Stereo problems

Since i bought my 25 V6 Turbo the stereo has never worked correctly,so at last i decided to try and get to the bottom of this problem..
I,ve fitted a genuine brand NOS stereo,boxed totally complete and working as it should .
Its had a new aerial and base,its got the original lead from the roof to the stereo,but i used the new one i got with the base and plugged it straight into the stereo and connected to the car aerial
So whats the problem,its the fact i have NO FM......
LW/MW are spot on fine,but no FM stations can be heard,i,ve programmed them in,but nothing,not a thing,if you turn it up loud you can just hear the station you have tuned,this is the 3rd stereo in the car(all genuine factory fit items)what the hell is happening??
Its the later double DIN unit.
Any GTA owners suffered the same problem?

[BIG_MVS]

I seem to remember a suppressor for the radio somewhere on the GTA, maybe the same for the 25?

I think the suppressor is on the coil pack and earths on the bolt hole for the coilpack?
Does anyone know for sure,i looked it up at work and does show this item
but if this packed up i wouldn,t get LW/MW would i?
Also FM doesn,t work with the car NOT running,just on aux position.

I'm sure mine used to do something similar. I've got the later double-DIN stereo and what I found was that it would receive LW/MW but would not get FM until it been on for 15 minutes or so. I liked to think of it as having to "warm up". After the 15 minutes or so, all was well with FM.
Never got to the bottom of what was behind this, just replaced it with a more recent stereo.

)
Any GTA owners suffered the same problem?

Yes, mine does the same - just can't tune in to FM. Only had mine since last summer, and haven't had a chance to investigate yet, but LW certainly works, as does the tape player. According to the history I have of my car, some work has recently been done on the radio wiring loom, but the whole system is the original fit (1990). I would be very interested if anyone knows what the cause of this 'fault' might be.

Paul T

Cheers chaps,you know what,reading the warm up period well reminds me that this is what the prevuious stereos did,leave them on for a while and gradually you would hear FM getting louder,almost like a ghost is turning the volume up!!
But i haven,t checked if the new unit does this,but i will today hopefully,and let you know..
Someone has suggested a problem with the aerial lead,from factory they are 2 peice and although the connector looks good it MUST be tightly together,i noticed the replacement lead i got with the aerial base/mast is one peice,and i plugged that into the NOS stereo anyway with no luck on FM....

Cheers chaps,you know what,reading the warm up period well reminds me that this is what the prevuious stereos did,leave them on for a while and gradually you would hear FM getting louder,almost like a ghost is turning the volume up!!
But i haven,t checked if the new unit does this,but i will today hopefully,and let you know..
Someone has suggested a problem with the aerial lead,from factory they are 2 peice and although the connector looks good it MUST be tightly together,i noticed the replacement lead i got with the aerial base/mast is one peice,and i plugged that into the NOS stereo anyway with no luck on FM....

Sorry I cant help with your problem, do you work for Herds at Weybridge by any chance and used to own a very very mint 21 turbo in tungsten?

Si21

I also have this problem of the FM not immediately comming on, but the volume will gradually increase over a period of 10 mins or so. The only thing I could think of was an internal battery or something like it to hold some form of memory, but why on FM only . The other thing I noticed was if I was using the Alp regularly, the delay was nonexistant. Thats why I thought of a hold up battery. But I have a spare unit that I was given many years ago, so I decided to look inside ...but there is nothing I can see to cause this problem. So I cant really offer any solutions, except that always does come on after a little while. It seems that this is a common fault with these units after a long period of time, but possibly does not happen if used daily. I am going to have a hunt on the internet to see if I can come up with something.
Now all I have to do is put it all back together again

Hi Chaps
Well the update is as follows
It STILL didn,t work after 20 mins on Aux,if you turn it up full volume you can just hear the station,i then made the big mistake in changing it to LW and blew my eyes apart...
I,ve now got 3 of these units and have done the same and taken them apart,but no progress..it sounds like a common problem,but not on a NOS unit surely?
And YEP i DID own the mint 21 Turbo in Tungsten,but the 25 V6 Turbo is better condition..
Cheers.

Any pics of the 25? I've got a real soft spot for them after learning to drive in one and growing up with them as our family transport. Great underrated cars much like the safrane that I drive daily now.

The previous stereo in my Alpine (a Kenwood) had this issue, just couldn't get FM radio. Replaced the arial which did nothing to remedy it and eventually got round to putting an Alpine stereo in which has sorted it. I think mine just had a knackered stereo as it was definately past its best. The Alpine has sorted that!

i THINK i may now have the answer to the strange FM problem,i visited the 25 today and thought i would try the stereo again,turned the ignition on and the FM worked fine!!!
Now i believe the problem lies in the ambient temp
When i tried the stereo with not sucess last week my car was showing 3 degrees,today it was showing 11 degress as the sun was on the garage,it may be a strange idea but i think its true,the car wasn,t running,it wasn,t warm in the car,just the air temp was warmer and it worked fine!!
We had a load of stereo problems with modern Renaults a month ago when the temp dropped very low,now in the last week or so nothing...

I tend to agree.
I am breaking a Lexus LS400.
The Radio and LCD display worked fine up to last summer when the car was laid up.
I have sold the radio at the start of January, waited for funds to arrive, and so just gave it a try before removal, FM was top quality as normal but the LCD display was only 1/4 working, so I had to let the buyer down. Yes there was still some snow on the ground.
Now 2 weeks later, when it is a bit warmer.... it all works again. So sold it again, and for a tenner more.

I had the same symptoms where you turn the radio on and wait for it to warm up like a valve set and then it was passable. When I took the radio out of my car with it still playing I found the sound would come and go as I moved it around. After fiddling around I discovered the sound would fade/disappear if I pushed/flexed the bottom of the radio so would guess the problem lies in the circuit board at the base.

Trevor.

I also have this problem of the FM not immediately comming on, but the volume will gradually increase over a period of 10 mins or so. The only thing I could think of was an internal battery or something like it to hold some form of memory, but why on FM only . The other thing I noticed was if I was using the Alp regularly, the delay was nonexistant. Thats why I thought of a hold up battery. But I have a spare unit that I was given many years ago, so I decided to look inside ...but there is nothing I can see to cause this problem. So I cant really offer any solutions, except that always does come on after a little while. It seems that this is a common fault with these units after a long period of time, but possibly does not happen if used daily. I am going to have a hunt on the internet to see if I can come up with something.
Now all I have to do is put it all back together again

I have just come across this post dating back to 2010 in the "Similar Topics" at the bottom of the page of the "Manuals" thread in the "RAOC Members Area".
This is for the benefit of Non Members, or New Members (since early 2012) who have this problem and not read the post.
Since posting the above, I have identified a fix, and information on how to cure the problem can be found in the RAOC Members Area under the thread title "FM Problems with OE Philips Radio ......... Fix".
I have done 4 of these radio's up to now, including my own, and all seem to be working satisfactorily, with no FM problem.
Non members, of course, will have to become full members before accessing the Members Area.