uberwgn

Guys, I'm thinking about window tint on my '11 A4 car but am a bit concerned about the interaction of window tint and (diminished) radio reception.

I had somewhat of a bad experience on my previous car where FM and AM became almost unusable after the tint was done. I do periodically need AM working for traffic reports, etc.

Do we know which antennas are in the shark fin on the roof? Are the radio anteannas embedded in the glass on this car?

Thx.

Strife1013

When I was looking into window tinting I was told it depends on the type of window tint (i.e. does it have metal in it) I went with a cermatic material and haven;t had issues. Plus the antenna is on the roof from what I was told.

markinarch

I assumed that all the antennas were in the shark fin but now you have me wondering. I had the dealer tint my windows on delivery and AM/FM radio quality has never been an issue for me. Just do it, makes your car way cooler in the summer- which is a major concern for me since I am in Texas, and gives your car a nice look.

Sorry for not helping much on the technical end....

snagitseven

Audi states that phone cel signals when connected via bluetooth transmit and receive via the roof shark fin. Also true for nav. A phone being used in the car not connected via bluetooth (a passenger, for example) would obviously be using the phone's antenna.
In any case, most quality tints today claim no signal loss issues - no longer true only of ceramic films. Check with your installer.

ezveedub

A phone using Bluetooth in the car will be using its own antenna. Only if the phone is placed in the older cradle bases, would it use the phone antenna in the car and when doing that, will not be connected via Bluetooth. B8 A4s never came with the cradle base connection, so its always Bluetooth in these cars for the phone connection. The antenna for phones on older Audis were in the roof antenna, but sharkfin antennas are only SAT and NAV. AFAIK, all the radio antennas are on the rear glass and look like part of the defroster grid.

ezveedub

The rear glass has the antennas. Try not to use any metallized tint films over the rear glass, as they can sometimes interfere with the antenna grids. Roof antenna is only NAV and SAT radio.

snagitseven

https://www.audi-mediaservices.com/p...tlichkeit.html

Excerpt from the above link: "The Bluetooth online car phone is operated via MMI navigation plus, the multifunction steering wheel or voice control. Telephone calls and data transfer are handled by a roof antenna to optimize connectivity."

JD15

The Audi Connect system you're citing is completely different from the one in our cars. If you read the next sentence in the link, it states that "all the driver needs to do to go online is insert a data-capable SIM card in the card reader," which is not an option in our cars. When a phone is paired to the car with Bluetooth, the phone's antenna is still used to transmit and receive data from the cell tower; the Bluetooth connection only serves to transfer voice data to the car's audio system.

Moviela

Cellular systems are very different in other parts of the world. In Europe and Asia government will not allow systems that do not work like in the USA. Germany uses a form of GSM called Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS.) There is a UMTS module in the MMI of German market cars. Via Bluetooth, it siezes control of the RF portion of the handset and turns it off. It then uses an RF module resident in the UMTS and the roof top antenna. That is why you can drive from Berlin to Hamburg and not lose a call or data connection.

US cars do not have a UMTS module. With all the different transmission technologies used in the US it would be difficult to make a module that would work with them all. It is hard enough to get the data portion (phonebook and call records) to work with the variety of handsets available.

I am of the opinion that the defroster grid has the AM/FM antenna. There is usually an amplifier near the edge of the rear glass. Tint installers that spray water will short the amplifier, so naturally the reception will stink after that.

snagitseven

Thanks for the info - I stand corrected. Truth be told, I always thought the phone used it's own antenna until I read the document I cited.