It's only taken me 3 months to put two and two together...
My 2001 Omega 3.0 radio has been playing up nearly every morning - just static hiss. By the time I've driven for about 15 minutes it suddenly comes back to life.
The upshot is it's the heated rear window (which I've been using most mornings) which causes this problem...this switches itself off after 10/15 mins and hence the radio springs back to life.
I assume the aerial is part of the heating element (the stubby one only used for Sat Nav?) - any suggestions as to what has gone wrong?
Thanks
Paul
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My MV6 has a stubby aerial but no satnav so I suspect that is the aerial, not the heating element.
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I would guess that the stubby aerial is for the pre-wired mobile phone. My Vectra saloon has no aerial visible and there is a module within the car that uses the heated screen. I'll check the wiring diagram for the module over the weekend - there shouldn't be much difference between Vectra and Omega
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The stubby aerial is for the Phone, the radio aerial is in the rear window.
How do I know? - because some b**&^%^& ripped the stubby aerial off a few weeks ago while the car was parked in a carpark (denting the roof in the process) and it hasn't effected the radio reception at all.
Chad.R
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Forgot to mention..
In my Omega having the heated rear screen on doesn't have any effect on radio reception....
Chad.R
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Thanks Guys
Just went out to do some fiddling. Heated rear window off - radio was fine. Removed the stubby aerial - radio still fine. Sat Nav still worked but that might be because I'm parked in the open.
Heated Rear window on - radio reception dies...
Would there be some sort of suppresor/regulator/thingy between the element aerial and radio? Deryck - the wiring diagram info would be useful if you can find it.
Thanks
PST
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Bearing in mind that this information relates to my Vectra (but we shouldn't be too far off) ...
There is an amplifier module connected between the radio and the rear screen. There are the following connections:
Black 4mm from rear screen
Red / white 0.75mm from the radio
Two connections to the rear screen - I am not sure from the diagram whether these are the actual elemnts of the screen or some special section - I would guess that it is the former
Coax cable to radio
Ground connection to chassis - may be a metal case or a brown wire but nothing is shown on the diagram
The 4mm black wire connects to the rear scren battery supply side. This is supplied from the screen relay driven by the multi-timer module and this section appears to have a supply only when the alternator is running.
I'm not sure why you are getting hiss but it could be a poor earth on the amplifier - when the screen is off the 4mm black wire is effectively connected to chassis through the screen. If you can locate the amplifier then try an additional earth (on the brown wire/case?)
Just an experiment, you could remove the screen relay and supply the screen dirctly from the battery via a fuse(just in case) - connect at the fuse box on the 4mm black wire - not the red. These should be visible if you pull the fusebox forward.
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Hi Paul,
I had this problem with an Omega once. It was a T reg 2.5 Elite with the integrated phone/radio.
The problem was never solved by Vauxhall. I found a work around however ........ Minimise use of the rear screen by washing off any ice/snow/condensation with cool/cold water.
Bit of a pain but solved the problem.
Regards ........ Robert
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Finally got an answer to this when the car went in for a service this week. Apparently there is a signal booster under the rear parcel shelf and it is this that as gone kaputt. £129 to replace but fortunately (after much double-checking) it's under warranty. I'm getting it replaced in the next week or so hopefully problem solved.
Paul
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Thats really lucky as its a pig of a job to get to. You have to take the parcel shelf out which is a real pain.
The cost of the labour will take this to a £300 job!
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That's interesting because I was told that they'd removed the rear parcel shelf to diagnose the fault. When I got the car back I had a look and couldn't work out how they might have done this without removing bits of the rear seats and/or interior roof/side panels. And it might explain why they were suggesting put up with it until I found it was covered by the warranty.
I would have thought the sensible place to locate the booster would have been in that tray in the boot which I assume houses the GPS/Sat Nav gubbins.
Perhaps it's similar to the 'conveniently' located 3 way valve for the cooling system....
Paul
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Hi Paul,I share your view on the modern Vauxhall engineering,although the Omega is a brilliant car performance wise - look at the use by Police, Army, even the Queen drives one, the maintenance accessability is poor as on the 2 items you mention. I managed to change a mark 2 Cavalier clutch in 20 minutes 15 years ago,but I understand on a new Vectra we are talking hours now.I used to admire the ease of doing those jobs,is it to provide labour for the dealers who are having a dificult time at the moment or what.
On the aerial subject, I would prefer the old metal aerial as the heater element is not as good a receiver as the metal one.
John
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Apologies for dragging up an old thread but I\'m still trying to get this sorted. The Omega was due for a service so I asked them to look into the radio cutting out when the heatd rear window was on. The saga at the VX dealer unfolded as follows:
1. Dealer took radio out put it back and it worked with HRW on....2 minutes later it went poof and everything failed including sat nav, computer, cd etc
2. New radio ordered - took car in removed old radio went to put new one in - right box wrong radio
3. Another new radio ordered - took car in, right radio but no code supplied so couldn\'t get it to work
4. Another new radio ordered - took car in, informed this time that these radios are not supplied with a code but need to be programmed with diagnostic thingy and a combination of code supplied from car and chassis number put in....mechanic can\'t get it to work
5. Car booked in for whole day to \'get to the bottom of the problem\'. When returned - everything sems to work except....
The display keeps showing \"Radio Safe\" and beeping every 2 to 3 seconds. This is the Bose/Siemens unit - any suggestion as to how to get rid of this message/beeping?
4 visits, 8 hours of my time and by the way, it still cuts out when the rear window\'s on...
Paul
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this is a dicky earth problem. Anything that comes and goes like this, and blows things up is nearly always a dicky earth,.
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Why they would think it's the radio beats me!
Maybe the heated screen shares it's earth with the aerial amp, and thus the high load of the scree (2-300watts) compared with the 7watts or so for the amplifier means that the earth can supply the booster, but the contact resistance causes a big voltage drop when the screen is on?
Do you find the screen performance is poor?
Do you have a multimeter you can test the voltages of the screen contacts at each end with when its on?
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I suspected the radio was a red-herring but by taking it out they ended up breaking it so we have been going down this route over the last 8 weeks now.
Interestingly the heated screen performance is poor and no, I don't have a multimeter...I'll see if I can get down to the dealer once more today...
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OK - another visit today and at leas I've got a working radio/sat nav etc.
A word of caution to anyone with a similar radio - it appears that before they are removed for any period of time they need to be de-activated (which seems to be a VX job). If they are not then it is virtually impossible to recode a new radio unit to the car.
I'm not totally convinced by the answers given to me but replacing the radio has involved a VX diagnostic unit plugged into the car, chassis numbers, security codes, a new display unit, double checking I've got the correct tyre sizes??? and hour long calls from the mechanic to Luton...and the dealer had allowed 10 mins for the job.
Last but not least it still cuts out when the rear window is on...life's too short - I'll wipe it.
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The reason you are getting a hiss on radio with hrw switched on,is that one or more of the heating elements has a hairline fracture which causes minute arcing across elements.This can be proven by running youre finger across the element lines (while hrw &radio are on)as you reach a fracture you should hear a change in noise/interference as the finger remakes a circuit.These omegas are notorious for poor radio reception due to hrw faults (changing the aerial/hrw amp makes no difference).The best cure is an external aerial.
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