jonheld

Just took delivery of a 2010 TSX Tech. Traded back our 2006 TSX Navi for it. Great car.
Getting poor reception on all XM stations. Music sounds like mono broadcast and frequently drops signal altogether. Regular old FM stations sound great.

Anyone else have this issue? I'm thinking possible bad XM receiver or antenna.

FLYGUY31

No issues here. Did you have xm before? Is the bad reception everywhere or just in your neighborhood? If you have a lot of trees where you live, reception will be poor..it gets better in the winter when the leaves fall off as they are not blocking the satellite.

ssmtsx

I'm having the exact same issue with my TSX. I had an '08 Accord with XM and it did not drop out nearly as much as my tsx does. I bought my tsx used, and it has already had the xm tuner replaced once. I'm not sure if anything else can be done?

ZAXDude

i had an '06 TSX. my 2010 drops XM way more in comparison. dunno if it's the antenna or some kind of buffering... kinda annoying.

jonheld

I had the XM 3 month trial with my 2006 TSX and the reception was fine. The reception is poor everywhere on this 2010 and drops out frequently. Sound is terrible.

coffeefingers

XM reception is fine in my ride. Fades out a bit when going under some overpasses but overall...pleased with it.

As for sound quality...it's definitely not cd quality and below FM quality but for all the music I get I guess it's worth it.

Love getting Howard Stern in my car.

Benbox

I notice XM reception drop offs if stuck in traffic under overpasses or if there are tall trees in the southern direction. However if I drive through underpasses there's no drop off. Odd thing also is XM signal quality seems to vary by station, of course on talk or news radio the quality is terrible, but certain music channels are very nice. Overall, can't complain, it's very nice.

ohtsxowner

I'm having problems with my XM also. Have taken it back to the dealer 3 times in the past 2 months. My XM drops for several minutes at a time. It will fade in and out quickly, and then drop all together. Dealer keeps telling me it's normal to lose signal under overpasses and in some areas. I'm not just losing a signal temporarily (a few seconds), i'm losing it for 15-30 minutes at a time, several times a week. Cannot get problem to duplicate so dealer can verify. HELP!! Anyone else have this problem?

coffeefingers

If the signal really fades out in certain areas consistantly then have the dealer drive your car there to test it out.

Granted the areas should be reasonably open areas.

mercman

I thought it just me, I had a 06 and the XM did not fade out as much as my 09. It is at the point know where I can only listen to it on the expressway where there are no trees. I’m thinking about canceling for the summer until the trees go bald.

It’s likely a poor antenna or location.

Jeff

mrjohn90

My XM on my 09 fades out as well and I'm in the Los Angeles area. It fades out to the point where I would have to restart the radio to get reception again. I don't know if it's my XM tuner but it sure is annoying. Quality wise its ok, not as clear as FM radio.

theemike

Has anyone found a fix to this (most likey a new antenna)? My Sirius cuts out quite a bit, the jokes is "if there is a bush near the road". My GFs Fusion does not drop in the same areas so it must be the antenna.

mercman

Switched the 2009 for a 2012 and one of the first things I noticed was the XM actually worked. The 09 would cut out if you even approached a tree. The 2012 is rock solid down the same roads. Not sure what the difference is but XM receive quality does vary with the TSX.

Jeff

ESHBG

I have an '09 and you can mark me down with *TERRIBLE* reception too, unfortunately, and it is incredibly frustrating!

The ol' 07 didn't cut out nearly as much. And for the record, I have had my XM module replaced once already because it went bad.

JR_Rider

My car is at the dealership right now, having the XM antenna replaced for this exact same thing.

ESHBG

What year is your car? Is it being replaced under warranty? Did you learn of a TSB or are there any "under the radar" issue acceptances by Acura that you learned about?

