Replaced Radio now Weak FM & no AM Reception

[TikiG]

Vehicle 2005 CR-V, EX, AWD

Original radio Honda 6 CD Changer, XM ready, Model 39100-S9A-A60, had good reception on both FM & AM bands. This unit accepted standard blue car wire harness (20 pin) + white connector (14 pin), and standard Antenna male input (din). Original car radio connectors shown photo.

Replacement Radio is an Android Radio Head and is working other than the Radio Reception issue.

The only wire from the new radio head that hasn't been connected is the ANT wire. So that is most likely the solution, but the question is where to connect?

The car does not use Pin 1(empty) which in some Honda's is for ANT. So that is not an option. Pin 19 is present in the blue harness and I'm not sure what that is for. I have seen some posts that list that for steering controls, but in this vehicle Pin 3 is used for that and I already have the steering controls working in the new radio.
So perhaps the ANT wire should be connected to Pin 19 on the Blue Harness Plug, or perhaps it needs to be connected to a pin on the second White Connector? On the White Connector not sure of the pin outs on that and have seen conflicting information on the pin descriptions.

Thank you for your assistance!

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[Jimi77 5,000+ posts]

Usually the antenna is thick black coaxial cable that wouldn't fit in those plugs.

You may have an AM/FM booster that needs power. I have no idea which pin would provide that power.

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

Vehicle 2005 CR-V, EX, AWD

Original radio Honda 6 CD Changer, XM ready, Model 39100-S9A-A60, had good reception on both FM & AM bands. This unit accepted standard blue car wire harness (20 pin) + white connector (14 pin), and standard Antenna male input (din). Original car radio connectors shown photo.

Replacement Radio is an Android Radio Head and is working other than the Radio Reception issue.

The only wire from the new radio head that hasn't been connected is the ANT wire. So that is most likely the solution, but the question is where to connect?

The car does not use Pin 1(empty) which in some Honda's is for ANT. So that is not an option. Pin 19 is present in the blue harness and I'm not sure what that is for. I have seen some posts that list that for steering controls, but in this vehicle Pin 3 is used for that and I already have the steering controls working in the new radio.
So perhaps the ANT wire should be connected to Pin 19 on the Blue Harness Plug, or perhaps it needs to be connected to a pin on the second White Connector? On the White Connector not sure of the pin outs on that and have seen conflicting information on the pin descriptions.

Thank you for your assistance!

Are you out in the Sticks?? Live in a Valley full of Trees? This will usually get Poor reception. I have had to install an FM booster in the past due to poor reception. Deff try and locate what will power up the onboard receiver/from the Units installation instruction manual.

 

[AnthonyO 10+ year member]

Scratch that. Let me do some research

 

[AnthonyO 10+ year member]

From what I am reading from CRV owners this is common. You will need to replace the antenna. Part # 39152-SWA-A03

 

[TikiG]

Usually the antenna is thick black coaxial cable that wouldn't fit in those plugs.

You may have an AM/FM booster that needs power. I have no idea which pin would provide that power.

Yes, I believe the antenna needs power to work. Need help with the pin location. It is possibly pin 19 on the blue connector or it is a pin on the white connector shown in my original posts. These were XM ready and I think that white cable is related to that as well.

 

[TikiG]

Are you out in the Sticks?? Live in a Valley full of Trees? This will usually get Poor reception. I have had to install an FM booster in the past due to poor reception. Deff try and locate what will power up the onboard receiver/from the Units installation instruction manual.

Not in the sticks. Same location where original stock radio worked fine. The fact that I have no AM at all is usually indicative of an antenna not receiving power. I have the radio head ANT power lead just need to figure where it goes.

 

[some dude]

Holy ****, someone still listens to the radio?


I've had similar problems in the past. I hooked up aftermarket head unit and radio reception basically disappeared. I never knew why and I thought I hooked everything up correctly. It was a Subaru Impreza..

I'm curious and hope you get it sorted out.

 

[HardofWhoring]

So if you have an old metal stick antenna or a long extended one, those aren't powered. If you have something with a short height, like a shark antennae, those are amplified.

