Possible Sportster 4 dock going bad?

[thegame310]

My Sportster 4 in my car has been acting very odd lately, it loses antenna signal, then gets full strength antenna, then goes to no antenna detected.

However, when it's in my home dock it works perfectly fine. This leads me to believe that possibly the dock is going bad, however before I make a purchase of a new dock I wanted to get some other opinions.

Thanks!

 

[jwt873]

The dock just holds the radio and provides a common point for all the wires to connect to the Sportster. There are no active components inside it so all that can fail are the connections where things plug in.

When the antenna shows "not connected", try wiggling the radio or pulling it out and plugging it back in a couple of times.?.. If it fixes things temporarily, then it's probably the connector on the dock.

You might also try grab a magnifying glass and inspect the little pins in the connector on the dock and on the Sportster.. Check the round part of the connector on the right side.. (That's where the antenna connection takes place). Make sure nothing is bent. Also check where the antenna itself plugs into the dock. Wiggle it too when the antenna is not connected.

Finally... It could be the antenna that is failing and not the dock. If none of the above seems to do anything, try swap out the antenna with a known good one...

 

[thegame310]

I just went for a little ride, and it seems as if when I have the radio up a bit from the dock (not flush) and tilted to the right it holds a steady connection as apposed to any other position I have it in.

 

[moonthirsty]

Sportster Accessories Dysfunctional

I have a Sportster Replay. In 3.5 years I have had to replace my car dock 5 times and the dot antenna 3x.

I'm starting to lose it, since I just purchased 2 new antennas for my car due to a "antenna not detected" error and neither of them work. So I switched out the dock (yes, I've learned to purchase extras) and it still doesn't work. It only works if I hold onto the radio and push it hard down into the dock while I'm driving. Fantastic.

I take my replay back into the house where there are no antenna connection problems (I have never replaced the home dock) and it works fine...except for in the morning when it's supposed to wake me up. Then the signal keeps cutting out and it tries to acquire the signal every 15 seconds or so. It works perfectly in the afternoon. Moving the antenna does nothing. I think it's the satellite position(??).

So now I really don't know what I'm paying for. Sirius customer service experiences have been extremely negative. Once they didn't respond to me for 3 weeks. I emailed them again regarding the status and they told me to call them. I didn't bother. I don't have the money to buy a new radio, subscription, and attendant useless accessories.

If anyone has any tips about getting an antenna connection in the car dock, let me know. Maybe a giant rubber band that can withstand the heat/cold of a parked car? Or a clamp that won't slip off and break my skull while I'm driving??

 

[My name is Matt]

Typically when people have a plug and play radio and they experience the problems that you have been having, it means the connection on the bottom of the radio is beginning to wear out. Since it is a female type connection, it always receives the dock into it. This will wear it out over time causing connection problems. It is also very common that it will work in one dock but not another. The best solution here is to either have the radio replaced or repaired. Repairs aren't too common but we do have a guy that may be able to help you. PM me and I will give you his contact information.