Hi all

I've had my 13 plate Punto Lounge for a few days now and just getting to grips with it. Stupidly I left the dealership without the manual so they are posting it to me.

Anyway, I've got a DAB aerial fitted to my windscreen and there seems to be DAB functionality with the standard Punto head unit (same as my parents 2010 Evo with no DAB). However I can only get a handful of stations and some stations have only appeared once. I've got a DAB radio at home and that picks up loads of stations and often asks to be retuned like a digital TV does.

The only way it seems to allow selection of stations is by using the up and down buttons on the right side of the steering wheel which is a little odd. Selection is also slow, it takes about 3-5 seconds to change.

Anyway, my main query is how do I retune the DAB to pick up local stations as well as national? It seems to automatically default to Birmingham and Wolverhampton. Where the car is from. I've tried a system reset but no luck. Gone through every button and feature on both the head unit and dash display but nothing. Any ideas?

It seems that the car is DAB ready but the head unit isn't up for the job.

Hopefully it's just me not understanding it fully.

Thanks

P.S. the DAB aerial is standard fitted by Fiat and the car is an ex demo.

Advice for potential buyers. The Fiat plug in DAB system is rubbish! They don't have any documented guidance on it for dealers and then insist it must be aftermarket despite it coming from the factory with DAB fitted.

Stick with FM.

Do you know which system was fitted ? Any reference ?
Looks different as standard radio or it's a box that plug to standard system ?

Mkala said:

Do you know which system was fitted ? Any reference ?
Looks different as standard radio or it's a box that plug to standard system ?

Click to expand...

It's the standard head unit and there is an antenna stuck to the inside of the windscreen.

The Blue & Me lady says DAB on when it connects however the only way to change station is using the up and down buttons on the steering wheel. However when you try and scroll through last calls or the phone book the system changes the radio station.

I cannot retune the radio to pick up local stations it seems, I've tried a reset without luck. There are no settings on the head unit for this and nothing in the handbook.

Out of the 25 or more stations my little home DAB radio picks up (which requires a retune every now and again) the car DAB can only get about 10 stations and often tries to tune to Birmingham and Wolverhampton radio stations which it fails to then pick up as I'm in Southampton.

It has got to be Fiat fitted as the car was an ex demo and the dealer I bought it from in Wolverhampton are adamant that they wouldn't pay to fit an aftermarket system and have no record of every doing so.

There is nothing else visible in the cabin associated to the DAB.

My local dealer are saying it's aftermarket so they can't help.

One thing it does show though is that the Punto head unit must be DAB ready, it just seems Fiat have bodged the software.

Just wondering now if it's one of these:

http://www.autodab.com

As it says autoDAB on I think.

Seems to be a poor integration with bad reading of commands on the wheel.

Fiat can't do anything for this, unfortunately :/

But for reception you should check antenna connection, as you say even a cheap DAB radio work good.

Mkala said:

Seems to be a poor integration with bad reading of commands on the wheel.

Fiat can't do anything for this, unfortunately :/

But for reception you should check antenna connection, as you say even a cheap DAB radio work good.

Click to expand...

As suspected it's an AutoDAB plug in. I managed to retune today, it says 47 stations available however it then only plays 6 or 7. Terrible piece of equipment. Unfortunately is scrambles the FM quite badly so I struggle to even get FM station when the DAB is off. The standard aerial is there and plugged in. I'll have to complain to AutoDAB.

If it so poor the best you can do is to remove it...

The AutoDab intercept original antenna, and if it is not done correctly, it can result with a big loss of quality :
http://www.dynamicsounds.co.uk/auto...-punto-oem-digital-car-radio-dab-adaptor.html

High frequencies are hard to manage, putting electronics in an antenna path require a really carefully design.