2nd Gen Tacoma Poor Radio Quality Fix

Hello, I have been browsing this site for years to find fixes for my truck, and just thought I would contribute a fix for a problem I could not find a lot of answers for.

Ever since I got my truck used 3 years ago, I have had horrible reception quality for my am/fm stock radio. I just figured from browsing videos and other forums that it was caused by the infamously corroded antenna base that takes a whole day worth of work to remove and replace. However, upon further investigation, I found that touching the bare wire coming from the antenna to the bare wire going to the back of the radio resulted in perfect radio quality. It is only when the the male and female wire connectors are re-crimped and reassembled that radio quality goes down the drain.

These antenna wires are constructed with a center silver looking wire, a layer of what looks like white plastic, a layer of copper sheathing, and finally the outer black layer. I also found that touching the center wire coming from the back of the radio to the outer copper sheathing of the antenna line also resulted perfect radio quality. I think this is where the problem lies. Both the copper sheathing and the center line are carrying the same radio signal, and my guess is that they are interfering with each other somehow at the connector. The fact that touching the middle wire of the male connector to the bare wire of the female connector works, but crimping the terminals back on causes this same connection to stop working led me to believe this but I really have no clue what’s going on. It is possible that corrosion at the antenna base could be causing a connection between the copper sheathing and center wire to form, but that is also a guess.

The fix that I found starts with locating the antenna wire plug located on the passenger side A pillar that can be accessed by removing the overhanging handle and prying off the plastic molding along the pillar. Then I take apart the connectors, cover the exposed copper sheathing with electric tape, and the reassemble. To take apart the plug, start by prying out the little white square piece on the side.
I found that an xacto knife makes taking these apart a whole lot easier. Next you have to pry out out on the middle tab holding the middle part of the connector in place.
While prying outwards the middle part should just slide out of the grey plastic outer shell. All you will be left with are the metal crimped connectors that are crimped directly to the copper sheathing. They can be loosened and gently pried off with pliers. Once you are down to bare metal wire, you can wrap the exposed copper with just one or two layers of electrical tape, crimp the connectors back on. It should look kind of like this.

The process is pretty much the same for both the female and male connectors. Test the connection, and then just reassemble the plug. You should now have good radio! Sorry this is kind of a long description of a fairly simple job, but I hope it helps and keeps you from having to replace the antenna base!