Can Sirius Antennas go bad?

[SSpiro]

I just installed my Eclipse AVN5500 in my B6 Passat. With the deck I have the Eclipse sirius tuner. I used both in my F150 for two years. The antenna has been on my B6 for about 2 years now as I used it with a Starmate on the dash.

When I installed the sirius module and deck, and fired it all up, it worked fine. Then I changed a channel, and it gave the message "ACQUIRING SIGNAL', which can be normal. I drove around the block, went to the post office, walgreens, etc, and it still sat on this error.


I pulled everything out, and checked connections and everything was fine. I reseated everything just in case, but no luck.


Could it be the antenna, or the module?

[surealconcepts]

yeah it could be both when i worked at a car audio shop the antennas went bad more often than the modules it could have a little pinch in the wire and there goes the antennna.where is the antenna mounted? my guess is the antenna but theres a possibility it could be the module.. you have had it for a while

[SSpiro]

Antenna is installed on the rear on the roof, centered. It does seem to have a bit of a heat warp to it...

Not looking forward to taking my deck back out :(

[surealconcepts]

lol yeah it sounds like either on.. and you reset the module so im pretty sure its the antenna

[TBSpyder]

Yeah, antennas go bad all the time. A sharp kink or minor nick in the antenna's wire can ruin it as well.

[SSpiro]

Ten four... will rerun a new antenna, dammit.

[surealconcepts]

lol before you run it plug it into the unit and test it... i wouldnt want you to do all that work and that not be the problem lol

[SSpiro]

True.. Should have done that earlier..

[MCOR]

We are the authorized installers for Sirius and XM in the Pasco county area basically and we do 5-10 satellite jobs from them per week. Unfortunately, on these older 12volt supplied systems, the antennae and unit seem to crap out at the same time. I still don't know for sure if one shorts out and kills the other one or what but we have tried to swap out piece by piece in the past with some old stuff laying around and it seems as though the dock, head unit, and antennae always end up having to be replaced together. And with the prices now, it is usually just more cost effective to do so (replace complete unit).

What you have experienced by the way is not uncommon. Have been through many swap-outs where we were moving one of these older style systems to customers next car and it crapped out usually within a week or two. What sucks is that the old 12 volt style systems had a stronger FM wireless transmitter built in so the FM modulator wasn't really as necessary. Now, in urban areas (all of Florida basically), you HAVE to have the FM modulator to get the clarity that Sirius/XM promise. Good luck with it....

[SSpiro]

Thank you for the input.

Last night I changed out the antenna and all is good.

Eclipse tried telling me that the whole headunit was bad. They are unbelievable sometimes.

[Miles]

those antennas were always the first thing i checked when troubleshooting sat radio problems. 99% of the time, that was the problem.

[SSpiro]

Cheapest part, thank god.. most pain the ass to replace.