Need help with XM Antenna Amplifier information (2012 v)

Take your vin to a dealer and ask for an antenna amp part number and price. The part I installed is the new part. By the way, some dealers have a satellite antenna tester and a procedure, however it requires them to pull the radio to access a connector there. It does point out that failures occur enough for them to have a tester.

 

Not what you want to hear, any way, FWIW, we still receive the promo channels fine but 'solved' the 'XM reception problem' by not renewing the 12 months of complimentary XM service and ignoring their incessant mail and telephone pitches. There's lots of terrestrial signal out there.

 

Maybe try refreshing your signal per Resend My Signal | SiriusXM Canada

I did a Google search and found complaints about SiriusXM reception in the Montreal area including in BMW and GM cars.

SiriusXM depends largely on land based repeaters - maybe there aren't any/many in your area. The dogstar map shows only one repeater in the Montreal area and it is "unconfirmed": DogstarRadio.com Sirius Radio Satellite and Repeater Map

The last time we tried to use SiriusXM in a rental car in Air_Boss's "New Yawk", it cut out so often we gave up on it but we were mainly in rural hilly areas.

SiriusXM can be streamed from a smartphone app - at least here in the U.S. I tried it but don't listen to SiriusXM enough to make it worthwhile. We let the SiriusXM subscription in our 2012 Prius v Five (JBL) expire since its my wife's daily driver and she doesn't care about it but the demo channel in her Prius still comes in loud and clear.

We have an active SiriusXM subscription in our 2014 Sienna van. Reception is pretty decent here in the central U.S. as long as there are no trees overhead although I still notice occasional drop-outs that last a second or two even when driving in open areas.

 

Actually XM does not need land based repeaters to work. It needs a line of sight to a satellite that is not interrupted for more than the four second buffer built into each the receiver. In other words you can drive through an underpass and block the signal for up to four seconds. The signal is pretty good and almost never fades from storms like satellite TV often does. The reason for the antenna base rf amp is to drive a long cable to the front of the car through a low cost non-optimized mini coax. If this amp fails you need exceptional conditions for the XM to work. The original Toyota amps often failed and were superceded by a revised, new numbered part. XM does have low power land based transmitters in some big cities to allow operation in skyscraper canyons, inside buildings, and even inside parking garages. Those transmitters usually won't go more than five miles where they exist and operate more like FM transmitters.