Well, I just spoke to the Toyota Customer Service and they are pretty much saying that I am SOL in regards to having them or a Toyota dealership move the antenna to the exterior of the vehicle.

They told me that a lot of customer complained about having the antenna on the outside, so for the TCH and presumably future models, the satellite antenna will end up being placed in the inside.

Furthermore, it seems like dealerships are not "trained" on relocating the antenna to the outside.

They also told me that the antenna for the "newer models" are only long enough to reach where it's supposed to go (rear shelf) and not to the exterior of the vehicle.

That's pretty much it. After paying $449 for the xm radio kit, I'm left with bad radio reception and no way to have the antenna moved unless I do it myself or pay for a 3rd party installer to move it for me. BullS__T!

 

I put my antena on the trunk lid (just below the rear window) it works great. Just run the wire inside the trunk lid and down the hinge arm to the reciever. Looks just fine and no problems with reception. Check out the photo.

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Hi ts95403,

Do you have instructions on how to move the antenna from the rear shelf to the outside? Im just concerned about damaging/scratching the rear shelf in my attempts to remove the antenna from that location.

 

I originally expected to use my existing MyFi, so I spent some time with the magnetic antenna on the rear roof, snaking the wire along the window lip through the car to the console cubby. Other than stashing the radio, it was fine. Then the dealer decided to give me XM (long story).

I had to wait for the factory radio install kit (the XM radio unit was available, the "fit kit" was not).

Having XM for several years, I knew where the antenna had to be, and the service guy said it went on the roof before I made the appointment... which is not where the antenna was when I picked up the car a day later.

I had a fit.

The service guy gave me the install manual (attached) and wished me good luck -- he said that the antenna is glued onto the rear window deck -- and that I'd be much better off leaving it alone.

I looked at putting a second antenna on the roof -- but, alas, the factory kit uses a very strange square antenna connector that the guys at www.myradiostore.com have never seen... so, no new antenna.

Thus far, reception is fine. Locally, we have an XM repeater, so I get strong signals -- even in the garage. I'm getting used to the OEM status-quo.

 

Like so many others, my 2008 TCH was ordered with XM installed at the Port (Houston for me). They so carefully placed the antenna in the rear window deck, it looks nice, but only worked about 95% of the time and took forever to lock up on a channel when compared to my previous vehicles with roof or trunk mounted XM antennae.

About a week after delivery of the car, the dealer called to tell me that the custom shop was ready to install my glove soft leather and tint. So I took it back for the day-long upgrade. It was well worth the extra trip and wait. The leather is so much better than what Toyota offers, it's unbelievable. The day I drove it the 40 miles home from the dealer was heavy overcast and light rain. My XM dropped out A LOT maybe 20% of the time. The next day was bright and clear yet still under every tree branch or light pole (almost), my XM was gone (no signal - loading).

Locating the XM module near the trunk-mounted 12v battery, I expected to find a standard XM antenna connector, but NO. It's a Pioneer GEX-M8067XM unit and has a square plastic cover over a SQUARE coax connector. I could not use any of the small, mag mount antenna I had with the standard round connectors. This was nothing like I had ever seen before.

A call to my dealer caught them in a quandry. They had not heard of such a problem with XM in the Camry. You see, the Prius has the XM antenna mounted on the dash where there is no defroster or antenna wiring or tint. Some Camry have the antenna mounted inside above the rear view mirror. They had not seen where mine was mounted on the rear deck before.

Anyway, they had a dealer kit for XM that had the proper mag mount antenna connector and gave it to me. In minutes I had it in and mounted on the trunk. My XM now locks up on channels in a couple of seconds which took at least 5 seconds before the tint install and upwards of 10 seconds after the tint was installed. And, in checking, it seems to be as good or better than the roof mounted antenna on my SUV. Perhaps since the coax is only 4-5 feet instead of the 20' on the SUV. Less signal loss. It now works stopped at my gas stations covered areas, stopped at covered bank drive throughs and even under short highway underpasses. The automatic car wash is still a no signal area as with my other XM equipped vehicles. How nice to have XM working as expected.

The dealer has made a note for future tint jobs that include the metal film type of tint (which most are) to check the location of the XM antenna and move it or add one to the trunk if it's on the back deck. I elected to leave my inside antenna in place -- just in case someone wanted the external one more than me. A simple plug change and I'm sorta back in business until I can get a new antenna from the dealer or splice the coax to one I already have on hand.

Now my question. Has anybody figured out the diagnostic sequience to check the XM antenna signal strength?

 

Unfortunately the Toyota XM kit does not display the signal strength bars like the plug-n-play units. You may want to experiment with a plug-n-play unit in the TCH and see the difference in signal with different antenna locations.

 

Actually, I am going to do that very thing this week. I am courious as to the different signal levels. I may even try it in a friends Camry that does not have tint or XM as well to get an idea of the different antenna location configurations. BTW, I did ask the dealer about this and they said the same thing - no XM diags.

UPDATE: I have now visited with the custom shop that did my tint (and leather). They have become accutely aware of the "problem" with metalized film and the rear deck mounted XM antenna on the Toyota and Lexus line of cars in the past week or so as they have had 2 or 3 customers (not counting me) notify them of the problem. One person lost their XM totally.

They have a few options, most of which are not good (for them). Remove the film and install a non-metal film tint at about 3 times the cost or just tell the customer to go to an auto supply place and puchase the cheap stuff that will turn purple in a couple of years and start to peal off.

Another choice would be for the dealer or tint shop to relocate the XM antenna from the rear deck to the trunk (about a 1 hour job) or the best bet is to just install a new antenna on the trunk in minutes and leave the other one alone as I did. This final choice would cost somebody about $20 for the new antenna, much cheaper than any other option. Maybe Toyota will realize the problem and stop putting the antenna in the rear deck someday.

 

Sorry to reply to such an old thread, but it seemed like the best place.

I had 2 questions:

Does anyone know of the Satellite Radio Character Limit still exists? I have a 2009 TCH with Nav.

Has anyone had Best Buy install the Toyota OEM Sirius or XM radio kits of the Sat ready Navigation system? They only charge $75 for the install.

 

I have a 2009 TCH. Sirius limit still exists - truncates after 10 positions.

 

I was not very happy with the idea of a character limit, so I went ahead and spent $40 on the Stratus 4 for Sirius. I put the antenna on the trunk. It was very easy to run the wire from the trunk to the back seat and along the door trim. The wires are all hidden. I put the head unit inside the center console under the Nav screen. Very easy to do. Took about 30 minutes to setup.