Sirius reception

[Padre Dave]

My GT has the factory Sirius radio module, installed aftermarket by a reputable shop. I own a couple of XM radios, one installed in my wife's Highlander and the other was in my Magnum before it was totaled (now in my office at church). Both of these units had excellent reception in their respective vehicles, and no interruption of signal under bridges on the highway

The unit in my CX9 has the worst reception I have ever experienced. Whenever I go under a freeway bridge, I lose the signal a couple of seconds after going under the bridge and it returns a couple of seconds later.

The other issue is that this Sirius puts my unit in "Updating Channels" sometimes 2-3 times a day and each lasts about 5 minutes of no reception.

Does anyone else have these issues? Any solutions?

[The-9]

The XM radios you had most likely had a larger memory cache so when you go under an overpass (yes the signal does go away) and the signal goes away, you have a 3 second (or more) memory so you never hear the loss.

My Alpine in my old Jeep had a much better memory then my Infinity in my SRT-10 Ram.

As far as the updating, you may have a defective unit as I see no reason for that to happen so often and in fact, I have never seen it before the initial programming.

Keep us posted on what you find out from your installer concerning the constant updates.


For now, at least you now have better music programming with Sirius.. Can you say Octane!!!

[benben01]

The "Updating Channel" issue is a known bug. It calls for a a hard reset as in pulling the fuse or battery cable. This was the case in my Speed 3.

[The-9]

The "Updating Channel" issue is a known bug. It calls for a a hard reset as in pulling the fuse or battery cable. This was the case in my Speed 3.

Does it come back or is it because of the initial programming?

[Hellacool]

This is my second Mazda with the Mazda factory Sirius and they both sucked. I believe it is just a crappy Mazda sourced product. My 06 Mazaspeed had the same receiver and antenna that is in my 08 CX9, doesn't seem to have been upgraded.

[CX9 SportOwner]

Sirius/XM sucks, and is bankrupt.

[The-9]

Sirius does not suck(yippy) and Chrysler is bankrupt and does suck!

[CX9 SportOwner]

Satellite radio is still broadcast, so it has all the same problems as regular radio; dropouts, static, dead air...

It's also not totally commercial free, so it's not worth paying for in my opinion. You can get free LOCAL news and weather information on AM and FM, and for music, you have better quality and control of what you listen to by using an iPOD or MP3 player. (Or, God forbid, the CD player)

They also lost 400,000 subscribers and $236 million in the first quarter of this year.

[vikefan7]

I think there are plenty of reasons to go with Sirius or XM. While they do play commercials they're definitely not every 2 minutes like terrestrial radio. Nothing annoys me more than trying to listen to music and all I get is lame ass Portland dj's blabbing on about nothing.

I don't personally subscribe to it, but I can see why people do. If I were so inclined to pay for it, I would'nt mind getting to listen to Minnesota Vikings games, since I live nowhere near Minnesota, and Howard Stern.

[Hellacool]

Satellite radio is still broadcast, so it has all the same problems as regular radio; dropouts, static, dead air...

It's also not totally commercial free, so it's not worth paying for in my opinion. You can get free LOCAL news and weather information on AM and FM, and for music, you have better quality and control of what you listen to by using an iPOD or MP3 player. (Or, God forbid, the CD player)

They also lost 400,000 subscribers and $236 million in the first quarter of this year.

So how does this answer the original question? Besides pumping up your total posts, do you have anything worthy to add to this thread?

[CX9 SportOwner]

Try reading the original question. You will see that my response addresses it. Ass

Padre Dave " Does anyone else have these issues? Any solutions?"

Me "Satellite radio is still broadcast, so it has all the same problems as regular radio; dropouts, static, dead air..."

I simply expanded on why I believe satellite radio isn't worth it.

