car at a traffic light, and everything came back correctly).

My guess is that there is a powered antenna or some kind of booster that isn't getting powered up correctly. I had a similar symptom on my old WRX when I had a bad connection to the antenna booster until I reseated the connector to it.

I haven't mentioned it to my dealer, but I'm going to take an educated guess and say that they'll have no clue unless a service bulletin comes out.

[Tisa]

Hi,

I just experienced the same issue.
Parked the car and went to the store. When I returned and started the car the FM gave very bad radio reception. Very strange.

I stopped the engine, pulled out the key and then restarted the car. Issue solved.

Will mention it to the dealer next time.

[lupo 2006]

Originally Posted by SpmnE9zero

I also was having trouble with my reception, or at least I thought it was my reception. Turns out it was every time I turned on my rear defroster. The rear defroster was interfering with my radio reception. had to replace my rear glass as one of the defrost lines broke or something. Never had another problem with it.

I just got the car a couple of weeks ago! (used) and having the same problem with the defrost interfering with the radio! My thought was they had the antenna and the defrost wires running to close together, but since i see you had the same problem it may be a broken defrost line! What was the cost for the rear glass replacement??? Thanks !!!

[albqprtynpnk]

Originally Posted by Alan l.

Happened a few days ago. Driving to the gym with the radio on and everything sounds perfect. Parked the car and came back out about an hour later. Once i started the car the radio reception was total crap. It sounded like a POS radio with static reception in all and every station. Played my ipod and the sound was fine. Went back to radio and the sound was still crap.

I had to hold down the volume button for 20 seconds to reboot the whole idrive system and everything went back to normal after that. has this happened to anyone before?

this is on my 2009.5 335 with idrive

Alan

I have a 2006 330I just about the same thin happened to me. I tried what you had said here and it worked... Thanks Alan

[NOKIDSS]

Long time lurker of this site, 1st time poster…

Same thing happened to me today. Drove my 09 335i Coupe home with all of the stations washed in static. Parked the car, opened this thread, went back to the garage for a restart and the gremlins are gone…

I fear this is a problem that will only get worse with time - I hope I'm wrong!

Thanks for the thread guys!

(Not sure if heat has anything to do with this issue. Outside temp was 106 at the time)

[Ferstlerslim]

Experienced the same thing this morning.....all radio stations were scratchy.

Rebooted Idrive and all is well for now.....

Thanks,

Dave

[Aaronexx]

I'm a sucker for opening old threads. I'm getting the same problem as the above, did anyone find a solution? Can't even listen to the radio at this point. 2010 system.

[BeamerNub]

Originally Posted by Aaronexx

I'm a sucker for opening old threads. I'm getting the same problem as the above, did anyone find a solution? Can't even listen to the radio at this point. 2010 system.

I also have an E90, 2007 reg. Only had it a few weeks though, so can't say how it should sound from factory. Radio reception wasn't good on the OEM Professional unit. Even worse on this aftermarket one, which was to be expected. The OEM one though, very poor. AM worked okay, but not great and interference was a problem, but FM would often cut in and out and was all over the place. On this new unit, it just about works, but is regularly cutting out. Glad for spotify i suppose.

I keep hearing the 'Diversity antenna' or connector to it, could be the issue, but I can never find an actual explanation of:
a. Where the diversity antenna is located.
b. What I should do to test it.

The other issue apparently is the antenna is built into the windscreen and the metal lines across the glass fail. No idea though.

Obviously I'd like to fix it, because I like my cars working, but this one is way more complicated than the older bangers and VW's I'm used too, so I'm half tempted take it a specialist and see if there's any quick things they can do. If not, write it off and be grateful for spotify.

[ptpending]

diversity antenna amplifier located under third rear stoplamp on e90 and e92 and in rear spoiler on e91
when the e91 is quite old, the wires in trunk door grommets can have breaks and antenna amp can be flooded with water via spoiler

[BeamerNub]

Originally Posted by ptpending

diversity antenna amplifier located under third rear stoplamp on e90 and e92 and in rear spoiler on e91
when the e91 is quite old, the wires in trunk door grommets can have breaks and antenna amp can be flooded with water via spoiler

When you say under the rear stop lamp..... looking from the inside of the car, there is the headlining then a piece of cloth trim that sits obscuring something. I assume it's under there? Removal a case of pulling hard with trim tools or are there any hidden screws? Might have a look at lunch. Get the multimeter out later.

[ptpending]

Originally Posted by BeamerNub

When you say under the rear stop lamp..... looking from the inside of the car, there is the headlining then a piece of cloth trim that sits obscuring something. I assume it's under there? Removal a case of pulling hard with trim tools or are there any hidden screws? Might have a look at lunch. Get the multimeter out later.

yep
google e90 remove third stop lamp

[BeamerNub]

Originally Posted by ptpending

yep
google e90 remove third stop lamp

Thanks, that's more useful than searching e90 remove diversity antenna which shows absolutely nothing