No signal DAB radio

Audio, Navigation, Electronic Issues and Fixes
luvblobs
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Nov 16, 2018 2:30 pm

Post by luvblobs »

UPDATE, UPDATE. UPDATE......I hope the following helps some poor, frustrated owner like me.
As stated before my Macan went back to Porsche and they could find no faults with the PCM/DAB. So I reluctantly took my car back home thinking how depressing my future journeys would be as all the other drivers in their 'Jap scrap' listened faultlessly to their radios. However, two weeks went by with no faults. Had Porsche fixed something on the quiet?
Well the answer came from my 16 year old daughter. We went Christmas shopping and she whinged constantly about my poor radio station choice (I do this deliberately as small penance for all the 'you-know-what' she's put me through in her 16 years). As usual she'd been on her phone so much that day that it needed charging so she plugged in the car charger. My radio channel stopped. I looked at her and asked if she'd done something else but she hadn't. We unplugged the charger (not just the lead) and the radio began again....weird! We then tried the rear seat charger and the same thing happened. I later tried 2 more car chargers and found that both the small ones stopped the DAB working almost immediately but the one rather large twin charger made no difference to the radio. My only conclusion is that the big one must have some sort of suppressor or maybe small capacitor in it to prevent this type of interference.
This has transformed my car from something I thought was UNFIXABLE to something so simple i'm almost embarrassed. But look, if this helps someone i'll gladly accept a red face.

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Guy
Posts: 2148
Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2014 11:06 am
Location: Warwickshire

Post by Guy »

Thanks for letting us know! I have bought a couple of small car USB chargers recently, and now that you mention it I do remember some of the negative Amazon reviews talking about DAB problems. Shame I didn't recall this thread at the same time!

Personally I tend not to listen to DAB unless it's a station that is not available on the far superior (sound quality wise) FM :D
Ti Rich
Posts: 229
Joined: Mon Feb 24, 2020 8:35 pm

Post by Ti Rich »

Digging up an old thread but may help someone else. I too had poor radio reception and it was the Dashcam/12 V Charger. The screen has a built-in aerial and picks up interference from this. Removed the 12V USB charger and power the dashcam from the USB port and the problem disappears. Just driven almost 500 miles from Birmingham to South Cornwall and I never lost reception once. Nice cheap fix for a change!!!
2017 Macan S D, 21" Classics, PASAM, Black Exhausts, Heated seats / Steering Wheel, Nav, Park Assist.
Madelvic
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Joined: Thu Aug 15, 2019 3:48 pm
Location: Scotland

Post by Madelvic »

Me too. Bought cheap dash cam adapters and they stopped the DAB from working in my old RS4 and my Boxster. Audi was in the dealers 3 times :o
2017 Macan GTS Carmine Red
2005 Boxster S Artic Silver
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nsm3
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Location: Worcs

Post by nsm3 »

Mine has the rather irritating habit of losing the signal, requiring me to switch to another channel and then back, to find all is well?

For example, say Radio 2, Jeremy Vine is finishing and goes to the news, the signal stops. I then switch to R3, get the signal, then switch to R2 again and all is back as previous?

I assumed this was something to do with the output source, rather than the car?
Current: Macan S Diesel
Previous: 981 Cayman S
Previous: 997.1 GT3
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Shortshift
Posts: 102
Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2016 11:47 am

Post by Shortshift »

"Mine has the rather irritating habit of losing the signal, requiring me to switch to another channel and then back, to find all is well?

For example, say Radio 2, Jeremy Vine is finishing and goes to the news, the signal stops. I then switch to R3, get the signal, then switch to R2 again and all is back as previous?

I assumed this was something to do with the output source, rather than the car?"


I have exactly the same issue. Of course, it is an intermittent fault and it refused to play-up for the OPC when I left it with them. However, I have now captured it on video (pulled over to record the problem once it had happened - twice, in fact) so I hope for a more positive reaction from the OPC now.

James
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Rab J
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Joined: Fri Oct 30, 2015 7:48 am
Location: Ballymena

Post by Rab J »

My Macan had issues losing DAB stations. Turning the car off and leaving it a while seemed to reset it and all was ok for a while, but then a few days later the problem happened again. After replacing various peripherical items, aerial etc, all to no avail, in the end they replaced the complete PCM unit which cured the problem.
Macan GTS Carmine with 21" black sports classics ---Gone
991.2 GTS Carmine 2WD ---Gone
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http://www.porsche-code.com/PL86QK50
Ti Rich
Posts: 229
Joined: Mon Feb 24, 2020 8:35 pm

Post by Ti Rich »

To those having issues if you do have a cigarette lighter charger being used, remove it, wait 5 seconds, and see if the DAB signal returns. If it does it's the charger creating interference with the DAB signal. Try a better quality charger such as a Nokia one.
2017 Macan S D, 21" Classics, PASAM, Black Exhausts, Heated seats / Steering Wheel, Nav, Park Assist.
Clossie
Posts: 46
Joined: Thu Jul 30, 2020 10:06 pm

Post by Clossie »

I found that my ODB2 adapter when plugged into the OBD port obliterated the DAB signal. For those of your using dash cams - are you using power over OBD? If yes that may be your issue.
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