XM with poor reception with Jbl system.Techs please chime in.

I have a 2010 Tacoma Trd Sport double cab 6sp, it has the factory Jbl sound sytem with built in Xm tuner in the factory radio, the Xm module is not under the rear seat. I have had this back to our dealer many times trying to fix the poor Xm reception, Im a Sirius subscriber in my other truck, it never goes out (of course tunnels,overpasses, forest,etc.) this Xm is out alot of my driving. Our dealer replaced the entire radio module, and the Oem roof top antenna located on the back center of the cab, they have now ordered an entire harness to replace the coax, hoping its a bad/smashed coax. I would like to troubleshoot this myself also, Im qualified with the tools, knowledge, equipment, spare antennas, etc. I have never seen this white coax connector that is in the drivers kick panel, normally Xm/Sirius will use a SMB connector, but not Toyota, I have been to the Tssradio website, but they only offer an adapter to replace the radio, not the antenna, as I would like to test with other antennas, before my dealer rips out my harnesses. What am I missing.? Thanks in advance. And yes of course its white.!!

 

My 2011 Tacoma TRD Off road w/JBL is the same way, even the standard FM does not have good reception. XM goes in/out a lot more frequently than other XM equipped cars.

 

Im going to get to the bottom of this, I just have to figure out how to connect to their unusual coax connector, I have everything else to test with, I cant cut out that connector yet, as they will be replacing the harness next week. When I figure this poor signal problem out, I will post it for everyone else who has this problem.

 

hondas have the same problem,the XM reception is terrible

 

I had to buy a (shark fin adapter cable) to hook up my Sirius radio to the installed antenna. About $70.00. Do a search, there is a good write up with pictures. I get grate reception.

 

Yea I find the Toyota XM receiver to be kind of garbage. Never had any issues with the OEM and aftermarket units I had in my last vehicle.

 

Firetech, I have not been able to find an adapter that uses the factory antenna, to connect to a stand alone Sirius module, any ideas or where did you find one.??

The saga goes on, Toyota replaced the entire rear harness in my Tacoma, this includes the coax from the drivers kick panel to the roof top antenna, hoping this will fix the poor reception problems, they also replaced the entire radio head/xm again trying to fix this, I will give them alot of credit, they are sure doing everything they can to fix this. I think Mt Madman is right on the money with the non-standard white plastic coax connectors in the drivers kick panel is their problem, but without adapters, I cant test or prove this. Any one have any ideas on this.??

 

Do a search on this site for a

$60 SFA12M Shark Fin Antenna Adapter, SFA12M

SFA12M antenna cable. This cable connects from that white connector by the drivers left kick panel to your sirius radio.

 

This may help a little.

Sometimes I think XM itself adjusts the output of the signal resulting in crappy reception.

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/audio-video/49110-xm-install-my-09-tacoma.html

 

I have the exact car, DC TRD with JBL and my Xm radio or FM/AM have never lost reception unless when I am in the indoor parking.

Here is the question that I never got an answer for: Is Xm radio permanently free with JBL option or only 6 mos/1yr deal and you have to subscribe after?

 

It'll be 1 year in 5 days. Let see if it still works after that.

 

Don't call them until they shut it off!!

 

I've got a 2010 DC prerunner with the same radio package and the XM reception is a bunch of crap. I'm just going to let the free trial period run out and then forget about satellite radio.

 

I have a 2011 and the XM reception is the worst I've ever experienced. I have two other vehicle installed systems which work very well; One of the original Pioneers using the ancient twin lead antenna cable, and the other an original Delphi. In my neighborhood there is a single location where signal drops out if waiting at a particular spot at the lights. The JBL built in system however provides dropouts almost anywhere I'm driving, sometimes for long periods. This appears to be an engineering design problem. I think two contributors solved their problem by adapting the stock antenna to an after market receiver which strongly points to the JBL receiver being the problem. It appears that no matter what is replaced nothing changes unless the radio is replaced with an alternative after market unit. It is a little surprising Toyota and particularly XM have allowed this problem continue. I bet here are thousands of people out there by now who wouldn't touch either JBL equipment or XM radio based upon their experience with this particular implementation.

 

i've had both services XM and Sirius and i think i always had better signal reception with Sirius. I recently bought my tacoma and had XM installed since its already setup for it and i don't seem to have any worse reception than the Sirius.

it could be the antenna wire. i had one that was cracked one time and replaced it and it made a big difference

 

Reading > Firetech

 

I have an 2010 DC Tacoma Off-Road with the JBL stereo and it has very poor XM reception. I drive down I-5 and lose signal. I haven't addressed it with the dealer yet. Has anyone had any success with increasing the reception? If so, how.

 

Same issue here, 2011 Tacoma DC off/road w/JBL. Radio reception is not the best with XM or FM.

 

I just bought a 2011 TSS Prerunner that had no XM and and a non JBL Radio so the dealer installed aftermarket XM and the intenna was mounted in the front of the cab and I must say the reception is better then any other I had installed from the factory.

 

I've installed a pioneer hu with pioneer xm receiver. Ordered the

$60 SFA12M Shark Fin Antenna Adapter, SFA12M

SFA12M to utilize stock shark fin. Reception on it is great with exception of going under a bridge in or a garage as expected. So, perhaps you have a bad cable? It's pretty thin cable. Almost a 40lb test kind of thin.