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Sirius XM Reception


Rinkydink

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Up early today and took a quick ride before the storms come tomorrow. I got a free one year subscription to SiriusXM with my bike purchase and activated it last night. It spits, it sputters, drops out for 30 seconds, comes back on for 5 seconds. Talk about crap. The TFT says “Sirius signal lost” or something to that effect. Anyone else experience this?  

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It could be a poor location of the antenna ring or loose connection.   If I recall, you have a '22 model, which has a newer front fairing design and maybe a different layout for the harness than my '19.   I have not had any issues that I can relate to anything other than normal reception issues - going into the garage, in the hilly, tree-lined terrain in the twisties.   

 

You should get it to the dealer to have them address the issue and get it on record.  First world problems, I know, but that was part of the "package" when yo bought the bike, even if it was never a priority.

 

Also, a thought occurred to me:  go online to SirusXM and try to do a refresh for your unit.   You will need the S/N, which can be found in the settings, about.

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TracerBullet

The 22 has the new “mushroom” antenna on the dash. Some people have been talking about it with the 21’s and have relocated the antenna to the rear of the bike

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Rinkydink, I have the same problem on my 2022 R1250RT.  From what I have found it's the location of the antenna, it's talked about in other forums.  I have temperately installed an XM antenna I had laying around on the top of my top case, it works perfectly.    I think BMW needs to address this and come up with a permanent fix.  I enjoy XM, it worked great on my 14R1200RT and held off buying the the new RT until the radio's became available.  I have my 600 service scheduled this Thursday.  I'll be talking with my dealer!

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2 hours ago, strataj said:

Rinkydink, I have the same problem on my 2022 R1250RT.  From what I have found it's the location of the antenna, it's talked about in other forums.  I have temperately installed an XM antenna I had laying around on the top of my top case, it works perfectly.    I think BMW needs to address this and come up with a permanent fix.  I enjoy XM, it worked great on my 14R1200RT and held off buying the the new RT until the radio's became available.  I have my 600 service scheduled this Thursday.  I'll be talking with my dealer!

Yes, I’ve read about this on other forums. I don’t use a top box and am anxious to hear what your dealer says. I don’t really want to mess with moving the existing antenna but have considered buying another off brand antenna from Amazon and placing it somewhere on the back of the bike. They are cheap enough and I can always remove it later if need be. My dealer is 300 miles away (😡) so minor things like this are a hassle. Please post or pm what your dealer suggests. Thanks. 

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3 minutes ago, Rinkydink said:

Yes, I’ve read about this on other forums. I don’t use a top box and am anxious to hear what your dealer says. I don’t really want to mess with moving the existing antenna but have considered buying another off brand antenna from Amazon and placing it somewhere on the back of the bike. They are cheap enough and I can always remove it later if need be. My dealer is 300 miles away (😡) so minor things like this are a hassle. Please post or pm what your dealer suggests. Thanks. 

I don't think the dealer will have a suggestion. Before delivery I talked with my sales guy, all news to him, I asked him to talk with his BMW rep since the radio just come out.  In my option this need to go to BMW N.A., if not the dealer will just want to replace the antenna.  I'm 80 plus miles one way to the dealer and those miles can be bad with traffic.  I'm having bad arthritis in both hips so riding for me isn't the pleasure as in the past, it's getting worse so surgery is going to be in my future.  I can't/won't do wasted trips to the dealership...  If you care about listening to XM I'd add the antenna, mine is just taped down with blue tape, holds good and will come off as if it was never there.  I hope BMW comes up with a solution. 

 

I'm waiting for a windshield from Quiet Ride, not sure when it will ship since this is the new  medium smoke/gray tint.  The stock windshield is nosey for me but so was my 14 and the Quiet Ride fixed that.   

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Rinkydink… I have this antenna in my collection of stuff. Not sure if it would work for you or not. If you want it, pm me your address and I will send to you

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I listen to the SiriusXM radio while riding long distance, and it usually works fine.  But if I am in a narrow canyon, it cuts out.  Or if I am riding in a "tree tunnel" it sometimes cuts out.  But as long as I have clear skies overhead, it works great.  I suppose you might try relocating the antenna.  I installed an LED low beam headlight the slow way, by removing all my front bodywork on my 2019 RT.  In the process I found the SiriusXM antenna under there. It seems like it would be pretty simple to move.

