Toyota Tundra Forum

That's good that the center speaker location works for the Sirius antenna too. Good news for anyone else putting in a satellite radio.

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2007 SR5 Crewmax 5.7L 4x4
Mods: nerf bars, Truxedo tonneau, radar detector power, 3M clear bra, fog lights, black billet grille, rear differential breather, parking sensors, Line-X, power tailgate lock, hood safety latch mod, one off driving lights behind grille, Pioneer NAV w/ OEM camera, Flowmaster 50 SUV dual/dual, blue LED dash lights, Volant CAI, Llumar tint, CompuStar Pro alarm, ProComp 6066 20" wheels, Cooper Zeon LTZ 275/60/20 tires, OME HD coilover lift, Firestone helper air bags, stereo cable lock, Tekonsha P3 brake controller
All mod descriptions and pictures © 2007-2009 by Toxarch. They may be copied only for personal use and the mods may be done for non-profit only.

I may have to reroute my Sirius antenna to this location.

What kind of signal strength are you getting??

Thanks, re.ac.tor

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'10 CM SR5 4x2, S.A. Built & Purchased Sept '09, 5.7L, Sandy Beach Metallic, Drug Information in Lay Language

How do you measure the signal strength re.ac.tor?

I have the after-market Sirius (plugs into the back of the JBL radio) and mounted my antenna in the center dash area using double sided tape at the junction of the bottom of the windshield and the front edge of the dash (hiding the antenna wire in the foam between the windshield and front dash area) and occasionally lose satellite signal for no apparent reason. I am beginning to believe either I have a bad connection somewhere or have poor placement of the antenna. Measuring the signal strength might help me track down the problem. I was really trying to avoid having to place the antenna outside if I can avoid it. Thanks!

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2007 Tundra Limited Double Cab 4x4 Super White
Volant CAI
Pioneer AVIC Z-2 (hard drive upgrade to AVIC Z-3)
Key FOB Tailgate Lock (courtesy of Toxarch)
OEM back-up camera w/flip down monitor microswitch mod
Sirius Satellite Radio
WeatherTech Floor Liners
20" OEM alloy wheels
Line-X Bed liner
UWS Black Powdercoat Low Profile Toolbox
DU-HA underseat storage unit
JC Whitney Black Nerf Bars
Lund Interceptor II Bug Shield
Tekonsha Voyager Brake Controller

rarjar, most of those antennas work MUCH better when they have metal underneath them. Don't ask me why. Make sure you have a metal plate (ferrous) under it. Might help boost your signal and stop your signal loss if you don't have the plate. If you have the metal plate under it, then you might have to go for the roof as it might be you cab roof is blocking the signal when you head in certain directions, most likely North.

Good advice on the metal plate Tox, and no, I do not currently have one underneath it (that is unless I somehow got lucky and there happens to be sheetmetal underneath the dash skin). What makes this confusing is it seems to have nothing to do with driving north. If fact, I can be driving west (or east) and the signal will be fine for a while, and then I will get one to several short durations of "no signal" (no overpasses or obstructions) with it coming back on its own. The last trip I made to San Saba (mostly driving west), I never had a single loss of signal until I was over 3 hours into the drive, then I had several occasions it lost signal over a stretch of 10-15 miles, then it worked fine the rest of the way. Did the same thing but sooner on the return trip to East Texas (driving east).

You know, I might just take your advice and temporarily mount a metal plate underneath the antenna where it sits and see if that fixes the problem. If so, I can then do a more permanent fix. Thanks for the suggestion.

Have a look at this picture:



The black metal plate under the antenna is thin and flimsy, but it came with the NAV and it seems to work fine. It's a ferrous metal so the magnet in the antenna is magnetized right to it, no need for tape. I just used double sided tape under the flat metal plate in case I needed to move it later if I had bad reception.

rar,

Some of the Sirius radios have a signal strength meter built in. You will have to fiddle around with yours to see if yours offers this. My cheap-arse InV model does - it is under the "Menu" button, then go to "Signal". The sreen will give you a bar-type signal strength meter and may also tell you where you are getting your signal from (satellite or terrestrial repeater).

Reception gets tricky in the large towns. Outside of Cowtown I get 100% of the bars from the Satellite but, in town my radio shows I have switched over to terrestrial signal repeaters and sometimes the reception goes down. The radio seems to have a preference for terrestrial signal repeaters even when the antenna has a clear view of the sky. I don't know why - it seems like the programmers would program the radio to select the strongest signal be it from the satellite or repeater.

Let us know what you find out.

re.ac.tor

Since my Sirius is not the external type and the only display shows in the JBL radio, I doubt I have the signal strength option. That said, I'll fiddle with it this weekend to see. You know, now that I think about it, I could hook my wife's external Sirus radio up to my antenna and get the signal strength off her unit. Thanks again for everyone's suggestions...I'll keep you posted on what I find out.

Hey toxarch,

Great write up and install, I plan on putting in the same HU. Wondering if you have the sterring wheel control and if you got it to work? Is the HU work as good as they say?
Thank you the help.

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2007 White CM, TRD, 4x4

I don't have the steering wheel controls so I can't help too much with that.

As far as the head unit, I think it's great. The nav is wonderful to have. If I am going anywhere I am not too sure of the location, I just find the address and punch it in. When I went down to South Texas to meet up with rarjar, it was great to have on the country highways. I did the split map screen where one screen was zoomed in and the other was zoomed out a little. I could see what the road did ahead (curve, straight, twist, whatever) before I ever got to it. So I knew ahead of time if I needed to slow down or if I could open her up a bit. The music on the hard drive is a nice feature too. It records the CDs the first time you play them and then you never have to insert the CD in again, it's already on the hard drive. I did that and I burned a bunch of MP3s on a disc (100 songs or so) so it will read right off the disc and doesn't need the hard drive space for everything. Two big thumbs up on this head unit.

The only part I didn't like is that it only records the CDs as you listen to them. You can't just insert the CD and let it copy all at once or while you listen to the radio. So it takes a lot of driving to get the time to burn a bunch of discs. I'm thinking I might connect the charger to the battery and just let it copy for a few hours and a few discs each night while parked in the garage.