[milford3]

I hope this is the right place to post this.  My commute driver is a 2011 Kia Forte.  On the way to work yesterday I wanted to listen to talk radio on AM.  I pressed the AM button and to my surprise nothing but static.  FM, CD and XM radio work just fine so its not an antenna issue.  What would be the cause?

[Bob in St. Louis]

I work in the service department of a Volvo dealer, and we've had major AM issues for years. Seems the Swedes haven't mastered the art of AM radio, I suppose. Our AM problems are two-fold. If a car comes in with dead silence on AM, but all other sources work fine, then it's a new radio (called an "ICM" in Volvoland). If there's static, then you're in for a wild goose chase......Unfortunately for us (I can't speak for Kia), our AM problems are many, and widespread. The easiest and cheapest way to get our AM back is to clean the paint and/or oxidation from the AM ground wires. The second thing, is to replace the AM antenna. Some Volvos have two AM antenna amps (what?? yes. really!!) so keep that in mind if you "think" you've found yours. The final, and least common, issue we've seen with AM static is the coax itself. This is the most time consuming, because you have to remove interior upholstery to re-route the new one.

I have this conversation multiple times a week. It's either going to be;

- A "reasonable" cost to fix it, all labor, no parts (cleaning grounds). A half hour labor, about $70 in most models.
- Kinda pricey $300(ish) {depends on model and year} to replace the amp(s)
- A real "eye opener" to replace the coax. This varies greatly depending on year, and model.
- Laughably expensive to replace the ICM. (A funny anecdote to this....The wife of General Manager of the St. Louis Cardinals Baseball team owns a Volvo. I gave her a price to replace her ICM so she could continue to listen to the Cardinal games while she's driving. After giving her the price, she paused and said, "Well, the season is just about over, maybe I'll fix it next year". That was two seasons ago, and I have't seen her since. I think she traded the Volvo on something else. 

Unfortunately (for us, and our customers), is there's no diagnostic flow chart, there's no trouble shooting, there's no "hooking it up to the omniscient-know-it-all-diagnostic-machine", there's no factory assistance. We're on our own and "process of elimination" is our only tool.

Hope that helps!

Bob

[milford3]

Thanks for your reply Bob.  Now I have a headache after perusing your response.  I need a glass of wine now.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Headache?
That was the short story.....I can give you the long one, if you'd like? 

Bob (just kidding)

[yeldarb]

My Hyundai Sonata AM went to crap, too.  Acted like it couldn't get strong enough signal.  Stations that I could previously receive were gone, leaving only the local station and it was weak.  Probably oxidation on connectors, somewhere.  Dealer told me the warranty was up.  I didn't try to fix it, as I was sick of crappy dealer service and got rid of the car.

Check Crutchfields for a replacement radio.  Probably the easiest way to cure it.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Check Crutchfields for a replacement radio.  Probably the easiest way to cure it.

That would be the most expensive option. Also might be the biggest waste of money, since the problem might not be the radio, it might be in the grounds, the coax, or the antenna itself.

Ya know, this is one of my pet peeves....People are scared of "the big bad dealer", so instead of going to the place that has the most educated, experienced and trained personnel, they choose to throw parts at it until it's either fixed, they're broke, or they've exhausted the knowledge base of everyone they know that's willing to help them spend their money on yet another uneducated guess. In a last ditch effort they come to me at the dealer with a long long list of everything they've already replaced and tell me they want me to diagnose it, but they want me to find something cheap, because they've already spent too much money trying to fix it themselves.

What?  People can't comprehend that.

They complain because I'm $135 an hour, but the corner shop is $90. Yea, but we'll do it in an hour, but they'll take two hours to do it. How much did you save?
Granted, I didn't paint a very pretty picture in my above post with the vehicles I'm familiar with, but the vast majority of the time, the dealer isn't a bad option. Give them a shot before you spend money with five other people simply guessing with your money.

Anyway....(off rant).... I did a google search for "2011 Kia Forte am radio static", and there's a BUNCH of Kia forums talking about this. I didn't click any, but it seems like Kia has the same poor AM static complaints Volvo does.

Milford, call your local dealer and pick their brain. Phone calls are free. If you get an unhelpful a-hole, then call another dealer.
You might get lucky and they say, "Oh yea, we get that all the time. It takes five minutes to fix. Come on in".

Bob

[Scott F.]

Here's another possible option. Assuming you have a smart phone with blue tooth, try one of these;

http://www.amazon.com/GOgroove-FlexSMART-Bluetooth-Transmitter-Hands-Free/dp/B003PPGOC0/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1415593874&sr=8-8&keywords=fm+transmitter

It's a simple FM transmitter. Sync it to your phone and you can stream your favorite talk radio or any other station like Pandora to your existing FM radio. Pretty simple. I use one in my car and listen daily.