Hello everyone. I'm new at this forum so please forgive my ignorance if this topic was covered previously.

I'm a proud owner of a 2004 325 convertible. I work at a dealership and we took it in on trade and it was so gorgeous I had to buy it. The car has Sirius already installed, and it worked perfectly, until recently. I turned on my car one morning, and across the radio screen flashed "aquiring signal". Before anyone asked, yes my account was current! I called Sirius to try sending out another signal but that didn't work. I took the car to my local dealership and was told they don't have anything that would tell them where the problem was coming from. They just wanted to try slapping new parts on it and see what would work. New antenna? nope, wasn't the antenna. They then told me the receiver in the trunk was bad, and the new receivers from BMW wouldn't work with my radio (BMW business, non Harmon Kardon) so I would need a new receiver and new radio, estimated about $950. I quickly left. I called Sirius to cancel my account. The next day I turned on the car, and put it in Sirius mode (not sure why, just wanted to) and across the screen it scrolled the phone number to call for Sirius. So it must have gotten the signal to turn it off. I've tried since to reactivate the radio but it won't grab a signal.

Any suggestions on what I should do or what to try to do? I really don't want to spend $1,000 to get Sirius back in the car, but listening to regular FM sucks now!

Thanks in advance for any and all help!

try and see if any wires going to your antenna are loose or broken. maybe thats why its not picking up.

That was my first guess too - an antenna problem. But on my stand-alone Sirius receiver, the antenna and cable is all one assembly, all the way back to the receiver box. If that's the same case with the OP's integrated Sirius unit, and they've already tried a replacement antenna, then any remaining antenna-related problems would be caused by the antenna jack on the receiver itself.... requiring, of course, a new receiver.

I would maybe give some of our vendors a call for advice, perhaps EAS (or maybe BSW? can't remember if they carry Sirius). Worst case scenario, they can get you a new Sirius receiver that will work with your existing head unit for much less than $950, and keep you out of the dealership's grasping clutches.


P.S. The radio head units are the same for the premium (Harman Kardon) and standard sound packages. If you have a 2004 model year, then you have the Alpine head unit, which is the newest one (there was a minor change in approximately model year 2005, where the Alpine head units gained the ability to play MP3 CDs). In my opinion, it is exceedingly unlikely that you need a new radio head unit; the dealership telling you that you need a new radio just reeks of incompetence, ignorance, greed, or a combination of the three.

ok, i just have the plug and play xm, its not intergrated, and i had to route my antenna line through the dash and door jam. figured maybe he had a kink in the line somewhere.