Between a rock and a hard place...

[M4life]

I own a 2008 BMW 135i that's been giving me a hard time with my stereo setup. My car came built "XM ready" (pre-wired, that's it), however BMW wants $1200 for a XM tuner. I've looked on ebay but theres no guarantee that'll work with my car.

So, back in April I purchased a Pioneer DEH-X9500BHS, fast install and it sounded great too! But after the first couple months the Metra dash kit started breaking down and it just looked awful..



A month ago I looked into an FM transmitter so I can keep my factory radio. So, I bought an Audiovox Universal RDS, I can run XM, play tunes through my Iphone, but I lose out on Bluetooth. I installed it 2 days ago and it just sounds like ****. When I set it up to play songs from my Iphone, it's has a lot of static and the volume is very low. Tonight I just realized that I didn't install the antenna to my factory antenna. Any suggestions as to what my options are and if I can fix the Audiovox FM transmitter? Any input or ideas would be great. Also, if anyone knows of any other company that manufacturers dash kits other than Metra please tell me.

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[M4life]

Today I looked over my connections on the FM transmitter, and I forgot to connect my antenna to the fm transmitter. Much less static than before, however when I want to listen to a video I can still hear static and it gets more pronounced the higher I turn up the volume.

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

yep, static will be there with a transmitter.

with a direct-wired FM modulator you can eliminate the static because it doesn't rely on the signal transmitting over air. the FM Modulator wires in-series with the antenna.

the kit shouldn't break unless you forced something. i've had those kits last for a decade no sweat. but they are fragile.

Clarion FM200 is a kit i've used before. line audio in, wired in-series with the antenna, and a toggle switch to engage.

i've used a Sirius unit before that had a FM output and a relay box with antenna in/out that automatically switched when the unit was turned on. sound was as good as a line-in.