larryka

XM radio was working fine for me yesterday during my drive into work. I parked my car in my parking garage all day, like I normally do, but when I pulled my car out of the garage, my XM radio wasn't working. I turned off the radio before parking it, when I turned it on after pulling out of the garage, I didn't hear any audio. In addition, I didn't see any traffic information, which usually shows up right away. I changed to channel 1 to see if I heard the promotional stuff, but I didn't. Then I started seeing an "XM LOADING" error on the temperature/radio MID. FWIW, my XM presets were still showing their names. I went into the navigation diagnostic mode and the tests showed all of the sub-systems were working properly.

I called XM hoping that they would have some ideas, but my gut was telling me it was a hardware issue due to the lack of audio on channels that a non-activated unit should be able to receive (1 and 247). The XM representative agreed that it's probably hardware, but they would send out an activation signal just in case. During the rest of my drive, the radio would increment the channel number every couple of minutes. It started at 1, jumped to 4 and made it to 10 by the time I got home. I don't know if this is an indication of the activation sequence working or not, but I shutoff the car when it didn't move from 10 for a while. I tried turning the car back on just to see what would happen, but this time I just saw "XM" on the radio MID and all of my preset names were gone.

We'll see if the radio decides to correct itself during today's commute, but I have a feeling I'll be visiting the dealer in the near future. BTW, when I switched to FM the audio seemed to be normal.

Has anyone else seen this? Does anyone know if the auto channel changing indicates any, positive or negative? I've seen some threads relating to "XM LOADING" on some of the Infiniti boards, but I don't know how applicable their issues are to our system.

larryka

The RL gods must have been smiling down on me today... My XM radio seemed be acting normally this morning when I started up the car. It defaulted back to channel 1, even though I left it on 10 last night, but it worked. My presets were not blank like last night, but they just showed the channel numbers until I pressed each one which caused the channel name to be populated as well. We'll see if I have to go through this all over again tonight...

In addition, I saw a red '05 RL on the way into work

Hou-RL

Glad to hear all was working fine today!

I was told you have to turn off the radio when they are sending you a new signal or sometimes it causes a delay in activation.

larryka

Thanks

Really? The XM rep told me to leave it on channel 1 for 10-20 minutes and then check some channels that she mentioned to see if there was reception on them. Hopefully it won't happen again to find out what the correct procedure is

dseag2

You do have to leave it on. I had the XM receiver installed in my FX (the car is pre-wired for it) and was told by XM when I activated it that the radio had to be left on for a specified period of time.

larryka

I had another XM snafu last night. I pulled out of my parking garage and I saw NavTraffic data, but when I went to any channel other than 1 or 247 the audio/signal kept chopping in and out. I called XM and of course they wanted to send out another activation signal. They said to leave the radio on channel 1 for 10-20 minutes and then check certain channels. I did that and there was no change in signal quality, until I stopped for gas. When I turned my car back on after filling up, the signal was fine on all channels.

I doubt this has anything to do with it, but when both of these issues occurred my car was on the first floor of the parking garage, closer to the exit ramp where the signal starts trickling in as I drive out. Maybe the XM unit has trouble on startup if there's a weak signal. We'll see if a pattern forms, but hopefully this doesn't keep happening.

jkatz714

seems that the xm radio signal cant get thru when car inside my garage also...have had to request xm reset signal a few times...

west403

AS of Monday there is a new service bulletin about Acura Link control unit. There is a updated C/U avaliable now. This is to correct the real time traffic icons going away after being started in a garage. Acura is sending out letters to affected vehicles. Acura is also sending out messages on acura link to affected vehicles

Karl_in_Chicago

I experience a variant of the XM Loading error this morning. Everything has been working fine since I picked up the car a week and a half ago. Last night there was a light snow so this morning I got in the car, started it up, listened to the XM traffic report for Chicago and then exited the car to brush off the snow. Of course the car beeped a bit complaining that I'd taken the fob out - to be expected. When I got back in and switched to XM jazz it seemed OK until a minute or so later it switched to XM Preview and displayed the XM Loading message.

I reselected my preprogrammed XM jazz station (channel 70, I think) and all seemed well and then, again, XM Preview. No amount of switching around the stations would fix it - different station, same results. Finally just played some FM for the rest of the drive to work.

