Friends,

I just took delivery on a 2007 Camry Hybrid with navigation and Sirius. The dealer installed Sirius with the fit kit. The antenna is installed at the top of the windshield, to the right of the mirror, in the pattern of dots. I believe that is where the instructions call for.

I'm having all kinds of problems with drop outs / poor reception. My basis for comparison is two years with an Alpine system and an external antenna on a different car. The trouble starts out on the open expressway, anywhere near downtown Chicago. I don't mean on the surface streets surrounded by skyscrapers -- I get that there may be problems there. Instead, I'm talking about just as soon as the skyscrapers, etc. are in sight, but at least 2-3 miles away. In fact, it seems so far from downtown that even mentioning downtown might be a red herring. Some of this, but certainly not all, is explained by passing under overpasses and bridges. Much of it happens out in the open. This happens far more severely, and frequently, in the Camry than it ever did in the other car with the Alpine system.

I've read all the posts I can find about satellite installations in this car here and elsewhere. I've seen some talk of better results of by placing the antenna on the inside near the back window. I've also seen talk of better results by placing the antenna outside, on the rear deck lid. Neither solution seems ideal to me, and I don't know that the dealer will relocate it for me anyway.

I'd appreciate any help in troubleshooting or resolving this issue. Some questions:

Are you using the same installation setup I have in the Chicago area? If so, how is your service?

Regardless of where you live, if you've experienced severe drop outs, what have you done to fix the issue?

Is the Toyota Sirius receiver/brain known to be especially bad? What about the antenna? If it is a problem with the brain itself, I'd probably replace that instead of trying to relocate the antenna. If it is the brain, will other receivers connect to the existing antenna, or will that be a problem, too?

Many thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Cheers

 

I live in Valparaiso, and installed XM radio in my 4-runner. I put the antenna front center hood, right above the mirror, outside the car. I ran the wire down the trough, and covered it with black RTV silicone. I did the same installation on my Corolla. I have had great reception with both vehicles. On my new TCH, I have factory XM installed, and the antenna is inside the vehicle on the rear deck next to the brake light. The reception is good, but not as good as the 4-runner. There are more "drop-out" areas due to the roof. If I had my choice on the camry, it would be either rooftop center above the driver's mirror, or top center truck lid (I think someone in another thread posted a picture of this). Hope this helps you.

 

I know of the trouble you speak...
There is a section of highway that for almost ten miles the reception of the Sirius in the TCH either breaks constantly, or drops off entirely! I never had this problem before with my Starmate in my 02 Camry, or my recently traded in Mazda with the factory integrated Bose headunit!

It may just be the Sigma antenna, sure it looks great in the dark spot and out of eyesight, but if it can't get any better than marginal reception, what's the point?

Maybe a booster for the Sigma is available... I'm calling my service dept. and asking today, I'll let you know what I find out.

 

Thanks. Please do. My dealer is being reasonable about it, and I think they will end up moving that or another antenna to an outside location if I want. I'd obviously prefer to keep it inside, but not at the cost of such lousy reception.

Cheers.

 

I have the same problem. I live in Phoenix and I have an 07 Camry with dealer installed Sirius. I had Sirius on other cars with exterior roof magnetic mount antennas and had no dropouts.

But with the Sigma antenna installed on the inside of the window to the right of the rear view mirror, I think its getting poor signal strength. I hope there is somthing we can do. I'm going to take the Camry back to the dealer and have the tech look at it. I hope they have seen this before and know of a way to improvise an fix.

I'm sure its too much to hope that Toyota knows this is a problem and has a plan to fix it.

If this NO SIGNAL keeps up, I'm liable to get mad and rip the antenna off the window and stick it out the window. ARGH.

 

An update from Chicago. My dealer determined that Toyota made an antenna for the soft-top Solara that was designed to be mounted on the outside of the car, and would also fit with my equipment on the inside of the car. He wanted to put that antenna on the rear deck lid, and I figured that was sure to make a big difference. So, I drove the car in last night and called this morning to make sure everything was underway (and also to ask them to look at an issue regarding the fit of the dashboard near the A-pillar).

My service guy reports that, despite the paperwork they saw, the outdoor/Solara antenna does not work with the equipment inside my car. Crap! So now they've got my car, and I've got one of their loaners. They are scrambling to figure out if there are any other antennas that could be used on the exterior of the car, or whether there are any other ideas on where to mount the existing antenna elsewhere in the car.

I really hate the idea of just moving the antenna over, away from the dots, but still at the top of the windshield. Does anyone live in an urban area, with their OEM antenna mounted somewhere in the car other than behind the mirror? I thought I'd seen elsewhere, though I've lost track of it now, that some dealers were putting the antenna in the back window. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

I live in the Chicagoland area and have XM now, I had Sirius previously. I have read multiple times at multiple sites that installing the antenna inside of the vehicle is not the most optimal place and to top it off you are obstructing the view of the satellite with the coating on the windshield as you described. I know depending on the make/model receiver you have they recommend installing the antenna as close to the radio antenna as possible. I currently have mine mounted on the roof just right of center above the windshield as that is where my vehicle radio antenna is mounted on the glass. I used to have the mag mounted antenna sitting on the dash of my Expedition when I had it and would occasionally lose signal. Once I mounted the antenna externally I never had a problem. The only spot you can see the antenna wire is the little portion(1/2in to 1in) that runs on the roof to the antenna. Personally I would have them mount it externally.

 

Thanks for that insight, Dan. Since my post earlier today, the dealer has come back to me with this: he thinks that the Sirius antenna Toyota used on the 2005 Land Cruiser was external, and will fit the Sirius tuner I have in the Camry now. It's coming in tomorrow, so by tomorrow night I should know if that antenna has fixed the problem. He isn't sure where he will place the external antenna, but it will either be on the roof, or the trunk lid. That decision is basically going to be driven by how long the cable is on the antenna.

My preference, cosmetically, is on the trunk, but at this point I could live with the roof, too. In fact, I'm not completely clear where the AM/FM antenna is on the Camry. I think it is integrated into the rear window glass, but I'm not sure. If that's the case, putting the Sirius antenna on the trunk might be a good solution. Hope so!

Thanks again.

 

Where does the XM antenna mount on these? Do they seem to work? My reason for asking is, on my Xm factory equipped Chev pickup, I switched to a sirius receiver and am using my factory XM antenna. It works fine on my truck. Might work on the TCH

 

Good luck. It is pretty easy to hide the cable. I was leary about removing the trim on the inside of my car, but took my time and got everything off ok and made it look nice. When I finally get my own TCH which i think will be around Feb. I will just install my SkyFi2. Then when the weather warms up I am probably going to install the unit to the factory radio.

If I remember right it was recommended to install the antenna near the fm radio antenna if you were using the FM modulator. Since you won't be doing this then you won't need to worry about placing it near the antenna. Now that I just thought about it I might not wait to install directly to the head unit as I currently use the tape deck adapter. I don't believe the TCH has a tape deck so that would mean I would have to use the FM modulator again which is very weak. Glad I just realized this.