AM radio crackles when going over bumps

Doesn't matter what station but my radio will crackle/static when I driver over bumps, specially the lane marker dots. Only happens on AM though, FM & XM are strong. Guess maybe my AM antenna wire/connection is loose. I'm taking it in on Friday to get a new wheel, fix wind noise, rear window, paint crack and now the radio too.

You are generating quite a list for the rest of us to use when we pick up our trucks.

Maybe we should start a separate thread somewhere about quality isuues to watch out for when inspecting your new truck.

You are generating quite a list for the rest of us to use when we pick up our trucks.

Maybe we should start a separate thread somewhere about quality isuues to watch out for when inspecting your new truck.

Indeed, I'll make a Check List thread soon and add everything I found and I'll edit my post as others chime in with other issues. That will make it convenient so others just have to print out the first post instead of reading the whole thread. Maybe Tom can make it sticky.

can you elaberate on this? thanks.

can you elaberate on this? thanks.

See the Check List thread :)

http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=376

I'm getting the same crackling sound but mine occurs even on smooth surfaces. I really believe it is the headunit. The XM and the FM radio works well. One thing I noticed is that one particular radio station I listen to on my Mazda MPV does not come in very well on the Ridgeline...I guess the hidden antenna thing is not that great...Honda really makes you want to stick with XM.

Appears this only happens when I turn up the cabin heat to like 75-78 degrees and then after 10-15 minutes it will start to crackle with static when I go over rough surfaces. Hopefully now when I take it in and do a drive with the manager I can reproduce it and they'll finally do something about it.

Ok, looks like my head unit is bad. Did a ride with a Honda rep and thankfully he heard it too and surmized it was probably a bad head unit.

The AM portion of this radio seems to suck. FM, XM, and CD's sound great.
Cannot get much volume out of AM without distortion.

Doug

Haha, mine is the opposite, AM comes in LOUD and FM is really low. I have to change the volume controls markedly when switching bands. Station selection on band doesn't matter.

Hmmm...I get significant crackle with XM on bumps and left rear speaker cuts in and out. Dealer says he hasn't heard of this but it should be easy to demonstrate since it's pretty persistant.

Hmmm...I get significant crackle with XM on bumps and left rear speaker cuts in and out. Dealer says he hasn't heard of this but it should be easy to demonstrate since it's pretty persistant.


I only have it on AM but try banging hard on top of the dash above the radio with your closed fist. I need to let my radio warm up for 10-20 minutes before it will do this. With either my first or driving over lane marker bumps at low speeds I'll hear a crackle or static on any AM station. Most likely it's a bad head unit or less likely a soft connection to the head unit with one of the harness connectors.

A final note here, dealer replaced my radio head unit and all is well now. It just took a few trips into them before they were actually able to hear what I was talking about, once they did it was no problem getting it replaced.

GRRRRRR, now my new radio is doing the same darn thing again. It was fine until I had my windshield replaced and all the sudden it started acting up again. Coincidence? who knows. I'm really starting to get sick of this. I'd like to be able to stay away from the dealer at least for a few weeks. So far it's been in 5 times.

We're still at the stage of having this happen while the dealer is listening. Happens all the time otherwise...and of course they haven't heard of the problem before...even at Honda control headquarters. :confused:

We're still at the stage of having this happen while the dealer is listening. Happens all the time otherwise...and of course they haven't heard of the problem before...even at Honda control headquarters. :confused:


So far they've replaced my head unit and then my attenna lead & module, no luck so far.

