I have a 2006 coupe with the factory installed sirius unit in the trunk. Reception was ok at first, then intermittent, then nonexistant. When set to sat mode, dial just said acquiring. The original antenna wire looked frayed. So I tried to change the antenna with an XM antenna that I had with a fakra adapter. Same results.

This unit also has an ipod hookup (by the former owner).

How can I tell if I need a new unit, new antenna or just play with the connections?

 

Sounds like the antenna to me, but strange that a new one wouldn't help. Though, in my '04, I tried replacing the original antenna with a newer, smaller XM antenna and it made the reception worse. I then found one of these on eBay and installed it and it was much better:

Otherwise, if that doesn't solve the problem, you may need to find a used receiver on eBay and swap it out.

 

So for whatever reason the site will still not allow me to start a thread. I am considering XM for my Prewired 04 G35X. Correct me if I am wrong. It looks like in addition to purchasing the XM receiver, I will also need a Tuner to plug into with the Sat cable in the trunk, to then run a wire from tuner to receiver?

 

Receiver box plugs into that harness in the trunk, antenna plugs into the receiver box, that's it.

 

I do not see anything in the XM car kits that would allow for that. If plug the receiver to the harness in the trunk then is there an extension for that harness that I can’t find anywhere, so that I can mount the receiver to my dash?

 

You need to purchase the Nissan/Infiniti specific XM (Clarion) receiver, not a generic receiver kit. They're probably somewhat hard to find from the vendors at this point, so you'd do better to check eBay.

 

Sorry, I thought you were referring to a nissan-specific XM kit, not a generic receiver.

 

Here's the receiver/tuner you will need: http://www.nissaninfinitiparts.com/s...product=294565

 

That's the right one but a ridiculous price. I found my NOS XM receiver for $56 about 18 months ago. Keep searching; you can do better.

Also, to be clear because OP was asking about Sirius and next inquiry was for XM: they are separate receivers specific for the subscription you have. While the formerly two companies are now one, the satellites up in the sky are still different, so be sure to get the right unit for what you currently subscribe to.

 

Of course. That's why I suggested eBay.

I don't believe this is true...I originally bought my Infiniti Sirius receiver in 2004 and was able to update the subscription to use all the siriusXM content a few years ago. Again, this applies to factory satellite receivers, not aftermarket or receivers from Sirius/XM.

Besides, why would a satellite be data specific?

 

Content is different from codec.

Simple answer from siriusXM:
https://listenercare.siriusxm.com/ap...V2TW9ubQ%3D%3D

More technical:
http://www.diffen.com/difference/Sir..._in_Technology

BTW, codec isn't really technically what is different, but I liked the ring of the phrase :-)

 

OK. I didn't see anything about the codec in the link, so I'm not sure what's really different other than the orbits and broadcast frequencies, and the Sirius site lists the factory equipment as an XM receiver, which is wrong since we had the choice of either Sirius or XM receiver back then. But given that basically the content that is streamed is the same between Sirius and XM, does it really matter which one you pick at this point?

 

Yes. It does. Especially if a person is thinking about plugging into the factory harness on first and second gen. There are three choices. Only two of the choices will work for the early Gs; I don't know when (or if) the third [dual] choice might have become an option on the more recent cars.

 

To be fair, I should note that the last time I cared to know about this and did deep research was about 18 months ago. At that time different content was broadcast over the two systems, and you needed the compatible receiver to get the content for one or the other. They may have merged content since then. But back then if you had an XM account and receiver on another car and you wanted to add another vehicle to the account, you had to have an XM receiver to do that. It could have changed. But this fact is certain: if you have an XM receiver, you cannot get the signal broadcast by the Sirius satellites and vice versa.

 

That's the only difference that matters. Does your FM radio pick up cellphone signals? It's just different frequencies, right?

Since they merged content, it shouldn't matter which you have now, provided you're in the satellite footprint for the receiver you have.