JR_Rider

My car is a 2009. The antenna was replaced under warranty because I just purchased the car as a CPO 2 weeks ago. As long as you're still under warranty there shouldn't be any cost to you. I just made them aware of the problem and that other owners had experienced the same poor reception and a new XM brain did not fix their issue, but a new antenna did. I wasn't made aware of any TSB put out on the XM antenna.

keibo

I have a 2009 TSX and have been having poor XM reception issues for awhile. There are alot aof areas where the reception drops. Our other vehicle does not have the problem and the XM is clear. I am hearing that it is an issue with the antenna and feeder cable. Not real expensive to replace the parts but the labor is very high. Is anyone else having the same issue?

ESHBG

Thank you! UGH, one more damn thing to deal with LOL

keibo

Were you able to get them to cut you a deal on getting the new antenna installed. Also, did they install a new antenna and feeder cable?

JR_Rider

I'm not sure if your question was for me or for ESHBG. I didn't pay anything to have my antenna swapped out. Did not have the feeder cable replaced to my knowledge though.

ESHBG

Do you happen to know where you heard/read this?

Like JR_Rider thinks, I am hoping that this is just the antennae and not the feeder cable, as the antennae seems way easier to replace...I don't want my baby ripped apart again!

I did a quick search and sure enough, there are a few more '09 owners out there who are reporting this issue:

http://www..com/forums/2nd-gen-probl...ception-2.html

wraith

I had my Cable and Antennae replaced soon after i bought the car (July '08). No more issues so far.

keibo

I took the vehicle to the dealership and they said it was the antenna and feeder cable. They also quoted an expensive labor cost with no offer of assistence because the warrenty had expired. My point - if this is a consistent problem why not support your product!

keibo

The dealship told me the issue is with the antenna and feeder cable

ESHBG

Did they actually take the time to look at your car, keibo, or did they just know what it was from the reported issues? And how much was the quote?

spdandpwr

Why even subscribe, the sound quality is atrocious...unless you like listening to pop, or hip hop hits, every other channels sounds horrid because of bandwidth limitations. Strange because satellite TV doesn't suffer from the same bandwidth issues, yet satellite radio (which is just audio) does.

ceb

Satellite radio allows you to listen to current stuff like news on a cross country trip without having the station fade out every half hour. You can listen to the station from Miami to San Francisco without ever touching that dial - you can't do that with radio.

JR_Rider

Well put. Nothing is worse than going on a roadtrip and having to change stations every hour.

keibo

They did not actually look at the car but said it was a problem that was previously identified

ESHBG

Interesting, so they definitely do know about the issue and are acknowledging it then. Did you get a quote on what the work would cost?

keibo

Labor and parts $600

ESHBG

/\
Ouch, that is steep! While I understand Acura can't be responsible for paying every bill when a car is out of warranty, they should own up to this one and cover it (especially since it sounds as if they are acknowledging this is a known issue). XM is a primary feature of the car, and the parts should be lasting for much longer than a few years.

You may want to call Acura directly and see what type of response you get. Plus, this may help to formally log the issue on the books if it hasn't been already.

levistar

Just finished a quick trip through the Canadian Rockies. The XM reception was horrible. It has always been bad, but this trip was the worst. I did take to my dealer before this and made it a concern. They said they could not duplicate and said there are no TSB's related to this.

jordanreichmann

I took mine in to the my local Acura dealership after subscribing to XM the other day. They had some TSBs regarding the AM/FM antenna, but said they didn't have any regarding XM. I left it with them for the afternoon and thankfully they were able to duplicate the problem. They called and got it approved under my extended warranty without me even putting up a fuss.

Sounds to me like there is a problem, just not big enough for them to acknowledge.

ESHBG

I had my car in for routine service recently and had them check this out as well. As soon as I had mentioned it, my Service Advisor clearly knew what I was talking about and basically acknowledged in not so many words that this is a known issue and that they are familiar. They checked it out and confirmed it to be bad, and the cable/antennae are being ordered and will be replaced under warranty.

ESHBG

I just wanted to let everyone know that I had it replaced and the difference is literally night and day! My XM never cuts out anymore, the sound quality is better and now even under most bridges it maintains reception too. I really enjoy my XM and am very happy that I now get non-interrupted play during my commutes! :-)