My car is out of its 2nd year warranty next week. The radio has been starting to pack up, I noticed the reception was quite bad from late last year, sometimes it would crackle for a few seconds but it was only twice a week so I lived with it.

Now its doing it all the time, I get more crackle than stereo. Also some CDs don;t seem to be buffering very well and keeps going silent for a second or so.

Now the CD fault may just be scratched CDs but the radio is a problem. Is this a faulty head unit or is it to with the Athena cable? Some of you may remember some git crashed into my car while I was parked and dented the front drivers side wing, I had it beaten out and paid £300 to get it fixed but could there be an Athena cable behind there which was damaged?

PS Mine is the single DIN crap which comes with the Active.

Have you tried turning it off then back on again! lol
Seriously, though it could be the aerial. Try unscrewing it, cleaning the threads and maybe apply some copper grease when you reassemble.

When we had similar radio issues it turned out to be the internal aerial connection on the roof - roof lining pull down job...

Best to take it to the dealer before the warranty runs out then?

Good point! Ours was done under warranty so, yes, get yourself down there.

My reception was terrible, actually practically non-existent when I bought my panda around 8 months ago. After lots of poking around and scratching my head, I found somewhere on the net about water entering the base of the aerial. I checked mine by removing and taking apart. It didn’t look very new.

Bought one of these and fitted it. It’s been perfect since.

My money would be on it causing the problem.

It’s pretty easy to replace diy. Get the head lining down a bit at the back and the rest is obvious
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HTH
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-Fiat-aerial-base-Grande-Punto-Evo-500-Panda-Bravo-Stilo-Croma-NEW-/370559569792?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&fits=Model%3APanda&hash=item5647124f80

Think I fixed it, I removed it [the anthena] and tightened it, its been fine ever since so I suspect it was just loose.

Will know for certain if its fixed within the next week