That's your problem.. It's being obstructed by the wipercowl. The signal isn't as strong up north. Put it on the roof and it will work great..

 

Mines under the wiper cowl too and it loses signal every once in awhile but for the most part it's great.

I also have had major problems with XM's billing. Last month when I renewed for 3 months they double charged me and then guess what, this month they charged me another $70. I lost my freakin mind and am still waiting to hear back from then.

 

Glad to see this thread took off last week with a whole bunch on non-XM related stuff.

Well I recieved an email back from XM on Sunday, roughly 4 days after my initial sent message to them.

I had tried again to call them on Friday but was on hold for 1 hour and 45 minutes before giving up. Talk about pissed.

The email on Sunday said effectively that this is what I ordered and to live with it.

I called right away as I was more then fed up as was getting ready to remove the XM stuff from the truck and sell it on ebay.

Suprisingly my call went right through Sunday morning and I explained me situation, everything from being on hold for 2 hours on Friday to contacting them 4 days ago and not recieving a response in the quoted 24 hours.

All in all I was level headed about the entire explanation and asked what they would do to correct the situation. She then put me on hold and went to talk to her supervisor.

She came back on the phone and said they would refund the two charges of $18.04 (total of $36.08) and then give me three months from Sunday of free XM radio and then XM NavTraffic at $3.99 per month.

I asked about the week signal I've been having and she said it could a couple of things. 1. It could be partially my placement under the wiper cowl which blocks the signal partially. 2. It could be I just have a bad connection to the satellite. (meaning the signal they are broadcasting me isn't strong enough to begin with.) In this case she said to go to refresh.xmradio.com, type in my radio ID and refresh my signal.

I didn't have to do it this time because she did it for me though. It still won't work in the garage but I'll keep on eye on it over the next week.

I'm relectant to move the transmitter from the wiper cowl to the roof because it'd be a complete pain in the rear to do. For one thing I have an ARE tonneau cover and I'd have to remove that. Second, I heard the cord is barely long enough to reach the back and I'm nervous about messing with the headliner. Third, I installed BT today and fixed the wire to the sub and had a heck of a time getting everything back in the dash and working and I really don't want to relive that.

Thanks for listening to my venting and helping me out,

Duke

 

1) I'd bet the farm its the placement of the antenna. Don't expect it to work in the garage either. If the cowl can distort the signal, the garage will seriously distort it.

2) This I have never heard of. I don't see how the signal quality can become degraded and have to be refreshed. This makes no sense really. Have you ever had to call directv or dishnetwork to refresh their signals? No, and they work on the same basic process. SOunds fishy to say the least.

I don't see why you'd have to move the tonneau cover? We're talking about moving it to the roof, not the bed. Don't mess with the headliner, run it through the weather stripping of the doors and under the plastic paneling. You shouldn't have to do anything to the headliner. Reliving the dash, well, thats going to happen. I have never recommended the under cowl location, as any obstruction can screw up reception. I'd move it

 

I see your points on the wiper cowl location but I'm still going to give it a shot for a little longer. Right now it runs through a rubber groumet hole by the steering column into the engine bay and then into the wiper cowl.

I just don't see an easy way out of the cab, into the weather stripping on the doors and then to the third brake light area without making the cord visable. I don't want it visible on the roof area, except for the area between the sunroof and third brake light. In which case I believe I'd have to go under the headliner and then through the third brake light (which I'd need access to the bed).

Item #2 makes sense if the XM signal is initally sent to your radio where it's in a place that it doesn't have a clear view of the sky. I know the wiper cowl will limit this all the time, but they activated the XM to my radio while the radio was in the truck which was in the garage with the door shut. I'm assuming the garage and the door had to hurt it a little bit. I didn't really listen to it on my way to work, but will try it more this week and report back on any changes in signal quality.

If it stays problematic I'll be asking for tips on how to go through the 3rd brake light to that portion of the roof.

Duke

 

Its really not hard to run it. I have done several.

As for #2, the original signal sent activates the radio. But from that point on they aren't tracking you by your ESN number, they are just sending out the signal and your unit accepts it and decodes it because the activation has occured. The only degredation of signal should occur when obstructions of the antenna or sky occur. I find this quite odd. I think I'll call them tomorrow and find out what this means