RNS-E Rubbish Radio Reception

GavConner

GavConner

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Hi guys, please help me before I pull the rest of my hair out.

I've had an RNS-E fitted to my car for a while now and it performs fine with the nav and the Cd's etc. When it comes to radio its pants !

Its so bad that I hate to listen to the radio as it cuts out every 10 mins. When I say cuts out it jsut goes silent and then comes back.

I bought a £30 radio for my beetle the other day and the reception on that is 10 times better.

When I bought the RNS-E it was in a car that had a sharkfin Ariel. Mine is not. infactI'm not even sure where my Ariel lives ???
Do I need to change some sort of setting or has the Ariel become faulty ? Is it easy to replace or can I buy a booster ??

Sorry for all the questions but the thing is really buggin me and I can't even listen to to radio 1 for more than 5 mins before it cuts out.

Plllllleeeeeeaaaaaaasssssssssse help me :)
 
I'm almost 100% sure I know the issue & solution.

The antenna system is probably wrong & you need to either change this over for about £200 or get someone else to do it.

Dependent on radio before install & year of car, there are 2 antenna systems for the 8P, please advise which radio you had before the fitment & also the year of car.
 
NHN said:
I'm almost 100% sure I know the issue & solution.

The antenna system is probably wrong & you need to either change this over for about £200 or get someone else to do it.

Dependent on radio before install & year of car, there are 2 antenna systems for the 8P, please advise which radio you had before the fitment & also the year of car.
Click to expand...

OUCH !

My A3 is a 2003 TDI, it did have a single din concert thingy in it and I swapped it to a double DIN RNS-E

Whats the differance between the two antenna systems please ???
 
I would suspect then you have not had the antenna system connected properly as in the diversity system, you really need to remove the radio & take a pic of the rear & wiring & post on here so we can advise properly what the issue is, cause you seem to have the same setup as I had before I installed mine & sometimes people dont connect it up fully, this is my suspicion.

Pic would help alot.
 
NHN said:
I would suspect then you have not had the antenna system connected properly as in the diversity system, you really need to remove the radio & take a pic of the rear & wiring & post on here so we can advise properly what the issue is, cause you seem to have the same setup as I had before I installed mine & sometimes people dont connect it up fully, this is my suspicion.

Pic would help alot.
Click to expand...

Cool, thanks mate, I'll take some photos when the wife gets home and post them up for you to have a look at. If I've wired it up wrong then thats sweet. £200 made me feel a bit ill

I bought the plug and play kit from ebay but have never thought it was workign 100%.

Out of intrest where is my ariel in my car and what antenna system have I got ???
 
I am pretty sure that PaulAr off of here is having the exact same issue with a retro fit. You have 'the man that can' :hi:on the case so I will direct Paul over here as he was looking for a solution too.
 
Last edited:
GavConner said:
Out of intrest where is my ariel in my car and what antenna system have I got ???
Click to expand...

The antenna (two of them) are in the rear screen. Your car should have the ZF/HF system fitted to it. As NHN says, please post some pics and we can work out where the issue is. Can you remember if you plugged in 2 antenna cables?
 
You should have an adapter similar to this. Both cables need to be connected.

005-02a.jpg
 
AuldReekie said:
I am pretty sure that PaulAr of off here is having the exact same issue with a retro fit. You have 'the man that can' :hi:on the case so I will direct Paul over here as he was looking for a solution too.
Click to expand...

Pauls car will have the HF/HF system which requires changing the amps in the tailgate to fix the issue. See my thread with details of the change.
 
JohnS3 said:
Pauls car will have the HF/HF system which requires changing the amps in the tailgate to fix the issue. See my thread with details of the change.
Click to expand...

Thanks John (and OP for starting the thread) I have PM'd Paul to this thread so hopefully he will be along soon.
 
audi upgrades
JohnS3 said:
The antenna (two of them) are in the rear screen. Your car should have the ZF/HF system fitted to it. As NHN says, please post some pics and we can work out where the issue is. Can you remember if you plugged in 2 antenna cables?
Click to expand...

I think I only plugged in one ....

Similar to this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Audi-A3-A4-A6...S_Accessories_Software_ET?hash=item33563960b6

I'll confirm later tonight when my wife gets home wiht the car.

Thanks very much for your help so far
 
Thats the full plug and play kit. We're only looking at the antenna connectors at the moment. The RNSe has two antenna wires coming from the amps in the tailgate. The connector closest to the edge of the unit is the HF feed (the signal from the antenna), the inner connector is the ZF return (back to the amps). The RNSe sends signal strength info back to the antenna amp, if one antenna has better reception then the amp changes the selected antenna. All in the blink of an eye! So if you only have one wire connected you can see why it doesn't work very well.

Pauls case is a little different though. The newer 07 and later Concert/Symphony headunits both require two HF feeds from the antenna amps. The headunit then chooses which antenna has the best reception.

HTH
 
Yeap John's on the same path as me, I was thinking he didnt amend the old beige connector & fit into the double connector for rear of rns, it should be simple as this for your car & Paul's unfortunately isnt as simple, but not exactly hard either, John's very well versed in this fix though, if he cant guide Paul through this fix then nobody can, lol
 
Hi guys,

Unfortunately my wife is working late most of the week so its quite dark when she gets home.

