Factory OEM SiriusXM nearly working in Tesla 2022 Model 3

[crackers8199]

good thing I didn't get my hopes up. that "fix" lasted about 20 minutes.

static is back. not as bad as last night and what I showed in that video, but still bad.

doesn't appear to be my tuner, considering I put the original FM tuner back in and had the same result but on FM...so I guess it's either the harness or my MCU. neither of which is a cheap fix, I'm sure. great.

 

[crackers8199]

mobile service wants me to detail instances of when this is happening so they can troubleshoot. debating whether i want to bother putting the old radio back in, or just detail when it happens with the SXM tuner (again, verified last night that it does still happen with the old tuner too, so it's not an issue with the tuner itself). maybe i'll just leave the new tuner in and switch to FM once it starts going haywire, and then document that time and pass it on.

also, this seems to not be related to this mod since it happens with the old tuner as well...so if there's a mod watching that wants to create a separate thread for this particular issue and move all of my posts out of here into that one, by all means feel free.

 

[crackers8199]

I am pretty sure one of the leads off the antenna is just for noise filtering (via destructive interference) within the amp. On the other hand the fakra just has one wire for signal (the inner one) while there is a braided wire around it for EMI filtering. You should be able to trace the ground wire and use either aerial for the signal.

As for specs, I couldn't find any for a double fakra connector but it implies a power connection with the color so maybe the tuner is designed to handle it anyways? I feel like you have to be at least an automotive engineer to talk about this stuff in a semi-competent capacity.

the two rear window antenna lines seem to come to the two outside pins of the backlight connector...would that make the middle the ground?

 

[PhilCaps]

Is the tuner grounded with that tab on the lower left side?

 

[crackers8199]

Is the tuner grounded with that tab on the lower left side?

I've tried both with and without. made no difference.

one thing I may try this weekend is making sure the connections to the amp are solid...the body damage I had fixed a few months ago that we talked about was in that corner. maybe they just didn't get all the connections put back together tight. I've seen other threads saying that loose wires to the amp can cause all sorts of havoc.

 

[crackers8199]

so, this is interesting. I felt like doing some experimenting...not related to my static issue, but still interesting.

this works. perfectly. stations list is back and everything.

it works with just the two outside pins from the ribbon connected, but the stations list was still missing and I still had that weird signal strength thing going on where it kept flipping between full signal and no signal even though the station never dropped out. as soon as I connected that middle pin...everything lit up. and this is even without the main antenna fakra connector that's already at the tuner connected...this is just the ribbon cable.

this indicates that the second amp is definitely not necessary (and could even be causing issues, since I was seeing all that weird behavior with it in place and now it's working perfectly without it).

I'm going to try what I mentioned earlier and cut my fakra extension in half, solder three jumper wires to it, and hook it all up that way. will keep you all posted.

 

[crackers8199]

update on this: just connecting the three jumper wires to the fakra does not work. not entirely sure why, but it doesn't work. not only does it not work, there's no signal whatsoever...it's as if the antenna connection isn't being made at all.

granted, i'm not at all familiar with the internal workings of a fakra connector, so i'm open to ideas from anyone who might have an idea why connecting the three jumpers to the dual fakra as in the picture above works, but connecting them to a fakra connector and then to one end of the dual fakra does nothing.

 

[crackers8199]

another update: the only way I get "normal" radio operation is with the middle pin connected from the ribbon cable. even with the other antenna connected, my FM reception is super weak until I touch a jumper wire from the ribbon to the middle pin on the other fakra connector.

the strange thing though is that I can't get it to work with the fakra connector itself... I tried stripping it down to the center connector and connecting the jumper to it (which should be the same as having it touch that center pin, unless I'm missing something)...and still, nothing. the only way I've been able to get it to work is by holding the wire there, which obviously isn't feasible.

I'm out of ideas and done messing with it for now. if anyone has any thoughts though, I'm all ears.

 

[ph0ton]

another update: the only way I get "normal" radio operation is with the middle pin connected from the ribbon cable. even with the other antenna connected, my FM reception is super weak until I touch a jumper wire from the ribbon to the middle pin on the other fakra connector.

the strange thing though is that I can't get it to work with the fakra connector itself... I tried stripping it down to the center connector and connecting the jumper to it (which should be the same as having it touch that center pin, unless I'm missing something)...and still, nothing. the only way I've been able to get it to work is by holding the wire there, which obviously isn't feasible.

I'm out of ideas and done messing with it for now. if anyone has any thoughts though, I'm all ears.

The ground is necessary for a coaxial signal (the center pin off the antenna as you pointed out). The ground may be connected on the fakra via a braided wire (if you cut into it) or via the metal shielding on the connector.

If you leave the fakra ground floating it will just build up resistance and impede the signal.

 

[crackers8199]

The ground is necessary for a coaxial signal (the center pin off the antenna as you pointed out). The ground may be connected on the fakra via a braided wire (if you cut into it) or via the metal shielding on the connector.