1) It should pretty much be your ANTenna wire that is missing. It should tell you in the head unit's manual to verify. I would also think that if I spent two minutes searching for it, I could find the wiring diagram or pinout for a 2005 CRV. You should be able to find which of those pins it is.
2) The side you took a picture of doesn't help, and we could probably narrow it down to a few based on the wire color if we had to. If you can install it without it mounted, you COULD try to backprobe different pins on the harness for continuity. My guess is the antenna only gets powered when am/fm is on.
3) If you have your old head unit still, you could do the same thing, and if we could see the other side, we could probably narrow it down to a few pins, you would pull out that pin, and see if it changes.
4) If you can see where it is mounted (the roof), you might be able to find the harness around what I would guess would be the back where the plastic pillar mount meets the headliner. There might be lights in there too, but if you find an identical wire, then bingo.

I think your best option is to spend less time searching for the pinout then I did writing this, and then you need to connect to that pin.

 

[Jimi77 5,000+ posts]

Not in the sticks. Same location where original stock radio worked fine. The fact that I have no AM at all is usually indicative of an antenna not receiving power. I have the radio head ANT power lead just need to figure where it goes.

Have you tried a CRV forum?

 

[TikiG]

So if you have an old metal stick antenna or a long extended one, those aren't powered. If you have something with a short height, like a shark antennae, those are amplified.

1) It should pretty much be your ANTenna wire that is missing. It should tell you in the head unit's manual to verify. I would also think that if I spent two minutes searching for it, I could find the wiring diagram or pinout for a 2005 CRV. You should be able to find which of those pins it is.
2) The side you took a picture of doesn't help, and we could probably narrow it down to a few based on the wire color if we had to. If you can install it without it mounted, you COULD try to backprobe different pins on the harness for continuity. My guess is the antenna only gets powered when am/fm is on.
3) If you have your old head unit still, you could do the same thing, and if we could see the other side, we could probably narrow it down to a few pins, you would pull out that pin, and see if it changes.
4) If you can see where it is mounted (the roof), you might be able to find the harness around what I would guess would be the back where the plastic pillar mount meets the headliner. There might be lights in there too, but if you find an identical wire, then bingo.

I think your best option is to spend less time searching for the pinout then I did writing this, and then you need to connect to that pin.

It is actually a long stick antenna mounted next to the hood. Based on the fact that my car's harness doesn't use pin 1 which is empty and I don't see a power module listed on the Honda replacement parts for it, I'm beginning to think that the unit's antenna is not powered. But that begs the question, why does the Stock Radio work and the aftermarket radio have bad FM and Zero AM. I'm going to take a look and see if the plug connection on the back might be having a bad connection.

Note: Wiring pinouts for the 2005 CRV are pretty easy to come by for all the standard pins, but between radio models there are some additional pinouts that are used and with Honda they are not consistent with there use of wire colors. I've yet to find a conclusive pinout on the additional White connector. I have seen a few but none listed an ANT pin.

The suggestions to use the old radio wasn't a bad one for testing, could try and test pin 19 by removing it. If I lose reception, that would be my answer.

 

[TikiG]

Have you tried a CRV forum?

Yes, I posted my question on the CR-V owners club forum as well.

 

[Jimi77 5,000+ posts]

It is actually a long stick antenna mounted next to the hood. Based on the fact that my car's harness doesn't use pin 1 which is empty and I don't see a power module listed on the Honda replacement parts for it, I'm beginning to think that the unit's antenna is not powered. But that begs the question, why does the Stock Radio work and the aftermarket radio have bad FM and Zero AM. I'm going to take a look and see if the plug connection on the back might be having a bad connection.

Note: Wiring pinouts for the 2005 CRV are pretty easy to come by for all the standard pins, but between radio models there are some additional pinouts that are used and with Honda they are not consistent with there use of wire colors. I've yet to find a conclusive pinout on the additional White connector. I have seen a few but none listed an ANT pin.

The suggestions to use the old radio wasn't a bad one for testing, could try and test pin 19 by removing it. If I lose reception, that would be my answer.

If you have long stick antenna, then you probably don't have booster. I'd double check the antenna connection.

 

[HardofWhoring]

JUST BRAINSTORMING HERE: Yeah, you might also want to compare the backs of both. (You just said "android radio", is this an amazon special? What's the model?) There are adapters that have 90 degree bends coming out, because if the new head unit moves the antennae cable, it could move it to a place where something is causing interference.
I've had RCA cables have resistance/a ground loop whine, when installed because the head unit moved them from where the factory placement was, and they now had an obstruction pushing on the cable plugs. - I'm not sure if that is even possible that could happen with that cable, but you could test this by pulling the head unit out of its mount some with all the wires still connected, and trying.