It's time for another episode of "Diagnose THIS", written by my wife, starring her 94 2.2/3t40 Sedan.

So the wife says to me last night, as she got home from work..."Mike, the radio's messed up in my car". I get up this morning and go look at it....start the car..."the radio's fine, honey, what was it doing?"

"It wouldn't pick up any radio stations"

"Well, wifey, we ARE in the ass-end of civilization here"

*wife rolls eyes*

"NO smartass, it was all staticky"

"When did it start?"

"Well, I was warming the car up, just sitting there, listening to the radio, and I turned on the rear defroster, then the radio went away"

"Did you turn it off?"

"What? The radio?"

"No, the rear defroster"

"No"

"So you drove home with the radio sounding like someone pouring sand on a microphone?"

"OK..I'll go check it out,"

Sure enough, she's right, the radio statics out on every radio station when you hit the rear defroster.

Since the radio stations around here suck anyway, I'll tell her just to carry more CD's with her.

You should probably check all of your ground connections. The rear defogger draws quite a bit of power, and if the ground connection going to the body is poor, it may affect the operation of many other electrical devices in the car. I would think that you would notice other symptoms though (dimming lights, etc) if this was the case, but it's worth a look.
I've heard of this happening in other cars which have an antenna integrated into the rear window (like the Suzuki Aerio), but not usually with a separate antenna. Make sure that the body isn't starting to rust inside where the antenna attaches to the fender. If the antenna isn't making a good ground connection there, all kinds of strange things can happen (radio-wise, anyway).



http://registry.gmenthusiast.com/images/2002sunfiresl/Modified%20sunfire2.jpg

If any of the defroster horizontal elements should break or become damaged, the break in the connection could cause an arc to occur between the broken parts of the element. This sort of low voltage, high current arcing will generate large amounts RF energy which will be picked up by the radio. Suggest you might closely inspect the defroster elements for any possible signs of damage. If one of the elements is damaged and arcing, you can eliminate the problem simply by cutting a quarter inch or so out of the bad element. This same scenario of RF generation due to arcing could also be the result of a poor electrical connection just about anywhere in the defroster circuitry.

Thanks for the help...I just wanted to see if anyone else could understand my wife's babbling about what was wrong.

lees thats some thing i never thought about... removing tint i f*cked mine up and ever since ive heard noise.....cool