Radio wire harness - Smart Car of America Forums : Smart Car Forum

**SmartDigger** · 05-26-2010, 08:56 PM

has anyone had their Radio wire harness changed by the dealer under warranty

ElementalDragon · 05-26-2010, 10:03 PM

..... i don't really see why the harness itself would need to be changed.....

John_H · 05-27-2010, 04:23 AM

Perhaps the only radio harness covered by warranty is part of the full smart wiring harness - a few have been replaced for non-radio reasons. If you purchased a smart with an aftermarket radio blessed as standard smart offering, I'd expect an adapter would be used rather than cutting into the stock harness.

What's the trouble?

**SmartDigger** · 05-27-2010, 12:34 PM

I read on another forum that someone got a new wire harness to fix poor reception. It did not make sense to me, thus the question.

dbwill · 05-27-2010, 03:20 PM

I had part of the harness rewired as there was a short in the antenna that caused the problem. It was quite confusing and complicated. Anyway after removing old wire from the harness and putting in new the reception and sound was greatly improved.

What brought the issue on was that my sub-woofer didn't seem to be working and when they replaced it the new one didn't work nor did either with a new head.

If I get the chance I will scan in the process that the tech went through to find the problem.

mvaldes · 05-27-2010, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SmartDigger

I read on another forum that someone got a new wire harness to fix poor reception. It did not make sense to me, thus the question.

Perhaps you're remembering posts about the am amplifier being replaced:
http://www.smartcarofamerica.com/for...80-post24.html

**SmartDigger** · 05-27-2010, 08:21 PM

That could be it. I picked up and aftermarket amp for the antenna. If it works I will let you know. I am having a time getting the right Adapter for the amp. The vendor sent me the wrong one a few times. I hope he gets it right this time. He has been great to work with. It is a bit frustrating to get the wrong part two time in a row.

**SmartDigger** · 07-30-2010, 08:59 PM

It did not work. still have poor reception with the lights on.

Napoleon12 · 08-22-2010, 12:25 AM

Am reception is thru the ground of the ant. if it is not good am will suck. good example is some gm cars have the mast ant that has a spiral wire around it. that is for the am. i forget the exact numbers for how long the ant. should be but the smarts are short. i get the bad am question every once in awhile at work. upgrade to an aftermarket radio that has a better radio tuner?

John_H · 08-22-2010, 05:18 AM

And here I thought the spiral winding was just to reduce the height of the FM antenna while maintaining the proper "electrical length" for proper FM reception.

Because AM is such a very low frequency - an extremely long wavelength - the antennas used are no longer dipoles but some form of magnetic pickup, either a large loop or a magnetic bar with coils wrapped around it (many, many, layers of windings, not just one).