Satellite Radio drops out regularly

  • Thread starter Thread starter Heino
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Heino

Heino

Active Member
I’ve owned my Clarity for almost 3 weeks now, and have been enjoying the free satellite radio trial. However, I frequently notice that there will be times I do not receive any audio at all... even from places I know there was previously great reception.

This happens when I first get in the car... so I will not have any satellite radio for my entire commute. Surely, the Satellite radio provider isn’t having this many technical issues?

It happens at least once per every 2 days.
 
In regards to XM reception our Clarity (6 months), Accord (13 years) and after market receiver in a Highlander (2 years) all are very similar in regards to reception. They all drop out in certain locations but other than those spots reception is 100%.

geo
 
I have experienced the same issue 3 or 4 times. It seems that if it doesn't get the signal soon after startup it doesn't keep searching. I have found that when this occurs that it usually works properly after I restart the car.
 
Mine drops out all the time - trees, overpasses, even heavy clouds. My Accord was the same way. I honestly can't imagine how they maintain a subscriber base given how bad the service is. Also I find the audio quality marginal - it has an unpleasant over-compressed sound (that is particular to the satellite radio).

I've never had it flat out not work at all, though.
 
neal adkins said:
I have experienced the same issue 3 or 4 times. It seems that if it doesn't get the signal soon after startup it doesn't keep searching. I have found that when this occurs that it usually works properly after I restart the car.
Click to expand...

I will have to try restarting the car... not the best option in my opinion. Wish I could just restart the XM radio directly.
 
Heino said:
I will have to try restarting the car... not the best option in my opinion. Wish I could just restart the XM radio directly.
Click to expand...
I've never rebooted the audio system so I don't know how long it takes, but I'm sure it takes longer than restarting the car itself. However, it's a possible alternative if you don't want to pull over to restart the car.
 
We only had XM on our '12 Ody. Never an issue and loved the service for $30 every 6 months (NEVER pay retail!). But when we got our '18 Ody, we noticed more drops than before. And they are in line with the drops I get in the Clarity now.

The old model did not have pause/resume live play or things like that. I actually just learned that the radio also stores up to 2 hours for your preset stations so it's possible it's trying to get more bandwidth down than what the old model would get (just the live stream station). Just speculating thought, but definitely more drops than in the old model.
 
K8QM said:
Press and hold the power "button" on the infotainment system to reboot just it.

geo
Click to expand...

This did the trick... I rebooted the infotainment system, which takes about a minute or so... and audio started playing again.

This could be a software bug. Can we report this to Honda somewhere?
 
Heino said:
I’ve owned my Clarity for almost 3 weeks now, and have been enjoying the free satellite radio trial. However, I frequently notice that there will be times I do not receive any audio at all... even from places I know there was previously great reception.

This happens when I first get in the car... so I will not have any satellite radio for my entire commute. Surely, the Satellite radio provider isn’t having this many technical issues?

It happens at least once per every 2 days.
Click to expand...

Are you using the climate pre-conditioning at all? I've found that using it will lock up the satellite radio for the next driving session. Cycling power on the car or resetting the audio will restore it.
 
Parja said:
Are you using the climate pre-conditioning at all? I've found that using it will lock up the satellite radio for the next driving session. Cycling power on the car or resetting the audio will restore it.
Click to expand...

Actually I do... all the time. That would 100% explain things, however, still sounds like a software bug.

Why choose between a nice preconditioned vehicle, or satellite radio on the ride home? :D
 
Heino said:
Actually I do... all the time. That would 100% explain things, however, still sounds like a software bug.

Why choose between a nice preconditioned vehicle, or satellite radio on the ride home? :D
Click to expand...

Yeah, for sure it's a software bug, and an annoying one at that. I just hope I can get it to happen next time I'm at the dealership.
 
I’ve experienced the same at least three times in the last three weeks. After reading this thread it probably is when I dabbled with climate preconditioning. I’m fairly certain it’s not the typical “cloudy” or “under a bridge” satellite reception problem.
 
neal adkins said:
I have experienced the same issue 3 or 4 times. It seems that if it doesn't get the signal soon after startup it doesn't keep searching. I have found that when this occurs that it usually works properly after I restart the car.
Click to expand...

If you remote start the car either by the keyfob or HondaLink app, XM may not work at all. Either powering off the car or restarting the audio head unit makes it work again. Bug, but AFAIK not sure if Honda is working on it. Last time I took it to the dealer, there was a scheduling issue and could not show the diagnostics tech - had to drop off the car. And of course they could not reproduce the issue.
 
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