If you leave the fakra ground floating it will just build up resistance and impede the signal.

any idea how we can get from the three pins on the ribbon connector to the fakra connector? i've been searching for days and still haven't found a good explanation of how to attach one...

 

[crackers8199]

also starting to wonder if all the static i'm hearing could somehow be ground noise. i remember my first car and having to install a ground loop isolator to make everything work...not sure how we'd even attempt to filter that out on this car. i've seen antenna noise filters, thinking about trying one of those on the xm antenna (although not even sure that would work)...or if somehow the XM and FM inside the tuner could be linked and having the FM not connected completely (not connected at all at the moment) is allowing noise to get in there somehow that's also propagating to the XM signal.

just spitballing ideas. i'm really not an expert on this stuff. i know enough to maybe get by, but that's about it.

 

[ph0ton]

No idea on the connection. I might solder the wire and the shielding to the jumpers and then wrap in electrical tape. There might be elegant fakra adapters too but would be too expensive for your purposes imo.

As for the distortion, it doesn't seem digital so I think it is indeed related to other work or problems in the circuitry apart from the XM stuff. I don't know what waveform makes that kind of interference but I would guess ground would just be full of straight noise.

 

[crackers8199]

No idea on the connection. I might solder the wire and the shielding to the jumpers and then wrap in electrical tape. There might be elegant fakra adapters too but would be too expensive for your purposes imo.

As for the distortion, it doesn't seem digital so I think it is indeed related to other work or problems in the circuitry apart from the XM stuff. I don't know what waveform makes that kind of interference but I would guess ground would just be full of straight noise.

the part that confuses me is that it gets so much worse when I bring the cameras up on screen, and subsides a bit when I close them. also that it seems to quiet down when the car sits long enough to sleep, but is consistently bad once the car is warmed up.

 

[crackers8199]

@ph0ton another new development: now, it doesn't work with only the main antenna connection nor does it work with both connected with the second amplifier.

it does still work if i connect it the way i showed in the picture late last week.

i have no idea where to go from here. i'm almost thinking that somehow it's the FM antenna connection (or lack thereof) that is causing issues with the entire tuner, and introducing the static. that doesn't make much sense to me, but i have no other ideas.

 

[crackers8199]

update: at the risk of jinxing it, my static issues have dramatically improved on 2022.36.6. it's much better, so far, in the 3 days or so i've had it installed. still not completely gone, but no longer so bad that i want to drive off a cliff trying to listen to it.

two other things of note: i have the FM radio completely disconnected and removed from the sources list, and i did not install the top left bolt that butts up against the SXM antenna connector. no clue if either of those things matter, but i figured i'd throw them out there as a full disclosure.

i'm hopeful that the regular FM improvements they made in one of these recent updates have something to do with fixing my sound issues and we won't go backwards on this...but we'll see.

 

[ph0ton]

Did you ever try connecting the FM ground (center?) lead to the shielding of the fakra connector (the metal part which protrudes a bit) and one of the FM signals to the center?

Interesting idea about leaving that bolt disconnected. It shouldn't affect the grounding, it might affect the heat sinking, but there is a good chance the force on the satellite connector causes the signal to short out.

That being said, there are so many complaints about Sirius XM in the Model S forum that I think we can almost assume everything is working as designed (badly).

 

[crackers8199]

Did you ever try connecting the FM ground (center?) lead to the shielding of the fakra connector (the metal part which protrudes a bit) and one of the FM signals to the center?

i think i tried that, but i'm not sure. maybe i'll give that another shot later, although i'm hesitant now to mess with it since it's working well now for SXM which is all i really care about (i almost never used FM as it was).

Interesting idea about leaving that bolt disconnected. It shouldn't affect the grounding, it might affect the heat sinking, but there is a good chance the force on the satellite connector causes the signal to short out.

i've been trying to find a spacer which will allow the bolt to be connected but not push up against the antenna, but i haven't found one yet. 6.2mm is the correct inner diameter, but 11m outer was still too thick. it would probably have to be something like 7mm or 8mm outer, which i don't think exists (would make the wall itself only 1mm or 2mm, which is probably too thin to offer any support).

does something like a half-circle or 3/4-circle spacer exist that would allow spacing on the top end but not push up against the bolt?

That being said, there are so many complaints about Sirius XM in the Model S forum that I think we can almost assume everything is working as designed (badly).

sad, but true. at least with decent sound quality though as i have now, i can deal with the other quirks. it was the constant horrific static that was making me reconsider (although since the static was present on FM too, not sure that would have done much good other than if i would have gone to the roady BT).

 

[crackers8199]

since we're updating on software versions here, i just got 2022.40.4. SXM still works. static issues still reduced (so far, i've only had 40.x for a few hours) from being completely awful in 22.x and better in 36.6.

 

[crackers8199]

static and horrific sound quality back with a vengeance.

the sound system in this car is infuriating.

 

[crackers8199]

and we're back to being somewhat normal again. i don't get it.

the one thing i did do between then and now is clear out my sentry USB. not that it should have any impact on what the sound system sounds like, but given elon's horrific management of twitter so far...can't say it's impossible.