I just installed a Sirius Stiletto 100 in my 08 Mini Cooper using the Stiletto car install kit and the standard SMB antenna extension to the under seat antenna wire.

Sirius works great but now when I bring up the Mini's standard FM radio I get a lot of intermittent interference--even with strong stations. I checked and confirmed that the Stiletto's FM transmitter is off.

Anyone have this problem or have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,

Rob

 

Update: I get the FM interference whenever the Stiletto is powered. If I unplug the power cable the interference goes away, but if I simply put the Stiletto into sleep mode the interference remains. I forgot to try the "hard off" option.

It seems that the Sirius antenna is active (electrically powered) whenever it senses a receiver hooked up to it, which interferes with the FM antenna in the combo FM/AM/GPS/Satelite antenna. With the built in Sirius receiver it must completely power off when any other audio source is selected on the Mini's audio control panel.

But I still have to ask, has anyone else had this problem or is it a newer build issue?

Rob

 

Makes perfect sense to me.

 

Try using an aftermarket antenna connection instead of the car's.

 

That would definitely solve the problem and the Stiletto car kit came with an external antenna but I don't want another antenna on the roof.

 

I have a XM sportscaster via the aux in port and I use the SMB factory antenna and toggle back and forth btw xm and fm without any interference. How did you power the sirius? Maybe a ground loop interference. I would use a "add a fuse" and directly hotwire to 12 volt.

 

That's very true, I hope you're right. I'm temporarily powering it with the cig plug, but I have an add-a-circuit in the mail. A ground loop would explain why the interference is present until the cig plug is pulled.

I'll try powering the Sirius receiver from a separate 12v battery too and see what that does. I'll post here if either fixes the problem.

Thanks for the help guys,

Rob

 

It was a power ground loop. When I hardwired in the Sirius receiver using the "Add-a-Circuit" the FM radio receives just fine. It's strange that the supplied Sirius auto kit power cable plugged into the stock Mini cigarette lighter would have such a bad ground loop.

Rob