Hello Friends.

I have searched and searched and failed to come across a similar issue and responses, so my apologies if this has been discussed before (possibly point me in the direction of a previous thread) ......
I'm new to the Lexus world. My wife has had her daily for several years but the little bit of work I've tinkered with I haven't needed to visit a forum. She is starting to see some other issues arise.

Wife's Daily: 2011 IS250

Just yesterday the Satellite Radio was showing "CH UNAVL" and it was only giving her Channel 4 and when you use the tune dial it would spin to Channel 0. (We do, of course, have a current subscription)

I disconnected the battery ground, let it sit for a few minutes, reconnected and checked the operation. It worked like new, the problem is I didn't cycle the key to recheck it, so when she went out to check it the damn thing was back to "CH UNAVL" and Channels 4 & 0.

I took the right rear trunk liner out, not finding anything unusual. I unplugged what I assumed to be the Sat module (silver module bolted inside right lower trunk) and obviously nothing with the Audio system worked. Plug it back in and same issue. There don't appear to be any issues with AM/FM.

That leads me to assume the silver module (Sat Radio tuner?) is faulty? Could it be that simple?

I'm not sure if I should preface all this or it could open a can of worms and spin us down a rabbit hole --- but the car was recently at a horrible body shop for minor minor repairs (i.e. rear bumper replacement and then it got hit in the front while at the B/S so they had to fix the front bumper and fender) .... So, I certainly hope they're not the cause of this issue. The car was fine for several weeks after leaving said B/S but then the TPMS light is on for a fault and now this Sat Radio issue.

Hope that isn't too much to digest. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Perhaps it could be water intrusion subsequent to your bumper replacement, see the following thread about amplifier failures due to bad rubber vent flaps on the rear quarter panel near the bumper: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...amps-fail.html

 

The big box in the trunk is the amp for all the speakers. The item you seek is elsewhere. Likely under the dash or integrated into the head unit..

Over the years I have really one person who said the cable from the Sat Antenna came out of the back of the unit even though the system/dash was never messed with.

Any water intrusion in the cabin? Fogged wet windows or anything like that?

Your car have Nav? If so you can check the signal strength pretty easily.

Look at this.... a nuget from my build thread at post #50.

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No water intrusion. No foggy or wet windows.

I'll check to see if it has NAV and the antenna strength. I will check the rear vent flaps also mentioned. Thanks for telling me the Sat module is behind the Head Unit. That makes it more interesting.

The car is super clean and garaged, which makes this even more frustrating.

​​​​​​​Thanks

 

If you are going to contradict me and flat-out say that I'm wrong, can't you at least offer some evidence? Before you do, consider reading this DIY for installing the satellite radio tuner, which was a dealer-installed option on the '06 models.

Site article: https://www.clublexus.com/how-tos/a/...e-radio-363502

Forum post: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...o-install.html

 

OP described the symptom Chan Unavailable. Before diving into the deep end you
should try a simple Subscription Refresh. Call 855-236-9236 and provide the Radio
ID found at Channel 000 or the VIN. They will confirm your e-mail or phone and send
a refresh signal. Park outside in sight of the satellites, tune to Channel 001 and wait
3-5 minutes. Check for your missing stations. Chan Unavailable will show when you
are on an XL explicit program when subscribed to Family Friendly or any channel
currently off the air.

 

I was simply stating the big box in the trunk is not the magic box you seek! Good articles tho!

 

Was going to attempt a SiriusXM refresh, so I drove it to an open parking lot. I realized there is more than one "SAT" tab, there are three stacked. I clicked "SAT1" and it turned into to "SAT2," which then turned to "SAT3," and back to "SAT1."

After doing that a couple times it cleared itself up and the SiriusXM appears to be working just fine without even a refresh being performed. I'm perplexed... but I roll with it because the wife is happy that it works correctly again ... until it doesn't.

Thanks everyone for chiming in.

 

The three (3) SAT tabs let you sort and store stations by genre. Serves as a marriage saver
if you load her favorites together and yours separately! There are two (2) pages of FM and
one (1) for AM. Note: you can set the tone controls separately for the different sources also.

Use the steering wheel "Mode" button to move through the six radio pages and then on to CD,
Aux and Bluetooth. When you have one of the radio pages selected now you can use the up/down
rocker next to volume on the steering wheel. This will move you through the six presets within
that page. Nice because you can use this while the Map is being displayed, the stations will
dropdown briefly over the map. Be certain none of your XM presets are for an Unavailable
frequency. When you scroll into that preset it will block the process and you can not continue
to scroll. You must twist the tuning **** to escape the black hole!