[569dean]

for those who have installed HID's
have you ran in to problems with RF interferance from the ballest
ie. radio station not coming in clear when the HID's are on.

is there a fix?????

 

[Terculees]

Yes, had the same thing in my '05.

Fix: get a better deck. The blaupunkt receiver is awful. The JVC receiver I have now has no interference from lights.

Having said that, the aerial that's in the front clam is pathetic, and listening to the radio in the elise is just not a good experience. I plug in my iPod and rock away :coolnana:

(4 aftermarket speakers, 8 inch 300W sub in the footwell)

 

[mrcarcrazy]

Nope, but I don't receive any radio stations in my Elise...antenna just doesn't catch enough signal I guess.

 

[569dean]

where is the antana in the front clam can it be removed and a replaced??

could it be a ground feeding back and cousing a ground loop?? could i diod issolate the grounds?

the radio works well when the lights are off but no stations when lights are on

if its RF what could i use to sheild the ballests with??

 

[jhjacobs]

Diodes won't help. The problem is probably not RF noise but rather baseband audio frequency noise on the 12v lines; the radio probably has a pathetic power filter. You could try to filter the ballests but since they are pretty high power the filter would need to be beefy

As for the noise, does it happen only on FM or is it present on AM or iPod? If so, this pretty much rules out RF interference and rules in power noise.

A better antenna probably wouldn't help; if the noise is RF it will just pick it up better and if it is power it won't do anything. A better deck would probably help.

The things I would do if you rule out RF noise and don't want a new deck would be:

1. Install an power filter on the radio. I suspect a google search would turn up some. My "Secret Audio" radio (different car) came with a decent filter. I saw this one on ebay: Noise Filter 10 AMP Car Audio 12V Stereo RCA Isolator - eBay (item 270265692541 end time Jul-10-09 19:41:27 PDT)

2. Upgrade both the ground and power wires (thicker wire) to the HIDs.

3. If you want to filter the HIDs, I would add chokes on both the +12 and Ground lines to each light (4 chokes). Something like this would work (also on power / ground to radio): Digi-Key - M8834-ND (JW Miller A Bourns Company - 2306-H-RC). You could also add some capacitance after the chokes but step two would probably help more.

In regard to antennas, I use a cheap amplified antenna (Metra 44UA200 Amplified AM-FM Window Antenna) on several of my older cars which is pretty good for $20-$30. It is designed for window mount but it could easily mounted to a fiberglass panel so that it is hidden.