[Aldwyn]

I took delivery of my car Wed night 5/14/08, and got my Sirius activated Thursday morning.

Since, I have been having major dropout issues. Sometimes no drop outs at all... othertimes, dropouts can last anywhere from 1 to 20 seconds, and there may be dropouts within a 3 or 4 minutes timespan.

Really unacceptable performance. It makes it not worth listening to.

Anyone else having this issue?

I had XM in my Acura, and it was flawless. Only time I got drop outs were in tunnels and large bridges.

- Aldwyn

[dcar335i]

This has to be an issue with your vehicle. Mine works very well. I get occasional drop-outs when parked under a bridge/garage/etc which is expected.

[psubilly01]

My sirius drops under bridges, tunnels, and anything else that obstructs the signal, including large trees.

On some country roads where trees overhang from both sides for long distances, the signal can be lost for minutes.

[Dolemite79]

ive had siruis in a g35 and my dad has it on his 335i and let me tell you on both radios the signal is always dropping out on both all the damn time meanwhile on the gti we have with XM its never a problem

[BMW///Motorsport]

it just happened in the M6 tonight, for the first time ever, frequent gaps in service. perfect weather, driving along pacific coast highway, no obstructions and no reason to not work

[Kloogy]

I read on a non-car related forum that Sirius is doing upgrades on their system, and that this is the cause . I have Sirius in all my vehicles except for the e92. I haven't noticed it much, but it seems like other people are having this happen, not just BMW guys.

http://www.siriusbackstage.com/forum...d.php?t=107622

[Aldwyn]

Thanks guys!

<scratches head> Not sure what to make of this... if Sirius is working on their stuff, they aint talking about it! They reset my connection, and then said if it continues to have the Bimmah's wiring checked.

My CA said that he has drop outs from time to time when going through trees as well. And sometimes this happens, as mention by psubilly, that when driving down the road with trees on both sides, I get drops, but also as BMW ///Motorsport mentioned, even on open road it does it sometimes.

Dolemite, your experience makes it sound like I better get used to this, and it's simply crappy Sirius signal. If so I am going to be pissed, since I feel like I have wasted $500 on this option, when I could have used it for something else on the car.

Man, I miss XM already.

[Kloogy]

Sell me the Sirius module !

[E92Vancouver]

Originally Posted by Aldwyn

I took delivery of my car Wed night 5/14/08, and got my Sirius activated Thursday morning.

Since, I have been having major dropout issues. Sometimes no drop outs at all... othertimes, dropouts can last anywhere from 1 to 20 seconds, and there may be dropouts within a 3 or 4 minutes timespan.

Really unacceptable performance. It makes it not worth listening to.

Anyone else having this issue?

I had XM in my Acura, and it was flawless. Only time I got drop outs were in tunnels and large bridges.

- Aldwyn

I get the odd cut out under bridges for 2 seconds or less.

[ex-poster]

Been getting more frequent and longer dropouts recently, even in unobstructed areas.

Something's going on, but I don't listen to it too much anymore as the audio quality is so terrible.

[SteveInNC]

I get drop-outs too. Two related issues:

Sirius satellites are geosynchronous, but not geostationary like XM's. The Sirius birds rise and fall below the equator, but at least one is always (allegedly) visible above the horizon. I would expect that at certain times of day, the visible bird(s) might be lower towards the horizon than at others, so you may get more issues with obstructions to Line-Of-Sight.

XM does or did have more terrestrial repeater transmitters for their signal than Sirius, so even when the satellties are obstructed, XM tends to have better coverage in urban areas.

[ex-poster]

OK, something changed.

My dropouts in Chicago have pretty much stopped.

Now, it's hard to tell, but the audio sounds... better. Before it sounded like 64kbps MP3s, now I'd put it on 96 kbps quality level.

Basically, still not good by any means, but better.

Basically I had stopped listening because the quality was sooooo bad, now it's OK and listenable. Again, not good by any means, but improved.

Anyone else with any other reports of better audio?

[CRZ410S]

Originally Posted by psubilly01

My sirius drops under bridges, tunnels, and anything else that obstructs the signal, including large trees.

On some country roads where trees overhang from both sides for long distances, the signal can be lost for minutes.

+1!

According to Sirius they are doing some upgrades to their systems and this should soon stop. However, I do not belive them. XM in my wife's Acura never drops out where the Sirius loses signal???

[Aldwyn]

Just got hoem from a long roadtrip (500 miles each way). No dropouts except the occasional one under a bridge.

I will have to notice now how it acts in areas it would drop before the trip. but I suspect that Sirius just sucks in it's boradcast, and that a few trees are enough to make a difference in signal.

[JTBurn]

No.

[Aldwyn]

Well... no drops around home, except near a microwave tower. So Sirius must have been messing with something, and it's now fixed? <shrug>

[GregL]

I don't have the sat option in my BMW, but I do have Sirius (factory-installed) in my ML550 and based on performance am wondering if they even use repeaters within the city? Driving under a small overpass will cut out the signal, XM on the other hand still works as I'm descending into a parking garage for the first little bit and mind you the antenna is on my dash, not on the roof or anything.