How to get Sirius/XM in a Tesla

[Wennfred]

Have you tried the FM transmitter part? That’s what I use to get the signal over to the console, set the radio frequency to which ever you want.

Fred

 

[Germ]

I don't want to use the FM transmitter. I would lose the ability to control the unit from the steering wheel and lose artwork (plus get lower quality sound). Not an even an option

 

[TomServo]

SXM phone app, set the audio quality to HIGH and BT stream it to the audio system, it sounds fabulous in a Tesla.

 

[crackers8199]

SXM phone app, set the audio quality to HIGH and BT stream it to the audio system, it sounds fabulous in a Tesla.

as we always ask every time someone mentions this idea... how well does that work when there's no cell service?

 

[crackers8199]

I don't want to use the FM transmitter. I would lose the ability to control the unit from the steering wheel and lose artwork (plus get lower quality sound). Not an even an option

if you use the FM direct adapter the sound quality is just fine, and you can buy the remote to control it. gives you more control than the steering wheel anyway...

 

[Germ]

if you use the FM direct adapter the sound quality is just fine, and you can buy the remote to control it. gives you more control than the steering wheel anyway...

Anyways, I can see that you like FM but I find having a dedicated bluetooth unit has certain advantages. For sure, I’ll never go the FM route

 

[crackers8199]

Anyways, I can see that you like FM but I find having a dedicated bluetooth unit has certain advantages. For sure, I’ll never go the FM route

if you can figure out a way to get the phone to connect, i'd agree with you. til then, i'll stick with being able to use my phone and the radio at the same time.

edit: here's the manual. the word "phone" is only mentioned one time in the entire thing, and it's referencing connection to a hotspot. i doubt getting your phone to connect to this thing is actually possible...if it were, they would have surely mentioned it in the manual considering it would be a huge selling point for vehicle owners like us who cannot connect multiple devices to their car at the same time.

https://siriusretail.com/Product Support/Tour_User_Guide_with_Vehicle_Kit_200711a.pdf

as long as you can't have the phone and the radio connected at the same time, IMO any potential advantages there may be (and i agree there are a few) are outweighed by that one HUGE disadvantage. i'm hopeful that eventually tesla will somehow enable this in software (assuming the bluetooth chip in the car has the ability for multiple bluetooth connections and they just haven't configured it in the software).

 

[dmurphy]

if you can figure out a way to get the phone to connect, i'd agree with you. til then, i'll stick with being able to use my phone and the radio at the same time.

I’ve been doing my level best to NOT take phone calls in the car. As odd as it sounds - I prefer to avoid the distraction these days. I must be getting old.

That said - I pickup my Tour tomorrow. My current XM/BT Dock was planned as a stopgap until the Tour was released ... will post more details shortly!

 

[crackers8199]

I’ve been doing my level best to NOT take phone calls in the car. As odd as it sounds - I prefer to avoid the distraction these days. I must be getting old.

That said - I pickup my Tour tomorrow. My current XM/BT Dock was planned as a stopgap until the Tour was released ... will post more details shortly!

i don't use my phone in the car a whole lot, but my main concern with it is emergency calls. if my wife calls and needs me for something and i can't answer because my phone is in my pocket and not connected to the car, that's a problem.

my mom is 72, if she's visiting us and falls and can't get ahold of me because my phone is in my pocket and i can't answer it in the car (this actually happened when she was visiting at christmas, but because i was in the grocery store and had forgotten to turn off DnD), that's a problem. less of a problem in this case because i got it out of my pocket to check the shopping list and saw that she had called...but if i'm on a longer drive, that time wasted between the time someone calls with an emergency and the time i stop driving and get to look at the phone to call them back could make a bad situation infinitely worse.

as it is now, even if i forget to turn off DnD in the morning, i know calls to me are always going to get through if i'm in the car because the car bluetooth will always be connected and it will always ring on screen in the car. if i have the bluetooth connected to the XM dock instead, that doesn't happen. hopefully never is an issue, but i don't like the idea of taking the chance.

if it actually is possible to get your phone connected to the tour (and by extension have both it and the tour connected to the car at the same time), please do post back how you did it...that would definitely be a game changer.

 

[dmurphy]

i don't use my phone in the car a whole lot, but my main concern with it is emergency calls. if my wife calls and needs me for something and i can't answer because my phone is in my pocket and not connected to the car, that's a problem.

my mom is 72, if she's visiting us and falls and can't get ahold of me because my phone is in my pocket and i can't answer it in the car (this actually happened when she was visiting at christmas, but because i was in the grocery store and had forgotten to turn off DnD), that's a problem. less of a problem in this case because i got it out of my pocket to check the shopping list and saw that she had called...but if i'm on a longer drive, that time wasted between the time someone calls with an emergency and the time i stop driving and get to look at the phone to call them back could make a bad situation infinitely worse.

as it is now, even if i forget to turn off DnD in the morning, i know calls to me are always going to get through if i'm in the car because the car bluetooth will always be connected and it will always ring on screen in the car. if i have the bluetooth connected to the XM dock instead, that doesn't happen. hopefully never is an issue, but i don't like the idea of taking the chance.

if it actually is possible to get your phone connected to the tour (and by extension have both it and the tour connected to the car at the same time), please do post back how you did it...that would definitely be a game changer.

