Help with screwed up AM reception - So Cal

April 8, 2008

I got my windows tinted on my 2008 Civic EX a couple of weeks ago. Shortly afterwards, I noticed that AM reception sucked balls. From reading this site I found that it is due to metalized tint and grounding the antenna to the body. Unfortunately the shop never told me about this, and I guess they weren't aware or didn't care that it would affect the Civic with the antenna in the rear window. Now, this was not a cheap job ($190), and this shop (Solar Craft in Burbank, CA) has been around a long time. Years back I got a tint job done there that was great, which was why I went back this time.

However, I am not sure what to do at this point. I called the shop and asked about the reception issue. They said yeah, it might be the tint, but a lot of people just live with it. They said it should only affect a station or two, but most AM stations are affected in my case. Sorry, that's not an answer I want to hear, when I commute and need AM for traffic and stuff. Especially when they never mentioned this issue in the first place. Anyway, they want $50 to pull the tint off and replace with color stable non-metal tint. BTW - this shop apparently uses Suntek tinting, I'm pretty sure they used the High Performance stuff on my windows.

So do I rip it out and replace it? I found this TintDude tip of the week from a google search. I don't trust that the shop would have any knowledge of this given my latest experiences. It doesn't seem to hard. Would anyone recommend DIY or would you recommend going to a shop to try this out? Does it really work?

Or should I just pull the metal tint out and replace with non-metal? I'm worried that will screw up my defroster. Is the Suntek tint hard for a knowledgable shop to pull off without messing up the defroster? Can anyone recommend a good shop in or around Burbank, CA that could help solve this? Thanks for any help with this.