Stock Antenna

[X-RunnerMike]

It sucks ass! Prior to owning my x... I had a 98 ranger and most stations were crystal clear, not the case with the x. Is it just the factory radio or is it the antenna?

 

[Zibilich]

Do you have the stock antenna or a short one?

 

[sinister07]

Is it even plugged into the radio? When I got mine the guy swapped the factory radio back in, neglected to put the radio brackets back on the factory radio, as well as plug the antenna in. I couldnt get a station to save my life, popped it out to discover all the above. Plugged it in and it worked great.

 

[Gators Taco]

Get XM or Sirius and you'll never be out of station.

 

[X-RunnerMike]

It's the stock antenna, and I never thought to look if it was plugged in. I wouldn't think that it isn't plugged in because I would likely get zero stations if that was the case. Maybe I'll take a look later today!

 

[dreamers]

Aftermarket solid antennae have a nasty habit of breaking the threads off the antenna base when pressure is applied to them (for instance, you strike the antenna while clearing snow off the car or washing it). The flexible base of the stock antenna minimizes this risk, and this is truly a hack: One of the cheapest things you can do as far as exterior styling is concerned.

 

[JFrame]

One thing you could try is to pull on the antenna and see if it pulls out. I was trying to get my cravenspeed one off and I'm not sure if the owner before me put some superglue or loctite on it or what but I couldn't get it unscrewed. In my frustration I went to some pliers and forced it to unscrew, only it didn't really unscrew and just sheered the antenna shaft down inside of the fender. Now my antenna is just kind of sitting in the hole and just for looks now.

Worth seeing if previous owner of yours may have been as dumb as me since it would just take a sec to rule that out.

 

[FN5.7]

this happened to a screw in a guitar i was working on. i took a dremmel and cut a line in the top of the remaining screw, then i heated up the screw (very very gently due to the wood it was in) and cooled it, then unscrewed. tok 45 min but it came out. you can try that with the antenna.

my truck has either a corvette or s2000 antenna i believe. the guy at the dealer was going over the mods to the truck and he said the guy that traded it in said it had one of those two. its about 4" tall and looks killer. get great reception when i use the radio but to be honest i hardly ever listen to it. i have a usb full of music plugged into my deck.

 

[JFrame]

Probably an s2000 one. That's what I was taking mine off for because it's slightly larger than the cravenspeed ones but still has great reception.

 

[IronMan]

Had this problem on my 09. Dealer replace it, but turned out to be the factory radio. Replaced the antenna and factory radio with Aftermarket and is better now.

 

[JFrame]

Had this problem on my 09. Dealer replace it, but turned out to be the factory radio. Replaced the antenna and factory radio with Aftermarket and is better now.

By any chance did you have problems with the stock radio and anything plugged into the line-in port?

Mine is really quite compared to playing music via CDs.

 

[IronMan]

I did. But to be honest it was so long ago, I don't remember what fixed it. I went through two stock radios, a new antenna and a new stock amp. I haven't run a factory radio since I got them to fix it.