What we need is some form of Bluetooth multiplexer. Wonder if I can cobble something together with a Pi Zero ...? Now there’s a thought ...

 

[Germ]

dmurphy: Let us know how it goes on your end. The unit clearly refers to adding phone calls through the unit as well with bluetooth. I wonder if it's my iPhone that's limiting this feature. The Tour is based on Android OS, so perhaps an Android phone would be better.

Once you pair your Tour with your Tesla, make sure that you don't accept contacts on your Tour unit. It was causing a constant disconnection at first on my unit

 

[crackers8199]

What we need is some form of Bluetooth multiplexer. Wonder if I can cobble something together with a Pi Zero ...? Now there’s a thought ...

I actually thought about that and tried it a while back, before I went the FM route...I had the pi connected to the car but I couldn't get any audio to play, and gave up on it.

if you'd like to take a shot I think it theoretically should be possible...let me know if there's any way I can help.

 

[Ocelot]

I missed that. But now that I've read it I'm out. The fact that you have to choose between your phone or the BT adapter for the Onyx is a deal breaker for me. I wish they'd offer a tuner that worked more like Echo Auto where it was a real tuner, but all controlled via an app on your phone. My biggest reason for wanting a real Sirius/XM adapter is not because I don't like their app, it's fine, it's that I want to still be able to listen in areas where I get poor/no cell receptions. Which, being in the mountains, is a lot of places. FM reception isn't all that great in these places either, so the regular radio isn't always even an option. Which means I have to resort to my personal music collection which is pretty small. (I'm not a big music guy, just like having something to listen to in the car)

This is currently our biggest issue. We have so many places with no reception, we are left to listen to whatever we have downloaded, which is a constant effort of downloading new thiings. Why oh why does Tesla not make this eas?

Hello,

I am happy to confirm that I have finally received and installed my SiriusXM Tour. First the good news, it works well over bluetooth and you have access to artwork on your Tesla screen, some controls with the steering wheel (pause, skip, etc.) and it seems that you are even able to connect your phone to take calls as well.

Now the bad news, it took me almost 2 hours yesterday to get it setup with SiriusXM as this unit is a newer one and has a different Radio ID for which they didn't know what to do. I had to speak to 3 different agents in order to get it doing (and I was able to keep my lifetime account on it too). Another thing is that the bluetooth setup is keep flimsy. I had a lot of difficulty to get the car to keep the bluetooth connection and I had to repair multiple times in order to get a firm connection (it now works flawlessly).

I would appreciate if someone else that purchases this unit could help with getting the phone to work. As you can see, there are options to also connect your phone but I was not able to make it work yet. It shows that there are some guides online to help, but I couldn't find a section that mentions this. That would be the cherry on the sundae if I could get this going.

Installation was a breeze. Routing the antenna wire to the central console was extremely easy and there is no wire to be seen anywhere. I have installed the unit in my AbstractOcean console tray. Everything closes perfectly. Once I receive a USB power cable, I will use automotive tape to keep it firmly in place.

Hopefully it will convince other Tesla owners to give SiriusXM a chance in their vehicle!

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When I bought mine used from Tesla, I get all sorts of noises and groans when turning at a slow speed or at a stop as well. Good luck having them admit to fix that, they tell me noises are normal.

Question for you. Are you able to scroll through your favourite channels from the wheel? I ask, as I have a few old receivers with physical buttons I can use, which might be easier to change channel if cannot use wheel. .... but would like to upgrade.

 

[Germ]

I haven't been able to change channel with the wheel yet. I can pause, rewind or fast forward at the moment.

Question for you. Are you able to scroll through your favourite channels from the wheel? I ask, as I have a few old receivers with physical buttons I can use, which might be easier to change channel if cannot use wheel. .... but would like to upgrade.

 

[Germ]

I just thought of an alternate solution that could get us both our phones and SiriusXM through bluetooth. They sell rear-view mirror replacement that have bluetooth integrated in them. Changing the rear-view mirror to one of those models could be an easy work around to also allow the use of our phones with bluetooth

 

[crackers8199]

I just thought of an alternate solution that could get us both our phones and SiriusXM through bluetooth. They sell rear-view mirror replacement that have bluetooth integrated in them. Changing the rear-view mirror to one of those models could be an easy work around to also allow the use of our phones with bluetooth

that would theoretically work but the sound wouldn't be thru the car speakers and you wouldn't have screen access. not sure how well that would work considering it wouldn't duck the stereo sound when a call comes in...

 

[Germ]

that would theoretically work but the sound wouldn't be thru the car speakers and you wouldn't have screen access. not sure how well that would work considering it wouldn't duck the stereo sound when a call comes in...

Agreed, it's a compromise to keep everything on bluetooth at the same time.

 

[TomServo]

as we always ask every time someone mentions this idea... how well does that work when there's no cell service?

I have Verizon and have never lost my signal. I don’t travel “off the beaten path”. And if we lose our CELL service we have bigger issues to worry about like phone service.

 

[crackers8199]

I have Verizon and have never lost my signal. I don’t travel “off the beaten path”. And if we lose our CELL service we have bigger issues to worry about like phone service.

that's nice. glad it works for you. doesn't mean your situation is the same as everyone else.

since you didn't want to answer the actual question, I'll do it: if there's no cell service, "just stream it from your phone" doesn't work.

 

[sdribben]

Where did you put the antenna?