My sat. radio wil occasionally (once or twice/week) take a few (up to 5) minutes to acquire the signal. This seems like a very strange problem. I have had aftermarket sat radios for many years and they pick up the signal almost instantly when you back out of the garage. It makes me think it’s an antenna problem, but it’s so intermittent that I’m not sure.

Anyone else have this issue?

 

Really sounds like a bad antenna to me as well. But I see you have a 2011 so if you are under warranty see if the dealer can fix it.

 

I had a Clarion deck put in my car with a SC-C1 or whatever and I had a problem with it so I took it back to the shop. They replaced the SC-C1 thing with a new one and at first it didn't work at all and 2 days later it kicked on and hasn't stopped working yet. So it might be the Sirius receiver in the car acting up, or it might be updating the programing.

 

I noticed the signal from my antenna drops if I go under pretty much anything (roof, overpass, garage, etc). My wife has XM in her vehicle (Hummer H3) and it never drops. Even in my parking garage at work, hers holds a signal through all 5 levels. I thought about replacing my antenna (I have a 2007) to see if it is wearing out, but I'm kind of getting use to it.

 

Mine will drop going in parking decks and under bridges also. My 2008 GTI did the same as did any cars I drove from the dealer I worked at.

 

Did you ever find a solution? Mine started doing this today. Only one station worked (the 'Hits' channel) and every other station showed "acquiring." I turned off the head unit thinking it would reset. When I turned it back on it showed the 800 number and the ESN, telling me to call to subscribe.

 

For this issue, get your car out side with a clear view of the sky and the sat radio on, then login to the Sirius website and click resend the activation signal for that particular radio on your account. It should reactivate it for you.

As an FYI, you have to wait about a half hour after shutting off the car for the power to turn off to the sat tuner module, turning the radio off doesn't wont help in this case.

If you keep getting the "acquiring" message, that most likely means the antenna has gone bad (probably rusted, corroded, water damage).

 

I left the car off while at work, checked on it during my lunch break and it seems to be working now.