I picked up my RTL-Navi last week. I was very concerned that I would have problems with AM reception after reading many posts about poor performance on AM. I like to listen to local sports and talk radio in the morning on AM. I have been very pleasantly surprised to find that the AM performance is exceptionally GOOD. I live in the mountains in Central PA and the local AM stations are usually only good for about 40 miles. The Ridgeline has outperformed all other vehicles that I have ever owned. My wifes Acord is close. There is no static from bumps. Overall, I am very pleased. The FM volume is very low compared to all other modes.
Here's a long shot for you. I probably am telling you something that you already know but just in case, here is an idea or two. You may be experiencing electrical noise from a poor connection elsewhere in the truck that does not have any connection (no pun intended) to the radio. A switch that is out of adjustment and is just on the verge of turning on or off may arc and cause the type of noise that you are looking for. Try tuning a very distant weak AM station and turn up the volume. That should make electrical noise really loud. Have someone push and pull on the tailgate and the trunk to simulate if maybe the light switch is just on the edge of turning on when you hit a bump. You can push, pull, and wiggle any wiring that you can get to. You might get lucky and find a bad connection or a bad ground just about anywhere. Dont forget to check the brake lights too. Check both ends of both of the battery cables. The other thing that you can do is to turn your truck radio on but all the way down. Take a cheap transistor radio and tune a weak AM station. Repeat the same steps as above. If you hear the same noise on the transistor radio, something in your vehicle is radiating the noise. That usually points to something not directly associated with your truck radio or antenna. You might be able to narrow down the search by using the transistor radio to sniff for the source. If you hear the noise when the lights are on but no noise when they are off, it could be something as simple as a defective or loose light bulb or a bad socket. Tail light and side marker light bulbs that have a brass base usually have their negative wire soldered or tack welded to the brass base where the brass meets the glass bulb. If that connection is bad, those bulbs draw between 1 and 3 amps which is more than enough to cause a small spark and the noise that you are experiencing (when they are supposed to be on). These type of intermittent electrical problems are a real SOB to find. Good luck.

I picked up my RTL-Navi last week. I was very concerned that I would have problems with AM reception after reading many posts about poor performance on AM. I like to listen to local sports and talk radio in the morning on AM. I have been very pleasantly surprised to find that the AM performance is exceptionally GOOD. I live in the mountains in Central PA and the local AM stations are usually only good for about 40 miles. The Ridgeline has outperformed all other vehicles that I have ever owned. My wifes Acord is close. There is no static from bumps. Overall, I am very pleased. The FM volume is very low compared to all other modes.
Here's a long shot for you. I probably am telling you something that you already know but just in case, here is an idea or two. You may be experiencing electrical noise from a poor connection elsewhere in the truck that does not have any connection (no pun intended) to the radio. A switch that is out of adjustment and is just on the verge of turning on or off may arc and cause the type of noise that you are looking for. Try tuning a very distant weak AM station and turn up the volume. That should make electrical noise really loud. Have someone push and pull on the tailgate and the trunk to simulate if maybe the light switch is just on the edge of turning on when you hit a bump. You can push, pull, and wiggle any wiring that you can get to. You might get lucky and find a bad connection or a bad ground just about anywhere. Dont forget to check the brake lights too. Check both ends of both of the battery cables. The other thing that you can do is to turn your truck radio on but all the way down. Take a cheap transistor radio and tune a weak AM station. Repeat the same steps as above. If you hear the same noise on the transistor radio, something in your vehicle is radiating the noise. That allmost certainly points to something not directly associated with your truck radio or antenna. You might be able to narrow down the search by using the transistor radio to sniff for the source. If you hear the noise when the lights are on but no noise when they are off, it could be something as simple as a defective or loose light bulb or a bad socket. Tail light and side marker light bulbs that have a brass base usually have their negative wire soldered or tack welded to the brass base where the brass meets the glass bulb. If that connection is bad, those bulbs draw between 1 and 3 amps which is more than enough to cause a small spark and the noise that you are experiencing (when they are supposed to be on). These type of intermittent electrical problems are a real SOB to find. Good luck.

