2003 Grand Marquis Radio ?

[Vettecor]

A couple of weeks ago I bought a 2003 Grand Marquis. The car only has 62000 miles on it.

They just delivered the car to my residence in Florida. I bought the car in Georgia.

The radio comes on but that's all. It won't lock in any channel for a/m or f/m. Its all static.

Where is the antenna ? Possibly in the rear window ?

Anybody know what could be wrong with the radio ? By the way the CD Player works great.



Thanks

[sly]

the antenna is in the rear glass. There is an antenna module located behind the passenger side kick panel or the C-pillar panel that blocks the DC voltage from the defroster grid and allows the antenna signal to pass (when it works) and when it dies just blocks everything. This is the usual failure point. You can either run your own antenna or replace the module.

[Vettecor]

I know where the passenger side kick panel is. Where is the C pillar panel ?

[sly]

above the back seat. Though I just went through this one a coworker's 03 vic and couldn't find the damn thing. Everything I've read says it should be in one of those 2 locations, but I've never found it. Torn his car apart. The only place I haven't looked yet is behind the actual radio to see where the antenna cable goes. It's starting to bug me that Ford used such a setup and there is virtually NO info on it, even in the EVTM I have. Kinda pisses me off.

[IPreferDIY]

I can't be bothered with the radio. It used to be "You're never more than 30 seconds away from your favorite tunes". Nowadays it's "You're never more than two minutes away from your favorite tunes". I listen to what I want to listen to. I suppose hearing traffic and news reports on AM stations could be useful, but other than that, I don't think you're missing much.

Anyhoo, have you tried plugging in a known good antenna to make sure the radio otherwise works?

[miamibob]

Not a radio person myself either. I can usually get to my destination long before the announcer shuts up and FINALLY puts some music on. Then it is usually something I am not interested in anyway so I input my own!!

[sly]

See attached for antenna module location. I'm still not sure where exactly it is, but this makes it look like it's just right of the right rear speaker on the bottom of the rear package shelf and you have to remove the carpet to get at the nuts that hold the damn thing in.

Edit: I just went ant look on our 2000 Vic and confirmed it's not there. I have no clue what the hell Ford was thinking with this description, but I have yet to actually find the damn thing on any vehicle.

[miamibob]

Never even heard of it - certainly have never seen one. Going to try and look it up and see if there are any photos of the "beast in the wild"!

[IPreferDIY]

It's too dark and cold to mess around with it up here, but here's what I found from a quick look on mine:
1. the wire on the passenger side of the defroster goes down somewhere
2. when I put my hand between the top of the side of the rear seat back and the trim on the passenger side, I could feel some kind of cable/wiring there
3. when feeling around underneath that area in the trunk, I could feel what seemed to be the antenna wire

I'm guessing it's under there somewhere, at least on mine.

[miamibob]

http://www.cvpi.org/archives/p71interceptor/radio/tsb09192.html

Might find this TSB to be of interest. It states it is for 2008 and newer but the SAME issue exists for the older vehicles with the same system. NO mention of a module so I'll keep looking...

[sly]

May need to test the grid with a voltmeter then.

[miamibob]

A couple of weeks ago I bought a 2003 Grand Marquis. The car only has 62000 miles on it.

They just delivered the car to my residence in Florida. I bought the car in Georgia.

The radio comes on but that's all. It won't lock in any channel for a/m or f/m. Its all static.

Where is the antenna ? Possibly in the rear window ?

Anybody know what could be wrong with the radio ? By the way the CD Player works great.



Thanks

Are you sure the radio portion of the stereo is good? I would see if you can substitute another radio before you get into the rear window defroster/antenna grid system. In addition, certain window tinting can cause issues also (not sure if you have rear window tinting?)!

[sly]

window tinting period tends to screw that damn grid up since installers are prone to damage that top connector for the antenna.

[Vettecor]

Are you sure the radio portion of the stereo is good? I would see if you can substitute another radio before you get into the rear window defroster/antenna grid system. In addition, certain window tinting can cause issues also (not sure if you have rear window tinting?)!

No window tinting at all. Had the CD going a good portion of yesterday and today. It's a single CD player by the way. Still no a/m or f/m.

I was thinking about getting another "generic" radio or possibly another factory radio to see if that works.

I hate to buy another radio if the antenna is the problem.


Thanks guys for your replies.

[Vettecor]

http://www.cvpi.org/archives/p71inte.../tsb09192.html

Might find this TSB to be of interest. It states it is for 2008 and newer but the SAME issue exists for the older vehicles with the same system. NO mention of a module so I'll keep looking...

Thanks MiamiBob, will see what happens when I put the rear window defroster on.