 

Cap

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konacyclist

I have a new 2022 R1250RT with SiriusXM. My experience with poor reception is similar to Rinkydink's. I hope a solution is forthcoming. My prior experience with SiriusXM reception issues is that antenna performance/failures are often the culprit.

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I ordered an antenna from Amazon. Thanks to Skywagon for offering up AND shipping an antenna that unfortunately wouldn’t match the plug on the bike. I don’t have a topbox so I mounted the antenna as shown on adhesive backed Velcro. Works perfectly. 

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Rinkydink I used the same antenna.  The plug has  metal shielding I cut it off with a hex saw, easy to do just go very slow not to cut too far you only want to cut off the outside shielding.  I can take a picture later if you like.   The antenna wire is the lavender color one.  It's been working great but with the blue tape holding it down to the top box it looks like shit on a beautiful bike 

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Thanks strataj, but I’ve got it working perfectly. My loss of signal problem is a thing of the past. It’s just a shame a $25k bike and I had to fix it myself. With my dealer 300 miles away things like this are frustrating. 

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  • 4 months later...

I just received my antenna as shown in Rinkydink's previous post but I'm still planning to press BMW and my dealer for an official solution to the reception problem. It's ridiculous to have to find a "work around" on a machine this sophisticated and costly!

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2 hours ago, konacyclist said:

I just received my antenna as shown in Rinkydink's previous post but I'm still planning to press BMW and my dealer for an official solution to the reception problem. It's ridiculous to have to find a "work around" on a machine this sophisticated and costly!

I got my 22R1250RT the end of March, I let my dealer know about reception problems.  I did install a Sirius/XM antenna which worked great, but was just taped to the top case and wasn't my long term solution.  My dealership got a new/replacement antenna and installed that and I've been happy with it but it still not as good as after market one I had.  The new antenna is actually the old antenna (same antenna) that came with my 14R1200RT part # 65218521436

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If I understand you correctly, your dealer replaced your old antenna with part # 65218521436, which corresponds to the same part that was on your 2014 R1200RT. Did it fit within the same exterior housing of the 2022 OEM antenna?  In other words, did it change the appearance? The question remains, to me, was the original antenna that came with our 2022 RT's defective or or did some one at BMW discover that the older part # antenna performed better and reduced the reception problems?

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19 minutes ago, konacyclist said:

If I understand you correctly, your dealer replaced your old antenna with part # 65218521436, which corresponds to the same part that was on your 2014 R1200RT. Did it fit within the same exterior housing of the 2022 OEM antenna?  In other words, did it change the appearance? The question remains, to me, was the original antenna that came with our 2022 RT's defective or or did some one at BMW discover that the older part # antenna performed better and reduced the reception problems?

Correct.  The parts fiche is current I like realoem.com it shows part # 65218521436 being used from 2008-2019 in the RT.  My dealer told me it was larger then the one that came in the 2022RT but it fit in nose of the bike under the plastic.  BMW made this change, the dealer just did the swap out.  The current antenna works way better.  I've been an XM subscriber since they started, they have their signal problems so it's not always the antenna's fault. 

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These are the two things you need to “fix” BMWs crappy XM radio problem.  Amazon delivered right to your door.

 

Takes about two minutes to install and can be removed in the same amount of time.

 

No drilling or breaking of anything.

 

If you don’t have a top case to tape it on, use either side bag.  Mine is on the left side bag and works 100% of the time now.

 

AD

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I ordered and received the antenna shown above but didn't realize I needed the adapter too. I will get one next. Did you see @strataj's dealer fix? I don't know if that was the result of a clever dealer finding a solution or if that was a bulletin fix from BMW.

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2 hours ago, konacyclist said:

I ordered and received the antenna shown above but didn't realize I needed the adapter too. I will get one next. Did you see @strataj's dealer fix? I don't know if that was the result of a clever dealer finding a solution or if that was a bulletin fix from BMW.

It was my dealer reaching out to BMW directly, it took a while for them to come with the fix. 

 

When I used the above XM antenna I carefully cut off the outer shielding, it fit perfect.  The antenna is the pink lavender. 

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This is encouraging to know. I appreciate the resourcefulness of the forum membership but it is also comforting that BMW is not turning a blind eye to what is their problem to correct. Thank you strataj and ADulay!

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