so i bought this car, radio/sirius didnt work, CD worked just fine. i posted a "help" thread, never really got anywhere with it.

a car audio designer/installer buddy of mine fiddled around the headliner, figured out the antenna wasn't plugged in, and like magic, i have full AM/FM function!

so i called Sirius, signed up, paid, blah blah, no dice. re-sent activation signal, still no dice. i remembered that in the read i had started, someone posted a link to the Sirius install instructions, so i checked those over, and believe i have found my problem

in the instructions there is an "ALC Module", whatever that is, which plugs into the Satellite receiver. in my car, its plugged in to the receiver, but the wires are cut on the other end.

now my questions are for those of you who have either

A: installed the Sirius kit yourselves
or B: removed/replaced a Sirius-equipped antenna from a vehicle

does the Sirius antenna include this ALC Module? also, is there a way to tell if i have the Sirius antenna without actually taking the car apart?

i could probably rip the car apart and find/reattatch the other end of the cut wires, provided my antenna hasn't already been torn off and replaced with a non-Sirius antenna by the previous owner

(the ALC Module is #2 in the top graphic, absent from the middle, and the wires for it are #2 in the bottom, plugged into the Sirius receiver)

 

So that module is either a filter, a bias, or a diversity module.

The connectors are FAKRA. You can buy FAKRA cables on eBay. You can buy the right colours or you can buy a pair of uncoded. Depends on what is available.



The question to ask yourself is why the wires were cut and why the AMFM was unplugged. Did the PO install some extra antenna system? Or go from a window to a roof mount for better reception? Or did he install an aftermarket HU and AMFM amp wasn't biased and he couldn't figure out why? Basically is SIRIUS gonna work when you hook up the ALC?

 

thats all i can come up with. maybe a car wash messed it up or maybe it was vandalized? the AM/FM antenna wire wasn't plugged in all the way above the headliner.

everything else with the radio is OEM, and the sirius module number matches that on the head unit screen

 

Go here and see if it was fitted with SDARS or SDARS prep from the factory.

http://www.bmwarchive.org/vin/bmw-vin-decoder.html

The guy may have retrofitted it and not sprung for the upgraded SDARS antenna base.

 

TL21418

I see nothing relating to SDARS.

 

Might be Satellite radio prep.

You might need this.
MINI Sirius Antenna Kit 84 11 0 150 524 (04 and earlier model year)
MINI Sirius Antenna Kit 84 11 0 393 780 (05 and 06 model years)
Both at $85

http://www.ecstuning.com/ES200608/
http://www.ecstuning.com/ES200729/

Does your SIRIUS module have one or two feeds? if one, check my sig for an alternative SDARS antenna.