2005 Elantra - AM radio interference

I don't think I want a 54" whip on my car.

 

crane says its am antenna is 24 inches collapsed and expands to 54 in.

 

Sure, but it needs to be extended to work best. Otherwise, they wouldn't
have made it 54" long. It would be somewhat pointless to spend the money
for an improved antenna, then not use it in the optimum manner.

 

I have a 2005 Elantra GT Hatchback, Automatic and had terrible AM
reception on 550AM near Cincinnati, Ohio (AM1290 in Dayton was always
ok). I have the whip antenna (not a window antenna and not an
electric antenna). I too noticed interference related to the onboard
computers, alternator, etc. Never did figure out exactly what caused
it.

I replaced the factory radio with a Pioneer DEH-P3700MP and don’t have
the feedback type of problems any more and the signal to noise ratio
is much better. It is still AM radio so it isn’t crystal clear
everywhere but at least I can listen to it without the noise drowning
out the broadcast. Before I replaced the radio I took the car in to
a dealer to have them inspect all of the grounding and antenna cabling
to make sure there weren’t any issues. Not only is my AM reception
drastically better but I can play MP3 or WMA cds in the car too with
this radio (an MP3 cd will hold the same number of songs as 10 or 11
normal cds).

I hope this information is helpful to those of you who, like myself,
searched the web but never saw anyone post something that definitively
stated that a new radio helped the AM reception problem. I went ahead
and bought a new radio anyway, even though I wasn’t sure it would
help, because the noise level was so high I just couldn’t take it
anymore.

Don’t know if it matters and/or helped or hindered my results (in
theory it should be better), but I soldered all of my wiring
connections rather than twisting the wires and crimping them.

If you do it yourself and haven’t ever done a car radio replacement
before, I would highly recommend using the resources available at
www.crutchfield.com (clicking What Fits My Car? on the left side of
the main page is a good place to start) to get a feel for what it
takes. On the Elantra you have to pull out your dash panel to replace
the radio and if you buy a stereo from them they will send detailed
instructions on what it takes to do the install. They have movies and
general information available on the web site whether you buy from
them or not. If you don’t buy from crutchfield go to
www.hmaservice.com, register, and one of the sections there had
instructions and pictures for pulling out the dash panel and radio.

If you choose to solder, Radio Shack has an assortment pack of heat
shrink tubing sizes for $2.39 - better than wrapping with electrical
tape which will over time dry up and fall off leaving exposed wiring.
You don’t need a heat gun to shrink the tubing, a lighter will do it -
just be careful (don’t let the flame touch the tubing) - and don’t
forget to slip the tubing over one of the wires before you solder
them together.

The factory ground wire is not screwed down anywhere under the dash.
If your new radio’s wiring harness has a connector on the end of the
ground wire just cut off the connector and treat the ground wire the
same as you do all of the other wiring.

A couple of other things I learned that weren’t in any instructions -
move your gear shift lever as far down as you can before you start
(with the automatic I had to leave the key in the ignition and then
shifted to Low gear - fortunately it worked even though the negative
battery terminal was already unplugged and the dash was pulled loose
before I figured out that it needed to be done). This gets it out of
the way for when you want to completely remove the dash panel.

When you remove the dash panel start at the left hand side of the dash
panel and gradually work your way over to the middle alternating the
prying between opposite sides of the panel - theoretically you can use
a screwdriver to (very carefully!) pry out the panel but I opted for
an upholstery panel tool (has a bend in it that made it easier to pull
the panel without mucking it up) that I bought at Advance Auto Parts
for $5 and change. It was metal but I would have purchased something
made out of plastic if they had something like that. No matter what
tool you use take it easy and go slow (you have to take out 4 screws
before you start pulling the panel so don’t forget that either - see
crutchfield or hmaservice.com for detailed information).

I am happy with the improvement I’ve gotten with the Pioneer
DEH-P3700MP (crutchfield included the dash installation kit, wiring
harness, excellent instructions specific to my car, and shipping for
free with this radio too so it was a pretty good deal) and being able
to play MP3 cds is a feature I planned to eventually upgrade to
anyway. The only extras I bought were the heat shrink tubing at
Radio Shack and an upholstery panel removal tool at an auto parts
store. Another thing to pay attention to at crutchfield is that they
have minimum price to get the harness, dash kit, and shipping for free
- if I had gone down to the next cheaper Pioneer I think I would have
ended up paying the same amount of money and gotten a lesser model so
you have to pay attention when you are shopping. When I bought it it
was on sale and was $15 cheaper than Best Buy, Circuit City and those
places make you pay for the harnesses and kits in addition to the
radio but they do install it for free if you don’t want to do it
yourself.

I chose the Pioneer because of the tuner specs and anti-feedback
circuitry they include, and since I wasn’t sure it was going to make
any difference I maximized everything tuner-wise to hope for the best.
Now that I know that replacing the radio made a big difference in my
particular case, I would imagine that just about any reputable
aftermarket radio will give better results than the Hyundai factory
radios do.