XM, wierd noise at car start

[Super Pickle 10+ year member]

Hi,

Recently my mom went to Car toyz and had an XM FM transmitter thing put into her 07 nissan pathfinder, the one without the bose system. It sounds fine and all, but when we start the car it makes this insanely loud static noise for about 2-5 seconds then it stops and goes on regularly.

She stopped back at car toyz and they said this is normal, but i have never heard anything like it before, and i can't locate the problem...

any ideas?

http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?g=250150&i=209XMCMDMT&tp=85

thats the XM tuner she has.

Thanks for any input!

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[azbass 5,000+ posts]

take it back thats not normal. tell em AZBASS said so

 

[Super Pickle 10+ year member]

ahah **** quick reply...

yeah i know its not normal, and ill tell u i looked at the connections and such and it really looks fine, maybe a defective wire and/or unit itself?

 

[stereo jock 10+ year member]

It sounds like you have a bad ground. Usually they are hard to find, but I would guess that they used the factory ground behind your head unit. That's a good enough ground for an oem and most cd player only type headunits. When you add anything else like satellite radio or an amp, you really should get a better ground then that. Check out this article it may help you. I would just go back to the shop and say, "my stereo has a bad ground, so now I have a ground loop that's giving me noise and feedback". I guarantee they check it out and then change the ground; if to do nothing else but to rule that out.

Read the one about Engine Noise.

http://www.eoscaraudio.blogspot.com/

 

[Justin89T 10+ year member]

That actually sounds totally normal.

What's happening is the radio is picking up the over the air signal of xx.x. Then a few seconds later when the FM Modulator powers up and is broadcasting the static of a station that doesn't exist goes away and the XM content is being broadcast.

Make sense?

 

[Super Pickle 10+ year member]

That actually sounds totally normal.

What's happening is the radio is picking up the over the air signal of xx.x. Then a few seconds later when the FM Modulator powers up and is broadcasting the static of a station that doesn't exist goes away and the XM content is being broadcast.

Make sense?

i hear what your saying and it makes sense, but the sound isnt like FM static. Its loud, and i mean loud even at low volumes, and its more of a screeching than the (snowy?) static that normally comes with bad FM reception

 

[IamMurph 10+ year member]

Turn off the XM and see if the sound is there. It's probably just the FM channel noise before the modulator turns on.

 

[Super Pickle 10+ year member]

IamMurph, i just tried that, and the sound is not nearly as bad with the modulator off... lol i am out of ideas

 

[Justin89T 10+ year member]

IamMurph, i just tried that, and the sound is not nearly as bad with the modulator off... lol i am out of ideas

What do you mean your out of ideas?

You turned the FM modulator off and the problem went away?

That's your answer....