4K on my '05 (w/o NAV) and the AM portion of the radio has stopped working suddenly.

FM and CD work fine - but only static on the AM.

I used search but found nothing directed to this problem - anyone experience this before - any fast and easy solutions other than off to the dealer?

Thanks.

 

Take a fresh 9-volt battery and a coin.
Find an AM radio and tune it to an area of the dial where you hear static.
Now hold the battery near the antenna and quickly tap the two terminals of the battery with the coin (so that you connect them together for an instant).
You will hear a crackle in the radio that is caused by the connection and disconnection of the coin

Your battery/coin combination is a radio transmitter! It's not transmitting anything useful (just static), and it will not transmit very far (just a few inches, because it's not optimized for distance). But if you use the static to tap out Morse code, you can actually communicate over several inches with this crude device!

 

Thanks for this useful information, i'm running out and getting a battery just in case I get stuck and my cell phone is dead i can send out an SOS.

 

My AM reception stunk in my Roadster. There was a TSB that involved replacing the antenna base which temporarily improved reception, but it is getting bad again.

 

That will work great if your sending the S.O.S. to the person in the passenger seat.

Use care in the battery you pick, some will send a signal further than others. For instance, if you pick a battery that fits your cell phone then when you get stuck and your cell phone is dead you can put the other battery in your cell phone and it will send a signal quite a long distance.

By the way what's AM radio?

 

Just to close this thread - this problem was corrected two years ago by a dealer who replaced an AM signal amplifier under warranty. Two years later no problems.