I didn't get any pics last night but I'll do it as soon as poss and post them up.

Thanks so much for your help so far, Photos will be here asap

Cheers

Gav
 
ive got the same problem as this! never really looked into it! just thought i had a sh*t radio!

my rnse was retrofitted by Audi.. i get terrible reception and cant even pick up most of my favourite station..

do you think audi will sort this out?
 
If you paid them to retrofit it then you can ask them to fix the crap reception by swoping the antenna amps. Seems fair to me.

If you have a vagcom scan of the car it should have a "ZF short to earth" fault code showing on the radio and navigation sections.
 
I have a sportback 2009 S3 with RNS-E fitted from factory as far as I know. The reception is average, but in memory mode most saved frequencies are greyed out. Can't select them. If I manually tune in, the reception seems average, not good but not pathetic either.
 
exact same thing as me!!!

GConn said:
I have a sportback 2009 S3 with RNS-E fitted from factory as far as I know. The reception is average, but in memory mode most saved frequencies are greyed out. Can't select them. If I manually tune in, the reception seems average, not good but not pathetic either.
Click to expand...
 
Couldnt agree more John, if they retrofitted then they should have also swapped antenna systems over, go back & demand they sort it FOC as they didnt advise any loss in reception & they never advised of any additional cost to get it working fully.
 
NHN said:
Couldnt agree more John, if they retrofitted then they should have also swapped antenna systems over, go back & demand they sort it FOC as they didnt advise any loss in reception & they never advised of any additional cost to get it working fully.
Click to expand...

and show them how to do it....
 
Ive got similar issue's after fitting a concert 2 to my 2003 A3, everything else works apart from the radio which gets almost no reception at all.
 
audi upgrades
Mick a3 said:
Ive got similar issue's after fitting a concert 2 to my 2003 A3, everything else works apart from the radio which gets almost no reception at all.
Click to expand...

Mick, If you have the new double din concert2 then you need to exchange your rear antenna amps with anyone on here with an 07 or later car with a retrofit RNSe. They have the amps you need and vicaverca. You and whoever you swop with will only need to buy a few cables and you're good to go!
 
JohnS3 said:
Mick, If you have the new double din concert2 then you need to exchange your rear antenna amps with anyone on here with an 07 or later car with a retrofit RNSe. They have the amps you need and vicaverca. You and whoever you swop with will only need to buy a few cables and you're good to go!
Click to expand...

Jeez i thought all the hassle was done! I'l do without just now, Im gonna use the aux output and plug my phone in. Think its possible to play the radio through your phone through the aux?

Out of intrest, How much do they amps come in at?
 
JohnS3 said:
Mick, If you have the new double din concert2 then you need to exchange your rear antenna amps with anyone on here with an 07 or later car with a retrofit RNSe. They have the amps you need and vicaverca. You and whoever you swop with will only need to buy a few cables and you're good to go!
Click to expand...

John you have PM mate.

cheers
Paul
 
I also have cr@p reception although my solution and intention is to go DAB\DVB - someone of the likes of Hazzy's to do the work but I'm going to wait until I've got a 2010 rns-e unit... just can't seem to get hold of one!

Anyone gone Digitial with their RNS-E?


KKP
 
Would be cheaper to just sort your reception out if its the antenna problem.

But you already have an rns as you say you want a 2010 unit, curious cause if you dont have rns already then whats the antenna problem atm.
 
Well, currently I don't have a TV-tuner with my 2009 (Chrome knob) rns-e.

I am suffering the horrid reception also.

Since 'Digital' is the way forward I may as well have DAB and DVB in the car so was wondering whether anyone had this mod.

I'd like a 2010 rns-e to take benefit of optical park assist.... I know i know.. I'm probably wasting my time but its as 'useful' to me as not having a rear wiper ;)
 
Possibly need an upgraded parking module aswell, tbc but there are a number of modules & the PR code denotes the function, PR-7X5 says parking assist, have to ask someone who has this feature.
 
NHN said:
I'm almost 100% sure I know the issue & solution.

The antenna system is probably wrong & you need to either change this over for about £200 or get someone else to do it.

Dependent on radio before install & year of car, there are 2 antenna systems for the 8P, please advise which radio you had before the fitment & also the year of car.
Click to expand...


hi Nige

I has a symphony in the old girl before the RNSE and the reception was 10x better than it is now. Its a bit like listening to radio 1 on medium wave years ago ! keeps fading away and coming back.... definitely the signal because it does it in the same places every day...
 
Remove radio & see if the antenna has 2 cables feeding it or just one, bottom left corner looking from rear of radio.

Maybe take a pic of the wiring.
 
Last edited:
Cant recall if you said but was yours in from factory or another radio, what year?
 
Antenna problem aswell then mate, assuming you had a concert 2+/3 in the 1st place, so would need swapping over to match the required antenna system needed for the rns-e, talk to John about it, you can do yourself if need be.
 
Mine only has one, had to plug it into an adaptor for the rnse if i remember correctly
 
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