Thanks a bunch for the detailed post. Indeed I thought along the same lines but have not tested as such in great detail. If there is a loose connection causing some sort of feedback interference then it's deep under the dash. I can bang my fist on top of the dash, not very hard mind you, and it will cause the radio to crackle. Oddly though, this will only happen on AM whether it's a very strong station or weak but never occurs on FM or XM. My hunch is it's still a bad head unit and of course I just happen to get two of them. I just seems if there is a bad ground or feedback interference it would effect all frequencies, not just the AM band. I've given up on self-diagnosis, someone smart from Honda is going to have to figure this one out. I also really don't like my interior getting ripped apart and put back together again over and over. At some point it just never goes back the same as from the factory and squeeks and rattles start to emerge. Not there yet but I certainly fear it.
:(

AM is far more sensitive to electrical noise than FM, especially from sparks and bad power connections, including bad grounds. Turn the glove box trunk-lock switch on and see if it makes any difference. Try the transistor radio thing. You might get lucky. The mechanics at the dealer may not have the real world electronics experience to trouble shoot this type of problem without just replacing parts until the problem goes away. That is not intended to be critical of them in any way. It can be a very difficult problem to solve. Experience helps but a good dose of luck with a lot of persistance can work just as well. A few years ago I had a potentially lethal very intermittent electrical problem on my two year old Harley. At seemingly random times it was as if you reached up and turned the master switch off. All power, all electrical, all ignition sudddenly went dead. My wife and I were left sitting on a glider with no nights. Real exciting at 70 MPH passing a truck on the interstate on a moonless night! Thank God that the truck right behind us must have been a biker and recognized what happend in time. It turned out to be that the passengers foot, when positioned just right (wrong?) blocked enough of the air flow that the main circuit breaker overheated and tripped. After months of trying everything imaginable to track it down, I traded it in. Two weeks later, Harley issued a TSB about the problem that they denied existed earlier.

AM is far more sensitive to electrical noise than FM, especially from sparks and bad power connections, including bad grounds. Turn the glove box trunk-lock switch on and see if it makes any difference. Try the transistor radio thing. You might get lucky. The mechanics at the dealer may not have the real world electronics experience to trouble shoot this type of problem without just replacing parts until the problem goes away. That is not intended to be critical of them in any way. It can be a very difficult problem to solve. Experience helps but a good dose of luck with a lot of persistance can work just as well. A few years ago I had a potentially lethal very intermittent electrical problem on my two year old Harley. At seemingly random times it was as if you reached up and turned the master switch off. All power, all electrical, all ignition sudddenly went dead. My wife and I were left sitting on a glider with no nights. Real exciting at 70 MPH passing a truck on the interstate on a moonless night! Thank God that the truck right behind us must have been a biker and recognized what happend in time. It turned out to be that the passengers foot, when positioned just right (wrong?) blocked enough of the air flow that the main circuit breaker overheated and tripped. After months of trying everything imaginable to track it down, I traded it in. Two weeks later, Harley issued a TSB about the problem that they denied existed earlier.

Thanks Ultra-Hog, I think you've re-newed my curiosity to track this down. Didn't know AM frequencies are more sensitive as I've little electrical experience. I'll start flipping switches and try the portable radio. Good call on that and story about your hog, much enjoyed.

Interesting...oddly our problem is most notable with XM (but then we don't listen to AM or FM in the truck). I'm thinking some kind of bad connection or short as well. Here's the symptoms:

1) Crackle on some bumps or vibrations ( sounds like lightning static does on AM).

2) Left rear and sometimes whole left side speakers will cut out for minutes or longer at a time. Verified this using separation and phase controls.

3) Engine whine feedback through the audio. Definitely coupled to the RPM of the engine. This is what convinces me the grounding has a problem.

I'm thinking some sort of ground loop feedback due to a bad or faulty ground connection. Maybe due to a faulty wire harness, bad pin connection, or even a mis wired or mis-installed harness.

Anyhow, if you know any Honda dealers or Ridgeline mechanics please point them to this thread. We'll sort it out sooner or later. We have the Honda satisfaction folks investigating as well.

