Sirius/XM reception is pretty bad in my 2011 TE

[ladywolf]

the reception half sucked in mine in the SE US. That, and I can stream bluetooth from my blackberry, so I can use slacker radio. better radio stations, more in tune to what I listen to....or I still use CD's or my ipod connection.

 

[iDRiVaT4R]

Yeah, I listen to pandora radio from my iPhone via Bluetooth. Only place I don't get internet is out in the desert, but I'm busy offroading so no biggie and pandora is free. During the week I'll just listen to local FM, mostly for traffic.

 

[simplemind]

Thought I'd chime in here since my frustration with my 2010 TE XM reception is growing daily. :gun5:

I'm in Austin and have taken 3 trips from here to Colo and Utah in the past 6 mo. Every time I get a lot of drops in New Mexico, Colorado and Utah.

It has nothing to do with trees, buildings, etc, and everything with lousy XM algorithyms. Assuming the above post is correct about repeater usage, that might explain it because I have no problem in metro areas. Must be similar to cell towers.

Anyway if someone has a solution such as high gain antenas, etc, please aprise us. The reason I bought the subscription was just for long distance travel, and it's not working for that.

 

[desertred]

Hmmm...... where in Colorado? I've had absolutely no issues with XM reception since moving here. However, my experience has been confined to the front range and east so far.

 

[simplemind]

Hmmm...... where in Colorado? I've had absolutely no issues with XM reception since moving here. However, my experience has been confined to the front range and east so far.

Western slope, eastern Utah, and eastern 1/2 of New Mexico. Like I said, if you are in the metro areas and interstate hwy, then you're probably ok. Rural, secondary roads, etc., then you're DOA.

I made an error thinking "satellite" meant it would go everywhere as in GPS, which is just not true. :cry2:

 

[Will733]

Have you checked out Slacker radio? If you have an iphone or other phone with apps, check it out... you can cache a radio station, which means that it will play even without any cell phone reception. Much better than satelite radio in my opinion since you can skip songs you don't like and rate songs to fine tune each station. I went from Satelite radio, to Pandora, to Slacker and have been the most impressed with Slacker so far.

 

[simplemind]

Have you checked out Slacker radio? If you have an iphone or other phone with apps, check it out... you can cache a radio station, which means that it will play even without any cell phone reception. Much better than satelite radio in my opinion since you can skip songs you don't like and rate songs to fine tune each station. I went from Satelite radio, to Pandora, to Slacker and have been the most impressed with Slacker so far.

Haven't used Slacker, but have Pandora. The only problem with internet radio is the same as XM...you have to have celll coverage and unfortunately for me, when I go through the aforementioned areas many times I don't have cell coverage either.

What I have found really useful is using the bluetooth connection to the iPhone/iPod music/book files. Works seamlessly and sound quality is really quite acceptable.

 

[Will733]

The only problem with internet radio is the same as XM...you have to have celll coverage and unfortunately for me, when I go through the aforementioned areas many times I don't have cell coverage either.

You don't need cell coverage with Slacker. Just choose the option to cache a bunch of the stations you like, and you are good to go.

 

[rlumpy]

Reception is really good here in Southern Arizona. I have no complaints about that. However, howcome the display only shows 16 characters per line on XM display? That's really annoying, especially on my favorite channel, Met Opera. Everything is always truncated.

 

[oceanman93]

I've had horrible reception problems. When I am traveling north and east, its okay, south and west are terrible. I currently have a cargo rack on it, and I think that makes things worse, but it was bad before I put the rack on. Compared to other XM oem radios, this is garbage. I've had oem radios in two chevy and one gmc truck and all were perfect.

I've read about a mod where the sharkfin is shaved and epoxied. I may try that this fall. I listen to mainly sat radio, so I don't want to be without for long.

I noticed the same exact thing, driving south & west are worse for reception. I live in the norteast. Road trips back from VT or down I-95 to NC are issues for XM reception.

