cibs

Hey guys,

I've searched for this and wasn't able to find anything.

This has been happening for a while but as of late it's become unbearable and so loud that I can't even hear the words or anything on the radio other than the squeal that oscillates from a very low pitched whine to a high pitched squeal and then back again...

it ONLY happens on the AM frequencies, does not affect FM frequencies at all..

Thankfully I only use AM radio to check on traffic and such but a relatively brand new car ('06) shouldn't be having these problems... has anyone else had something similar? or am I stuck taking it to the stealership??

LukeaTron

Does the pitch of the sound change with engine RPM? If so you've got a grounding issue somewhere. Got any aftermarket anything installed? If not then... uhhh, dealer time?

cibs

I have an aftermarket amp for my subs, and the front speakers have been replaced... but the whine doesn't change with engine RPM... it just goes up and down regardless of if i'm moving or at standstill... low RPM or high...

bah I hate dealer trips cuz they always say everything is ok... and then you have go with them to show them what the problem is bleh

TinkySD

Do you have metalized (hybrid of high performance) tint or full metal tint? If the beginning issues coinsided with you getting the tint that may have something to do with it.

I'm not sure if the 06s had shark fins with the am/fm antenna but I know on the 04s the antenna was in the rear glass.

LukeaTron

The AM/FM antenna is on the rear glass for all TSXs. The box on top is for the GPS.

I'd put money on the fact it's a grounding issue either with your speakers or your amp. How fast is it cycling from low to high pitched?

cibs

I have ceramic tint so that shouldn't be an issue...

It cycles at varying speeds depending on the day... I haven't been able to get it to a pattern or replicate it...

I wonder why it only does it on AM frequencies and not on FM ... perhaps a way to test if it's the ground would be to unplug the power from the amp and then drive around??

The front speakers & tweeters were just swapped out and as such didn't need to be grounded....

LukeaTron

You only hear it on AM because of the way AM works. AM carries it's signal by varying the amplitude of the wave whereas FM does so by shifting the frequency around the tuned frequency. Basically, anything that's producing a cyclical electronic pulse is producing an AM signal. To interfere with FM you need to produce a pulse that varies a tiny little bit around a very specific frequency. This is one of the big reasons why FM came to dominate AM.

I'd try unplugging and see if it does anything. The speakers could potentially feed electronic noise back into the system if they're improperly grounded to the chassis.

cibs

^ Thanks for that explanation!!! I will try that out this weekend and let you know how it goes.

j7469

I too hear a loud and annoying squeal on specific AM channels. Unfortunately it happens to be one of my favorite sports channel and makes listening painful. One thing I noticed is that the squeal gets much loader if I have my blackberry plugged in to the car charger. The volume jumps 10x just by plugging in the phone. Do you think this is something the dealer with fix? This is a 06 TL and my other car (07 Altima), which is a lot less expensive, doesn't make any squealing sound on AM.