Skyburst, I think that you are right on target. You might go to the H&A site and look at the installation instructions for the XM radio. I THINK that it is located behind the rear passengers seat back. I would suspect that it is the wiring harness or the installation of the harness. A pinched wire, shorted to another wire or shorted to ground, or a partially cut wire could cause your symptoms. Of course, a bad XM radio unit or bad head unit could cause the problem as well. Even a loose connector on either end of the harness could be at fault. That is probably not telling you something that you don't already know. Whatever it is, I am sure that Honda and your dealer will be able to correct the problem for you without you having to troubleshoot it yourself.

ya the xm unit is installed behind the rear passenger seat to the left of the sub woofer ;)

ya the xm unit is installed behind the rear passenger seat to the left of the sub woofer ;)

I'll have a pic of that posted soon. Spent all day yesterday installing the backup camera. I'll post the pics in the Mod's thread probably tomorrow.

Fixed. Mis-connected/loose wire that was also cutting out all left side speakers intermittently. Easily seen by service person once we got them to actually look inside. :cool:

I'm bumping this thread up to see if anyone has anything new on this subject. I have the problem, and am going to have it looked at along with my first service, coming up soon.

I have printed out the relevant posts from this thread, consisting largely of vertrkr updates on the fixes that didn't work. The last from vertrkr from another thread in late June was that "...they replaced a sub wire harness to the radio that seems to have worked."

Vertrkr... are you still fixed?

Skyburst, yours was "...a mis-connected/loose wire that was also cutting out all left side speakers intermittently." Any further problems?

In other threads, Ruffles, NJRidge, ssg and dsnove also stated they had the AM crackle/static. Have any of you been successful getting it fixed? If so, what did they do? :confused:

Appreciate any input on this. I would really like to chase this down in the fewest visits possible, so am trying to do some homework for them ahead of time. I am going to stop by the dealer service dept and talk these things over (rear leak also) so they can do some research before my appointment.

Thanks to Ultra-Hog for [as usual...] detailed insights into other potential issues.:)

I have printed out the relevant posts from this thread, consisting largely of vertrkr updates on the fixes that didn't work. The last from vertrkr from another thread in late June was that "...they replaced a sub wire harness to the radio that seems to have worked."
Vertrkr... are you still fixed?


Ya, I'm still all fixed up after finally replacing the sub-harness behind the dash.

I am an avid AM listener in the am to work ( no pun intended ) and I have not only experienced loss of reception in car radios but home portables my clock radio and house intercom radio. I too have heard the crackle of static when I hit some good bumps but It could of been just static interference. Maybe we all need the ugly grounding strap to drag behind us...:rolleyes:

Yeah I fixed mine for about 3 weeks by disconnecting the funky antenna "harnii" (harnesses) behind the radio and plugging em back in tight. Then it slowly came back, I am guessing it is the shield for the am antenna thats connecting/disconnecting as I am going over bumps.

If I recall correctly there was a phunky Y'ish harness back there that I will investigate further if I ever get time...I don't like letting dealers do anything to my cars besides pre-delivery inspection if I can help it :cool:

If I end up replacing parts I will let you know...

Hi,

I also have this am static when I hit any kind of bump. FM and CD are fine.

Just bought my RL about 2 weeks ago and have had this problem since day 1. Brought the truck to the dealer today and they said they would need to search for the problem and were not aware of this happening in any other RL's. The thought of them tearing the dash apart to search did not sit well so I left and decided to do some research first. They said they would talk to Honda in the meantime as well.

So, where should I start? Seems like the sub-harness could be the culprit?

Is this something that is fairly easy to get to so I can try and reseat?

Thanks Farmguy and Vertrkr for the posts--anymore help is much appreciated.

I love to be able to solve this on my own.

2006 Blue RT

Since I'm an XM junkie, I have rarely listened to AM radio in my 9 months of ownership. Over the weekend, I wanted to listen to the NFL games that aren't available on XM but were being broadcast on a couple of AM stations. I agree that the reception is poor although interference seemed to be regardless of road condition. I would probably have it looked at if I listened to AM more regularly. By the way, my XM reception is solid as a rock.