[Hellacool]

I don't recall him asking for your divine opinion, ass. Contribute to the thread or zip it. No one really cares what you think about Sirius. If you had ever owned Sat radio you would know that every other receiver minus the Mazda rarely if ever drops reception, anywhere. Mazda does. Since you never owned it how can you even have an opinion, way to put out pointless info, keep padding your post count, maybe someone will believe you know what you are talking about.

[CX9 SportOwner]

Nice job assuming you know anything about me, or what I have owned.

He wanted to know if anyone else had those issues. They have.

[Padre Dave]

I will try the hard reset, re: updating channels.

I don't suppose there is any way to add memory to the Mazda sourced unit, but that would be nice.

The XM unit in my wife's Highlander is the bottom of the line Delphi unit from 5 years ago and it outperforms my new Sirius unit.

I really like being able to switch from Deep Tracks to Fox News to the Catholic Channel, bypassing The Playboy Channel and Howard Stern.

[Padre Dave]

I did the hard reset on the Sirius unit by unplugging the power, waiting a minute or so and then plugging it back in. No more "Updating Channels" every day! Thanks for the info benben01!

[nyc1dxo]

My GT w/Sirius also has poor reception. Today, I was on an off-ramp on the highway and passed by a tree. I lost reception!
Any overpass, regardless of its width, I lose reception.
Is it the satelite radio in general: Sirius, the provider: or Mazda, the unit/installation?
My unit doesn't keep updating channels, so with that said, A hard reset wouldn't be neccesary.

[nyc1dxo]

Where is the Sirius antenna located? I have the navigation and was wondering about the fin on the roof. Is it for both Nav and Sirius or just one?

[MSP_Heather]

My sirius goes out for a couple seconds under bridges, etc. It really doesn't bother me that much. :dunno:

[steve3624]

Hello, I just purchased a 2007 CX-9 GT. It came with a Sirius and the previous owners subscription is still active. I didn't get any info or operation instructions. Does any one have any instructions I can get?
Thanks,
steve3624

[U4IA]

My wife's Fusion has sirius and it almost never looses a signal. The cx-9 looses it for a second or two quite often - not a huge deal but still annoying.

[benben01]

Just installed the factory Siruis unit with the optional aux box today. I tell ya, it was a PITA. The factory NAV headunit weighs a ton. Just getting it out of the dash is a monumental task on its own. Any how, i decided to ditch the instructions since I didn't want to dismantle 1/2 of the interior per the instructions just to hide the unit in the trunk and run the cables up front. I decided to mount the antena on the dash just in front of the center channel and hid the Sirius module underneath the passenger seat mounting bracket. Works well and reception is about the same as the unit in my Speed 3 with the factory external antena/hump.

[Machiavelli_mx]

Where is the Sirius antenna located? I have the navigation and was wondering about the fin on the roof. Is it for both Nav and Sirius or just one?

I 've got the Sirius and no navigation. The fin is Sirius only. For the nav, you have a metal box hidden somewhere and attached to an unpainted area of the unibody. This makes the whole car body your nav antenna.

Anybody can help on how do you get the Sirius ID number? Channel 0 gives the phone number (just like the others) and it's not in the manual. Where's the actual receiver located?

EDIT: Thanks to the Mazda3 Forum: Move to Channel 184, push Tune for a couple seconds. Write down the first few digits. Scroll sideways (<-TEXT->) to get the whole number.

And, guess what? Mazda gave me 6 months of the Sirius Everything package (normally ~$17/mo) for free.

The sound's great. It does go out under bridges, like old CD players used to skip a beat now and then.

[Padre Dave]

I guess you guys are more patient than I am...I just got home from an 18 day trip in a rented RV...I took my Delphi XM MyFi, the inside antenna and a set of ear phones. I just set the thing on the dash and I got excellent reception across the country....no skips or pauses. I'm thinking about removing the Sirrius unit (mine is mounted under the passenger sear too) and have my install guys wire it for the Delphi unit....I wonder if I can plug it into the NAV unit and use the SAT button without worrying about a FM Modulator booster....anyone know?