[Rajput]

This is my first posting, and i don't think i can start a new thread just yet.

Collected my new F30 in October this year, and only have the standard radio. Since then, I’ve tried out playing mp3s via a usb stick directly plugged into the usb socket, and subsequently bought a Y cable off fleabay to use with an iPod.

My first reaction to the usb stick was ‘good sound’, and better than the Y cable set up with an iPod, but I’ve stuck with the iPod in order to update my playlists. I’ve selected ‘bass booster’ as the iPod EQ setting and also turned the bass down about 3 bars in the car setting. I feel that I’ve now got an acceptable sound, and I can hear bass which I couldn’t before in my E46. I hasten to add that I’m not expecting hi f in the car with the set up i have!

Anyway, my issue is when I listen to radio 4, as this is mostly speech. I can hear, what sounds like static and also electrical interference, like you used to be able to hear when turning the tuning dial on old radios. It’s bad enough to give me a headache within 15 minutes or so, and bad enough to make listening to this station on FM unlistenable. I told the dealer that maybe the aerial wasn’t properly connected or that there was some loose connection.

I tuned into radio 4 using the RDS set up, and then also manually with RDS off, and it’s as though the frequency is just off the optimum one, and hence the interference. The radio also seems to be prone to picking up ‘snaps, crackles, and pops’, none of which I had in my old E46 radio, and which I thought disappeared in the 70s/80s. I get intermittent static too like before a thunderstorm.

The dealer checked and couldn’t find the problem with the radio (not surprising really considering they tuned the radio to some non-stop music channel), but also that they couldn’t find a fault with the wires in the rear windscreen either.

On collecting my car I tuned into radio 4 (94.3 MHz) and demonstrated the problem first hand, and the dealer agreed that there is a problem present. The dealer had me book the car in again for a whole day for them to try and fix the problem. They didn’t manage it, and now want the car back for a whole week to do various tests like make up an new aerial cable, etc. The dealer has raised a PUMA.

Thing is, I’ve noticed the SAME problem in the courtesy mini bus they dropped me at home in, and also in the car that they came to collect me to take me back to the dealership, on the same radio station. I therefore think that the problem is not specific to my car, and that it is a common fault with the standard radio.

It’s good that BMW are now going to offer DAB as standard fit on 2013 beemers, but even if I got this as an replacement/upgrade, it still wouldn’t solve the current issue of poor radio reception quality for those times when the DAB signal doesn’t work.

Anyone confirm that they also have the same problem? Or if they managed to fix this?