Your dash is actually easy to take apart yourself, so long as you have a 10mm nutdriver and/or a phillips screwdriver. It's mostly 'pop' type connections. Though i can understand if you don't want to ;)

You can search on here though if you are so inclined - lots of info about it already here thanks to a few overinformational members :). The only piece of advice I have is, if you live where it's cold - be sure to get that interior as warm as possible to make the rubber/plastic a bit more compliant and less prone to shattering and tweaking.


when I had my headunit out I noticed there was a small grey connector in the back right that I beleive is for antennae. It was cushion taped over and I undid the tape to seperate the harness, then pushed it back together. It worked ok for a couple weeks then back to its antics again...argh. Looks like I will have to visit the dealer too as I cannot find that subassembly available via piecemeail at any of the online shops.

Thanks SSG,

I do live in a cold climate (just outside of Boston), so I may just wait until the spring to attempt the dash removal. I rather wait than have the dealer tear into it.

If anyone has any other idea's I'd appreciate it.

Thanks again!

Thanks SSG,

I do live in a cold climate (just outside of Boston), so I may just wait until the spring to attempt the dash removal. I rather wait than have the dealer tear into it.

If anyone has any other idea's I'd appreciate it.

Thanks again!
haha...sorry to hear it, I'm from Ma. too so I know your pain :D.
I took mine off a week or two ago, it was 17° out the last time. brr.

The trick is drive the truck somewhere with the heat jacked for awhile first to get it nice and toasty - and you can do the whole 'removal' from inside the cab with the doors shut :)

Then again, the main downside here is I haven't heard of any confirmation of what harnesses are toast, and haven't seen any real end result to a 'fix' yet. But if I do get a weird am hankering I'll pop it out and take photos - maybe then someone can show their dealer the offending plug. Unfortunately I suspect it's attached to a long antenna lead around back :(.

...but I should probably simmer down with volunteering cause I am supposed to be whipping out this heated mirrors install guide someday soon and work/holidays has been killing me so I haven't done that either.

AM radio crackle FIXED!! :)

I forgot what it was like to have nice clear reception without static every time the road gets a little rough! I lived with the problem until my first oil change to avoid extra trips in, and also to get as much help from the ROC as possible before turning the dealer loose.

Thanks vertrkr and others for posting your progress, ...failures and success. I'm sure it helped them get to the problem directly. When I checked in with printed out posts on this and my [minor] leak problem, the guy out front tried to blow me off, saying none of my info would be of any help to them.... I was just starting to get pi$$ed when the service manager appeared from the next office, obviously overhearing our conversation. He had a REAL interest in the info and was thankful to me for bringing it in. We had a nice chat and he wandered off, already reading thru my papers.

Long story [not so] short.... they replaced what they called the AM module which resides inside the roof at the rear, under the headliner. The invoice called it the 'antenna module'. The tech said he could just tap on it with his finger and make it crackle.

Vertrkr, I think you had this same module replaced at one time, but it didn't solve yours?

...now, I hope my water leak is also fixed! :)

Hey Farmguy,

Thanks for the post! My AM reception crackles when I hit the slightest bump in the road. It also happenes when I tap the dash right above the radio so I'm thinking it could be a different problem from yours.

What do you think? Like you, I'm trying to gather info before going to the dealer.

Firecat - All the info I found is in this thread, except for one post in another thread by vertrkr where he summarized everything that had been resolved on his RL. He had both the head unit and the antenna module replaced, but in the end it was a sub-harness that fixed his problem. It sounded like the subharness was behind the radio/dash, and he got static by banging on the dash like you... I'd say his fix is a more likely solution for you.

Don't know how to advise you on finding the right harness... I have looked at the diagrams available like at www.hondaautomotiveparts.com (http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com), but it isn't obvious to say the least.

Good luck!

RE my original post on the problem and 7/18/05 post that it finally was fixed. Reportling it's still fixed so confident the harness connectivity was the problem. Hardest part was getting them to open the panels...took 3 appointments but sounds like they're more responsive now.

OK, so where do I exactly look? Which panel? The door panel? I want to do this myself versus the dealer.
Dan

Mine was the antenna module behind the headliner above the rear window. Others' were I think behind the dash, in the door panels.... there are variable fixes for this one. Don't know how to guide you on finding it, but reading this whole thread should help.

Good luck!