Radio Becomes an Expensive Scanner
Question: My question has to do with my 1985 Nissan ZX300, the model with the deluxe radio. I have had to take it back to the dealer four different times for replacement of the radio/cassette deck. The radio will suddenly go berserk and start scanning stations for no apparent reason, playing about five seconds on each station. Music is part of my work, and it is essential that I have a player in my car. Nissan claims they can’t find the problem. What do I do?--R.B.W.
Answer: You have what is certainly among the most sophisticated and probably most expensive automobile sound system that money can buy. In all candor, it’s probably just too sophisticated to be driven around.
The radio system consists of the dash unit, a separate amplifier and two separate antennae. The digital-tuning system relies on electronic circuits to determine which antenna--the mast antenna or the antenna embedded in the rear window--is getting the best reception and automatically switches to that antenna. Nissan calls it a “diversity” system.
As you have now discovered, when the radio’s digital-tuning system loses the signal that it is tuned to receive, the radio jumps to a different frequency. Apparently, your radio is thrown into a scanning mode whenever it loses its signal.
You aren’t the only Nissan owner to complain of this problem. Nissan dealers have heard a number of complaints about the ZX300 radio. The problem is that dealer mechanics aren’t really trained to diagnose malfunctions in the sound system, even though it’s obviously an important thing in the cars they sell. Nissan does not build its own radios. It buys them from a vendor in Japan.
I suspect that the radio unit itself might not be the problem, especially because it has persisted after several radios have been replaced.
You might try to buy a new mast antenna, one with a different length than the original one. A different length would give the radio a stronger signal in some areas of the radio band. It might trick the diversity system into holding onto the stations you want.
I’m sure Nissan will honor its warranty on the system if it does not work, but the question is whether they have expertise to fix it. You may want to take the car to a top-notch sound shop and pay the price to have it diagnosed by an audio technician. See if Nissan will pay the cost.
Q: I have a 1983 Buick Regal with a 4.1 liter engine. I would like to know how often the PCV valve needs to be serviced. The dealer has serviced it seven times in three years at a cost of $7.80 each time. I feel that’s excessive.--F.A.
A: I didn’t know that a dealer would do any service for only $7.80 anymore. You probably shouldn’t complain about it.
GM’s recommended interval on PCV valve replacement is only 3,700 miles on many of its front-wheel-drive cars. So, replacing the valve every six months might be just the right amount of service for your car.
In some cases, a dealer may do more maintenance than the manufacturer suggests but it’s not always a rip-off. Sometimes a car needs more maintenance because of the way it is driven.
In addition, a lot of the recommendations on maintenance intervals that car manufacturers are making nowadays is intended to sell cars rather than keep them running for a long time. Recommended oil-change intervals have become unrealistically long, for example.
A lot of motorists who keep their cars running for years change their oil every 3,500 miles, despite suggestions from auto makers that they go much longer.
