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Bad Sirius reception

14K views 29 replies 14 participants last post by  johnny.reb 
#1 ·
I live on the East Coast of Canada and took delivery of my Rebel on the 27th of November. I traded in a 2010 Laramie for this.

Other than missing the auto climate control, I find the SiriusXM reception in this new truck to be absolutely horrible. There were a few consistent places around town that the old RER radio in the Laramie would drop, but this 8.4AN drops everywhere. I haven't listened to an entire, uninterrupted song since picking the truck up, regardless of where I am.

Does anyone else have this issue, or am I the lucky one with a bad antenna or head unit?
 
#6 ·
I live on the West Coast of Canada, and the reception is pretty bad here too. Cuts in and out all the time because of the mountains and our Northern location.

The dealer warned me that SiriusXM radio was not going to work well here, and I will not be renewing my subscription when it lapses.
 
#8 ·
Pretty sure our trucks are built with XM radios, which have stationary satellites off South America and closer to Europe than North America. They also employ ground-based repeaters.

Sirius has a pair of satellites that move in a figure 8 over North America.

Gotta wonder what genius would put XM radios in vehicles that are in North America and expect good (or any) reception worth listening to. I guess they need to setup more ground-based repeaters in more areas to improve things.

Based on having to add more ground equipment, you would have thought they would choose Sirius over XM for NA.

They must have been given the radios or this was a colossal screw up that someone probably got promoted over.... lol.
 
#10 ·
I think its the truck. I traded in my 2013 dart for this 2015 rebel, and the dart never lost connection. My truck loses sirius if i stop in a certain part of my driveway, if I take a corner next to some tall trees that i frequently travel by, and anytime I drive near 3 story or taller buildings.
Car never lost connection
 
#16 ·
Ah. I wanted to be sure that I was seeing exactly what he was, so I didn't want to click anything. And yes, that's "general" coverage. Signal strength is going to be best directly "under" the satellite or centered in its coverage area, but that's a pretty wide circle because the satellite is so high up - nearly 30,000 miles. That's about 4x the earth's diameter. Hold a basketball in one hand, and the satellite's a dust mote 4' away.

But, all that said, the signal is a fairly weak one, and it's combined with "terrestrial" signals from local towers. The XM system actually is designed to combine multiple signals from satellite and tower to "build" a clean signal. This also helps with sitting in building shadows, under overpasses, etc. Some cities have several XM towers around them.
 
#20 ·
Thought I would update this thread.

Last night I checked UConnect and there was an update available. I have a 2016 with 8.4AN.

The new version is 16.09.09. I bit the bullet and downloaded the update and flashed it this afternoon. It updated 3 modules, rebooted, then updated 14 more modules.

During the flash I noted 2 unexpected updates for XM Satellite in the 14 module lot somewhere near the last few. Now, I have only driven around since updating for a few hours, but I have to say the reception "seems" much better now. I will know on the way to work tomorrow as I barely got reception on that route enough to listen to an entire song.

A word of caution for those going to update their own unit: the instructions state for push-button start vehicles to place it in the Run position without touching the brake to start the truck. Make sure you sit in the truck while it's updating - it takes 30 minutes or so - because the battery run-down protection kicks in before it finishes updating and turns off the power. Lucky I was in there and noticed when the evic went blank and immediately pushed the button twice to get it back into Run before the radio lost power. It could have hosed the head unit if I wasn't watching. If FCA doesn't amend their updating instructions to warn people about this, they're going to get a bunch of bricked units back for warranty.

Other than that, there isn't any noticeable change to any Apps or icons or anything that would indicate an update other than the version under System Information. I've heard that Siri works better (don't have an iPhone, so I can't say), VR is better (which would be a huge improvement) and the unit seems more responsive. Your mileage may vary I suppose.


Time will tell, I guess. Happy updating!!
 
#21 ·
I just updated it on my drive to work.. it took about 30 minutes to complete.. no reason for it to not be done with the engine running.. if you have a drive where you are gonna be at least 30 minutes that is when I would do it.. heck, my old uconnect would update from CD and I did that on the drive as well...

Update went well, haven't used the XM radio today so can't speak to whether is's better or not and didn't watch the module names that were updated.. doesn't seem to have any new features.. we still don't get pandora, spotify or any other apps. wifi didn't suddenly appear.. still no 4G radio in the 8.4AN/CA units... ;-)
 
#25 · (Edited)
I didn't say there weren't any XM updates. I just said nothing mentioned. Learn to read.

I was actually responding to Nightshade, who was noting that there didn't seem to be any updates for XM. FCA's press release - which I linked - only describes adding support for Siri Eyes Free. No updates for XM listed. I did also check the TSB for it - see below. Just because a software module is included in an update does not mean anything of significance was included in it. This sort of thing happens all the time when version numbers are changed, for example, or if comments were added to code.
-------------

SUBJECT:
RA3 RA4 Radio Enhancements

OVERVIEW:
This bulletin involves inspecting and, if required, updating the radio software.

MODELS:
2016 (UF) Chrysler 200
2016 (DF) Ram 3500 10K Cab Chassis
2016 (WK) Jeep Grand Cherokee
2016 (KL) Jeep Cherokee
2016 (LA) Dodge Challenger
2016 (ZD) Dodge Viper
2016 (WD) Dodge Durango
2016 (DS) Ram 1500 Pickup
2016 (DJ) Ram 2500 Pickup
2016 (LD) Dodge Charger
2016 (DD) Ram 3500 Cab Chassis
2016 (DP) Ram 4500/5500 Cab Chassis
2016 (D2) Ram 3500 Pickup
2016 (DX) Ram Truck (Mexico)
2016 (LX) Chrysler 300

SYMPTOM/CONDITION:
A small number of customers may experience one or more of the following:
· Navigation failed message is displayed.
· Clock not automatically updating to local time.
· Poor or no connection to cellular network.
· HVAC temperature out of sync with radio display (KL vehicles).
· Display goes blank/black.
· Radio locks up.
· Some Uconnect App remote commands do not execute with the vehicle.
 
#28 ·
I had a blank screen once, so this update interested me from that aspect since it was a symptom mentioned.

I have noticed since the update that the overall function of the screen itself and the speed in which everything loads and changes seems to be smoother and faster. I have had no ill effects what so ever from the update.
 
#30 ·
It did help slightly, but didn't completely fix it. I suspect it isn't a software flaw, but rather where I live that has crappy reception. It drops out but not as much. Maybe it's buffering now? No idea.

VR is better.
The voice for Nav and text alerts has changed.
The unit seems a little more responsive and comes on when I start the truck much faster.

I haven't noticed anything else, but I'm sure there are other things under the hood as the update was almost a GB.
 
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