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I recently fitted a Seicane audio head unit to replace the existing Comand module in my 2003 SL500. It's a considerable improvement, offering Bluetooth, Apple Carplay, SD card storage & USB for music, much better navigation etc. etc. However, radio reception ( never very good anyway) is vary poor - only one FM station tunes in. My understanding is that the radio ariels are within the windscreen ( ribbon types either side). Anyway, seeing as how I no longer need the phone antenna in the rear wing, could this be used for the radio instead? It'd be a very neat fix if so.
I did the android Head unit swap last fall and noticed the same thing - terrible FM reception. I was forewarned by latemodel21 of this.
rather than mess around with more adapters, cables, and trying to bypass the antenna switchers/amplifiers just the use one of the lousy stock antennae, I simply purchased a universal auto FM wire antenna and connected it right to the head unit. The antenna is behind the dash and loops around some before heading up to clock area. works great. Despite my fancy new head units features I still listen to a lot of fm radio when I drive so fixing this was a must for me.
Wow, many thanks folks for such a speedy reply. Within the kit that came with the radio is this cable in the photo. It looks like some sort of signal amplifier, with the ariel plug, power input wire, and what looks to be the phone input plug. I'm tempted to try this to the phone antenna, on the basis that the reception can't be any worse! Failing that (I'm not optimistic) then I shall try your other suggestions. Thanks for the great graphic Rudeney, that's incredibly helpful. Best wishes!
Last edited by suffolk tony; Feb 21, 2018 at 04:00 AM.
Now here's an interesting thing. I e-mailed Seicane asking for advice, and have now gone into factory settings - password either 126 or 318, gone to radio, and set this from China to Europe (I'm in the UK). Bingo! It now gets some stations, good enough for what I want to listen to anyway. Hope this helps folk.
I recently fitted a Seicane audio head unit to replace the existing Comand module in my 2003 SL500. It's a considerable improvement, offering Bluetooth, Apple Carplay, SD card storage & USB for music, much better navigation etc. etc. However, radio reception ( never very good anyway) is vary poor - only one FM station tunes in. My understanding is that the radio ariels are within the windscreen ( ribbon types either side). Anyway, seeing as how I no longer need the phone antenna in the rear wing, could this be used for the radio instead? It'd be a very neat fix if so.
Thanks for any help & advice.
I can't help on that but am very interested in updating my Comand unit to the Seicane......but I have no ability to do the work myself.
Two questions:
- did you consider the DAB option?
- are you aware of any UK autotech guys, preferably near me in NE Surrey/SW London, who can do this?
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Can I use The Phone antenna For The Radio?
