[A4] Radio Noise

[Mitchell Segal]

Just got the car back yesterday.  They again tried the same things they had
tried before (changed the antenna booster, swapped the radio) no difference.
They put another call in to Audi Tech support line, and will let me know
when the Engineers at Head office get back to them with a solution.

My problem sounds a little different than yours. My noise is worst with the
rear defrost on (but only on a cold day, which is when you really use a rear
defrost).  If I turn on the defrost on a summer day, you don't get the
noise.  But if I step on my brakes, the noise almost goes away.  Again,
sounds to me like a grounding issue somewhere in the rear of the car. 

My next step, is to pull out the wiring diagrams, and see if all these items
(defrost, brake lights, etc) share a common ground point, and if it does,
try changing that to see if it helps.

I'll keep everyone posted on anything I find that helps.

Mitchell

-----Original Message-----
From: Rocky Mullin [mailto:caliban at sharon.net]
Sent: Friday, January 14, 2005 2:06 AM
To: Mitchell Segal; 'quattro at audifans.com'; 'a4 at audifans.com'
Subject: Re: [A4] Radio Noise

	i've had the same damned thing since i bought it new in 2000.
had it looked after time and again under warranty, a new radio, was
put in, i'm told it's allll OK, can't find a problem.  blah, nothing.
it's especially bad when i step on the brake, and lessened when
i turn off the info-display in the instrument cluster.  awful going
under overpasses and stuff.  i have an avant by the way, 1.8t.

	i saw a picture in my first audi owner magazine spam that they
sent me that showed one of their cars in some chamber full of antennae
of incredible variety.  the article waxed teutonic about how swell they
were at testing and steeling these cars against interference.  i guess
the never tested to see if their own god damned brake lights would fuzz
up the radio.  FM radio, CD, tape and GPS nav system all work flawlessly
through the same audio system.  if i never listened to AM, i'd never
know.  i like where you're going with the antenna theory.  i had no idea
they put it in the glass.  i've not taken note of how the defroster
adds into the mix.

	the interference i hear sounds like a pulsed, ringing noise,
like something off of short wave, or a negativland album.  i bet you
can find posts from me about it in archives somewhere.  i grew tired
of allowing my car to be picked apart by their ignorant goons (i have
since changed to a different, more distant and more competent dealership
instead of the one SIX BLOCKS from my urban home, grrrr) rummaging
around the dashboard replacing stuff as if it was some paint-by-numbers.
no intuition, no grace, no processing, no creativity.  certainly none
of that promised german perfection.

it's interesting to finally hear of someone with the same radio problem, at
long last!  keep me in the loop.

At 11:52 AM -0500 1/11/05, Mitchell Segal wrote:
>I have static or noise coming in on my factory radio (2001 A4), on the AM
>band only.  The noise comes and goes, but it's worse usually at night (when
>the AM stations are weaker).  It picks up a lot more when the rear defrost
>is turned on.  On top of the background noise, you can sometimes hear
clicks
>and pops as you step on the brakes, turn signals flashing, etc.  The noise
>is constant, not engine-speed related, so it's not something like an
>alternator causing this noise.
> ... (see previous posts)