Poor Sirius reception?

[mbaran]

http://imgur.com/vAlMWKi

The P/N didn't change, it's still 18936, but there's a note that there's a variant of it for cars after 12/2/15

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[snarkipus]

Ahhhh ... you've a keen eye sir! Your Google-Fu is impressive.

 

[mbaran]

I cross posted this thread in the Escape and F150 forums about a week ago. Someone on the Escape forum found that.

Unfortunately, fordparts.com doesn't tell us anything about the part revision. I was considering asking my dealer to forward that info to the engineer, but I suspect they'll go with the default "apples and oranges" comparison since they're different cars, regardless that the issue exists on all 3 cars similarly.

 

[mbaran]

bumping for a new week, but my regional rep did tell me that there may be SOMETHING the the engineers found but they will not give me anything more concrete.

Will keep updating.

 

[eric n]

My wife drives a 2015 Lexus GS350. Prior to that she drove a 2013 Edge Limited, My last car was a 2011 Mustang GT, all of them had nearly flawless reception. Pretty much never dropping a connection. While the sound isn't always the highest quality I really enjoy sirius for sports, news, comedy.... This car has been absolutely abysmal in this area.

 

[OEMRadio]

What you're saying about sync 3 cars may be true.. SYNC 3 has an antenna splitter to split the signal to the sat radio and gps.. SYNC 3 uses a GPS antenna unlike SYNC 2.. that may be the issue.. Sounds very likely

 

[mbaran]

Did the P/N for the roof antenna change between 2015 and 2016 cars though?

 

[OEMRadio]

Yeah, the issue seems to exist with Sync 3 cars, but the antenna was the same on the Escape for all cars Sync 2 or 3. Until 12/2/15 they got a new antenna.

I wish I knew someone at Ford who could tell the difference, or why it was switched. Like I said, maybe they knew the old antenna doesn't work well on Sync 3 while it worked well with Sync 2.

I bet it has to do with a better dual band antenna.. they used to use one antenna for both GPS and SAT radio in the cars prior to MFT.. MFT cars the antenna is strictly for Sat radio.. then Sync 3 they went back to splitting the antenna signal again.. so maybe they are finding out the antenna wasn't property suited for that..

 

[mbaran]

You seem to know more about it than any of the engineers/tech hotline people my dealer have spoken to.

My dealer also had a customer with a '16 Navigator with Sync3, same problems. Came from an MFT car and did not have the issues.

 

[OEMRadio]

You seem to know more about it than any of the engineers/tech hotline people my dealer have spoken to.

My dealer also had a customer with a '16 Navigator with Sync3, same problems. Came from an MFT car and did not have the issues.

Well.. I have worked on Sync 3 quite a bit.. and the first thing I noticed was the splitter on the antenna.. it is under the console next to the brake handle.. and yes that spitter is there regardless if you have Sync 3 with Nav or not.. if they didn't change antennas.. I am sure that is the issue.

If you are starting to see a part number change then they caught on and found out they may have forgotten to do an antenna change..

 

[mbaran]

Could I theoretically pop the console and replace the Sirius side of the antenna split with a standard Sirius antenna for testing?

That would be an easier entry point than behind the display or under the headliner.

 

[OEMRadio]

Could I theoretically pop the console and replace the Sirius side of the antenna split with a standard Sirius antenna for testing?

That would be an easier entry point than behind the display or under the headliner.

Yes.. if you want to narrow it down.. you would actually need to pull the radio .. and plug into the radio sat antenna port.. only thing is that the factory antenna plug is not the same as an aftermarket antenna plug.. they have adapters.. you just would have to get one...

I cant remember the exact configuration of the splitter.. but I think the antenna has the splitter part on it without any connections.. so you wouldn't be able to unplug anything as it is built in one piece.. the old ones you could unplug...

 

[snarkipus]

Just as an aside, at one of the usual drop out spots on my commute I happened to look up and there was a cell tower in direct line of sight just off the highway. This seems to correlate with a lot of the data in this post so far.

 

[mbaran]

Ditto. I get hit on the 110 by Staples by a huge antenna and another by LAX.

But it doesn't do it in any other car I've ever owned (Sirius or XM) nor in my fiancee's 2014 Focus with MFT.

 

[OEMRadio]

Right.. when you have marginal signal outside.. "environmental interference" becomes much more an issue..

Things that don't affect a strong signal are much more likely to affect a poor to weak signal..

Since Satellite doesn't show signs of bad signal like AM/FM does like static.. you won't know until it just drops out.. There is a diag screen you can go into.. Ill look to see if there is a sat radio section

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