2005 Q45 Satellite Radio Not Working

[thehacker3]

Hey guys,

I recently decided to get satellite radio activated for my car, since it already has it installed. I called up SiriusXM and they gave me a 90 day free trial, but failed to activate it. They would send the activation signal, and I would wait up to 15 minutes sitting on channel 184, but no signal would come. I still want to enjoy the rest of my 90 days and want to activate the radio, but nothing I tried with Sirius seemed to work.

Any ideas?

[Jesda]

Are you able to at least hear the sample stations?

[thehacker3]

nope

[Jesda]

In that case, it seems like the problem is with your car, possibly a bad antenna connection or bad module. When the satellite radio system is properly connected, you'll be able to tune into at least 2 or 3 sample stations (usually all promo ads) and you should be able to hear some audio even without a paid subscription.

I don't know where the module on this car is located. Here are some service manuals you can download:
http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/Q45/

And check this part of the forum for more specific answers:
q45-forum-cima-forum.html

[Jesda]

I'm also not sure if the head unit needs to be programmed by the dealer to recognize the module.

[thehacker3]

Thank you.

I looked into the FSM but couldn't find much on the SAT radio.

The head unit pops up a radio ID so I doesn't that mean that it HAS to see the module?

[Jesda]

It should.

Was the 05 Q originally XM or Sirius? They operate on different satellites.

[thehacker3]

From what SiriusXM told me, the radio ID is showing up as a Sirius one. I'm a little confused because I was confident that they only offered XM on Q45's of that year. Well the ID doesn't lie - it's just a string of numbers without any letters.