AM radio does not work, any ideas why not?

I bought a used 2016 Spark.
For some reason, the AM radio does not get reception and the power socket/cigarette lighter in the front does not work.
Everything else works fine.
Anybody have any guesses why the AM does not work?

The seller did say there was some rats chewing the wires and he had a harness replaced at the dealer for $1700....
I looked around and do not see any wires chewed under the hood at all, so seems ok there.
But as I said, the rest of the radio functions work fine, FM is fine.
There is jut barely a fuzz sound when tuned into am none of the whining motor sounds or anything.

CSW said:

I bought a used 2016 Spark.
For some reason, the AM radio does not get reception and the power socket/cigarette lighter in the front does not work.
Everything else works fine.
Anybody have any guesses why the AM does not work?

The seller did say there was some rats chewing the wires and he had a harness replaced at the dealer for $1700....
I looked around and do not see any wires chewed under the hood at all, so seems ok there.
But as I said, the rest of the radio functions work fine, FM is fine.
There is jut barely a fuzz sound when tuned into am none of the whining motor sounds or anything.

Click to expand...

A neighbor of mine bought a used 2016 Spark and ran into some issues. The AM radio wasn’t getting any reception, and the power socket in the front wasn’t working either. They found out from the seller that some rats had chewed through the wires, even though they couldn’t find any visible damage under the hood, they were left puzzled about why the AM radio was barely producing a sound, while the FM worked just fine.

Tony1 said:

A neighbor of mine bought a used 2016 Spark and ran into some issues. The AM radio wasn’t getting any reception, and the power socket in the front wasn’t working either. They found out from the seller that some rats had chewed through the wires, even though they couldn’t find any visible damage under the hood, they were left puzzled about why the AM radio was barely producing a sound, while the FM worked just fine.

Click to expand...

yep, sounds exactly like my situation...... so strange.
I have looked up under the dash, under the car, under the hood and see no damaged wires.....
guess I will just hafta live with it?

car is going to daughter anyways soon, and she definitely does not even listen to the radio, she called me out for listening to ground radio, let alone not streaming from my phone...... sigh

CSW said:

I bought a used 2016 Spark.
For some reason, the AM radio does not get reception and the power socket/cigarette lighter in the front does not work.
Everything else works fine.
Anybody have any guesses why the AM does not work?

The seller did say there was some rats chewing the wires and he had a harness replaced at the dealer for $1700....
I looked around and do not see any wires chewed under the hood at all, so seems ok there.
But as I said, the rest of the radio functions work fine, FM is fine.
There is jut barely a fuzz sound when tuned into am none of the whining motor sounds or anything.

Click to expand...

If the harness repair cost $1,700, it might be worth circling back to the dealership to confirm they checked the radio and antenna during the repair. That's a little expensive, so they should make sure to check everything. Sometimes those fixes are more focused on getting the car functional rather than addressing every little issue. They might’ve missed something minor like a loose or disconnected wire leading to the radio’s AM section.

How about a HD-Radio receiver instead of buying replacement radio parts or going to the dealership. It includes a HD Radio tuner that does both analog and digital FM and AM.

The JVC-KTHDPK1 which I believe includes the HDP1 tuner and the KV-K1017 install kit can be picked up new and unopened for under $50 on E-Bay or Maybe even FB Marketplace or Craigslist. I think I ended up paying like $40 a few years back. HD-Radio rebroadcasts many AM stations over the HD2 or HD3 sub-channels too. Sound is way better than FM and certainly AM by far!

On my 2000 Camry I did need to pull my stock radio and use the included antenna passthru. I then tuned it to the FM Radio frequency that the JVC unit transmits far enough for you to tune it in on FM. but I see no reason the Aux input on the Spark EV wouldn't work.



I must admit pulling the Spark head unit seems a bit tougher than other cars but then again, the Spark EV is not headed to the Concours d'Elegance in Greenwich for a showing and private auction this summer. So who cares if you accidentally scratch some plastic .

For the life of me, I can't find a good youtube video. I guess the advertisers told Google that people should not be able to find any videos anymore that dissuade people from not buying from their advertisers, but basically it's like free satellite radio though far fewer channels. It's not a great rural solution but it works fine here in Worcester, Boston, Providence, Hartford and other metro areas.