I have a 2010 TE & have had these reception issues since day 1. The dealer looked at it but it worked fine there so they couldn't do anything. I was thinking to look if I could hook up a different antenna to by-pass the internally wired fin. I'm not sure if it uses the same micro coax that is used on Sirius radios.

I still have my Sirius STARMATE radio & have used that radio with a house type antenna sitting on the dash and that never cuts out. I bring it on long road trips because the XM reception cut out gets so bad that you can't even listen to satellite radio. If I can isolate it to the fin antenna or wiring I'll update my post. Could it be a receiver sensitivity issue as well? Not sure if I will renew my subscription for the XM unit.

 

[shawn719]

Reception fixed! Dealership swapped antenna.

I have a 2010 SR5 and was experienceing the same problem (reception) with my XM service. I would have bet my life that it was a satellite/XM serivce issue because I would lose service in the same areas time after time - even under the slightest overcover I would drop service. I read the threads on this subject and was convivned that the satellite placement was the number 1 issue. Something I never experienced when I had Sirius in my Gen 3 4Runner.
Well, that all changed. I took the 4runner in for service and asked them to look at the antenna. I figured it was worth the look as the 4Runner was still under warranty. Sure enough there was an issue. The service department couldnt narrow it down right away but ordered a new antenna for starters - when it arrived and was put in place all my receptions problems were gone.
I can hardly beleive the difference -
Just figured I would post in hopes that others may have similiar issues that can be fixed by the dealership or by swapping out the antenna.
Hope this helps!
Shawn

 

[Fialdj]

I will say Sirius has better reception. I have a Sirius in my Xterra and now XM in the 4Runner. but after a 2.5 hour discussion to try and move my Sirius account to my XM radio, I'm ready to cancel both.

 

[BigredTEX]

I have a 2010 SR5 and was experienceing the same problem (reception) with my XM service. I would have bet my life that it was a satellite/XM serivce issue because I would lose service in the same areas time after time - even under the slightest overcover I would drop service. I read the threads on this subject and was convivned that the satellite placement was the number 1 issue. Something I never experienced when I had Sirius in my Gen 3 4Runner.
Well, that all changed. I took the 4runner in for service and asked them to look at the antenna. I figured it was worth the look as the 4Runner was still under warranty. Sure enough there was an issue. The service department couldnt narrow it down right away but ordered a new antenna for starters - when it arrived and was put in place all my receptions problems were gone.
I can hardly beleive the difference -
Just figured I would post in hopes that others may have similiar issues that can be fixed by the dealership or by swapping out the antenna.
Hope this helps!
Shawn

I just got back last week from my first extended road trip in the T4R to Ouray and the farther I went north and west from Dallas the worse the reception was on the XM radio. It got progressively worse as I got into the mountains, to the point that I had to just turn it off. I figured it was due to the mountains. On the return trip it didn't get any better. Now that I'm back in the flat lands it is still losing reception. After reading through this thread it looks like there may be a real hardware problem.

I was planning on calling XM to see if they were having satellite issues before I took it to the dealer, but no need to now. This forum is fantastic when it comes to tracking down answers!

 

[simplemind]

XM reception

Interesting....I was just searching for the $25/6mo XM deal email when I got your above update!

I go to Telluride frequently, sometimes through Pecos/Clines Corners and sometimes through Lubbock. Always have had issues with XM reception in NM and CO with this 4R (2010). I thought at first it was the satellites, but now I'm convinced it's the 4R receiver.

I recently rented a Ford Edge in Denver and drove to Telluride and back via Grand Junction. XM reception was perfect the entire trip (except through the tunnels ) .

Now that my warranty has expired, I guess I'm stuck. Wait... there's always a class action option! :gun5:

 

[ZJumper]

You might need a refresh signal sent to your radio

https://care.siriusxm.com/retailrefresh_view.action

I do this to my XM receivers every few months and it helps with cutting out in open terrain.