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I'm told its a common VAG problem. The amp is in the base of the (beesting) aerial. Keep meaning to get it done myself but I like the sound of the engine! Sad I know..........
I had to replace the amplifier base on mine last year which cost about £60 from Audi. Unfortunately I learnt a few weeks later that some Vauxhall bases will work & have exactly the same fixing at a fraction of that cost. I can get a part number if you want ? If you need to replace the bee-sting mast you can get them from Maplin for about £3.
just make sure the amplifier is still getting power.... If someone changed the head unit it is quite possible they forgot to rewire the aeriel amplifier back in.
I think it is a plain white wire on the radio loom ...... I spend 6 months in my old coupe with cr*p reception because I did just that!
Raymond,
The Vauxhall part number is 90389799 which costs £18.66 + VAT. The roof mounting is the same. You will just need to put a different terminal on to match the Audi one. Should save you about £40.
I've got similar poor radio eception on my system, which is annoying because it was fine with my head unit when it was in its previous car, and the system that was in there also had fine reception - think something went hookie during the swap over.
Ex S2 owner, now running around in an A4 Avant quattro...
I also used to have very bad reception on my radio.
I have a Kenwood face off, and when my mate had a look at it he sussed that it was the wiring at the back which was a little suspect. So a bit of tampering there and everything seemed to be OK. Untill recentely, when the reception has wavered again
Dan B, maybe try checking all your wires again. Also, if you have a face off, sometimes the connection between the face and the head unit goes off key a little, so checking that may be worth while too.
I think it may well be a dodgy install - I didn't have the time to do it myself so paid someone else to do it. First time I got in the car after that I instantly recognised the old "out of phase" sound coming from the fronts - the prat had wired it up wrong!
I've got a Pioneer face off jobbie which I considered to have had a good tuner. I'll get it out and have a look, see if anything else is screwed. The bee-sting is quite new on the car.
Ex S2 owner, now running around in an A4 Avant quattro...
There are a couple of things to note when getting poor reception with a VAG bee-sting aerial:
1) If you still have the original base unit for the aerial on the roof, make sure that there is power connected to the wire that runs with the aerial cable behind the head unit (this sometimes gets left off when the head unit is changed) it usually fairly easy to identify as it is bound together with the aerial co-ax cable.
2) If the aerial base unit on the roof has been changed at sometime for a later one, the power feed to the amplifier is different in that it is sent up the aerial co-ax cable itself and not in a seperate wire ( with this you can't find anything to attach the seperate wire to at the base unit). This is often done as the later type base unit as fitted to all later Golfs, Polos etc is much cheaper. You then need a special adaptor to fit behind the head unit, see:
(Hope you S2 honchos don't mind a mere 20V'er posting here )
Had the same problem, and ended up buying the amplified roof aerial from GSF for about £13. Trouble was the seal at the bottom was ****e - let in loads of water- no matter how tight the fixing nut was. I ended up butchering the new aerial for it's (non-rusty) circuit, soldered it into the old (water-tight) Fuba base and re-wired it with the proper connectors. I sealed-up the base-unit with Terostat V11 and stuck the whole refurbished lot back on the roof. Hey presto: 'New' Fuba aerial for 13 sovs and a bit of soldering.
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My Radio aerial's kaput on my Avant... the implication from the local sound shop is that I need it renewed completely. 
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