When I got into the parking garage I turned off the car and turned it back on and . . . magically every thing was fine. No problems on the way home either. I'm schedule to have my engine block heater installed this Saturday and I'll mention it to the service advisor. I wonder if it might be one of those "broken as designed" things I frequently run into in the IT industry and somehow the fob-out-of-running-car condition results in some temporary foobar to the XM system.

Just a data point.

larryka

That's interesting behavior Karl.

I saw the no audio/audio cutting out/no NavTraffic data issue again last night. When I turned on channel 77 after exiting my parking garage, I didn't hear audio. I switched to channel 1 and I heard audio but it was chopping in and out. "XM Loading" did not show up though. Turning the ignition switch to the starter position did reset the navigation system and it seemed to reset the XM unit, but it didn't correct the issue. I had to pull over to turn off the car and start it back up. Again, my car was parked on the top level of the garage near the exit.

I called my service advisor yesterday to follow-up on a detailed list of issues that I sent him on Saturday, but he never called back after he said he had to find the tech that has been working on my issues. I asked him if the new XM campaign applies to the issues that I have been seeing, but he hadn't heard of it yet and was going to call Acura to get more information. We'll see what I can find out today...

larryka

Another strange XM incident tonight on the way home...

I made a couple of calls via HFL and I was listening to XM before and after those calls without a problem. I then received a call via HFL and chatted for around 5 minutes. When the call was disconnected, I started hearing a beep every two seconds or so. When I turned off the audio system it went away. When I switched to FM, it went away. If I switched back to XM and turned the volume all of the way down, it was still there. When I switched to the audio screen I noticed that the first three presets of XM1 were programmed with the same channel. When I changed the channel, either with the tune buttons or via speech, the first preset would always change to the channel that I changed to. I decided to see if the system would reset via my NavTraffic reboot issue/method. The system rebooted as I expected it would and the beeps went away.

From what I can tell the beep was the same one that is used to indicate that a station has been assigned to a preset. I wonder if the XM TSB covers this, or if it's something new... We'll see what my advisor says tomorrow.

konst_ms

I'm curious what was the resolution here?

larryka

Well... I had the 05-006 product update(s) applied and so far things have been good. However, I have been working out of a different office than normal, except for a couple of days after picking up the car, so I can't say the the issues are totally resolved until I park in my garage again for a couple of weeks straight.

konst_ms

Unfortunately I got this issue AFTER I did the update you mentioned (AcuraLink control module).

Konstantin

ptbarnett

I realize this is an old thread, but I thought I'd follow up for anyone that happens to find it via Google (like me).

I wasn't parked in a garage, and I hadn't jumped out of the car with the keyless remote while it was running. So, I don't think either of those conditions are a factor.

I met a friend for lunch, and enroute to the restaurant the XM Radio was working fine. We were there for about an hour, but after we left the restaurant, the radio was exhibiting the same behavior described: If I selected one of my favorites, it would play for about 30-60 seconds and switch to the preview channel (001).

While on the preview channel, the dash display would cycle between:
I called XM Radio customer service and did a refresh. Apparently, refreshing is a common task, since it has its own IVR option and voice recognition. It didn't fix anything after a few minutes and I got tired of listening to the preview channel -- so I switched to FM (and quickly remembered why I don't listen to broadcast radio any more).

About 10 minutes later, I tried XM again and the problem had disappeared. I don't know if the refresh had anything to do with it, or if the problem would have cleared on its own.

On the XM Radio website, for a different radio (the Sony XT-XM1):

http://www.xmradio.com/manuals/sony_xtxm1.pdf

It describes the "LOADING" advisory message as:
A line of dashes is described as:
There are some other conditions that generated the dashed line. But, I suspect the "problem" was actually some sort of data download from XM Radio, which causes the receiver to act squirrely while it is in progress.

Gator5000e

pt, keep us updated on the status of the problem. I have had the XM not come on at all even though the other aspects of the audio, CD, FM, etc, worked fine. Once it took 2 engine shut off and restarts to get XM working again. I don't have any problems with my 2 other XM radios, the Sony plug and play and the MyFi. the Acura radio is the only XM unit I have problems with. IMHO, it is all in the radio, not the service and I think the Acura link updated messed with the memory at some point and in some way. Acura is aware of the XM problems but will avoid responsability and say it is SM's problem. We need to keep letting Acura know about the problem. I know it's not a big deal (channel label, information delay and other problems), but I Am paying a lot of money for this car and I don't think it is unreasonable to want everything in to to work correctly.