Radio reception
 

Or lack of. 2013 XKR. The radio reception is bad, worse than my 30 year old BMW 6 series. Dealer has tried rebooting and this week replaced the receiver. It's better, but still not up to normal car standards. I'm in Florida. I get reception in Miami but nothing in Fort Lauderdale. I'm guessing this isn't unique to my car and would welcome a direction to steer my service adviser the next time I visit him.

cheers

I find the FM reception to be less than what I get with my 2010 Lexus so I assume it is due to the antenna size and location. I also use local AM stations which are OK but limited in range. I don't see it as a big issue and it is better then the satellite reception in our area. I don't subscribe to it and most likely won't .

Is your Sirius turned on I found that if it was radio reception was less than when it was off

There has been a TSB issued for the poor reception of the radio signal on the XK/XKR that requires a new coaxial cable be run to the hidden antenna.

Jaguar is aware, thus the reason for the TSB being issued.

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Thanks richak, I'll share that with my service guy.

You wouldn't happen to know the number of that TSB?

I am sure the Jaguar dealer should be able to find it. As I recall, the fix is running a new coaxial cable from the radio to the hidden antenna.

I see you have a 2013 XKR Coupe, so I am not sure if this may have been the same problems back to 2008.

Click to enlarge the image for the information. Click again for full screen

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In my experience of working on professional and hobby radio equipment, poor reception is usually caused by bad coax or bad connectors on that coax in 98% of cases. Most of the other 2% were down to bad grounds somewhere in the system.

Way back in the '70s during the CB craze, I'd go out with a buddy and "pin" the coaxial cable of those who annoyed/harassed my group. By pinning, I mean to take a normal sewing pin and force it through the outer insulation of the cable and touch it to the center lead as well, grounding out the culprit's antenna.
I was such a jerkwad back then.

I noticed that the TSB mentioned above only applies to '08 models. We have an '07 with really poor radio reception, AM and FM. I noticed that the discussion seems to be around a coax routed to the "hidden" antenna. Ours is not hidden, but retracts. Am I to understand that the '08 is not the same as mine?

To cut to the chase, I would really like to do away with my retractable antenna, and improve FM/AM reception at the same time. Half the time it doesn't fully retract anyway, and it just looks low-budget for a Jag. I assume the main plan everybody follows is to put an antenna in the rear wing with the other (satellite radio?) antenna? Has someone done a tutorial on this process?

Found this, but it's on an XK8. Can you (who have preformed the elimination of your antenna mast) take a look at this video and tell those of us who haven't yet how close is this to what we can achieve?

I was hoping he was going to address filling the antenna hole, but he just installed a kill switch so his stays down. Legit solution I guess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbrHsQ4ORqU&t=1s

Good old Reverend Sam. I used a couple of his videos back when I still had the XK8.

GS2K, If you can live with just having the antenna down all the time. (I do, as I have six CD's full of my favorite music about 130 song per disc) Turn off the engine and wait for the antenna to retract, then remove fuse four from the fuse panel behind the rear seat. The antenna will then remain down.

Not really. The idea is to improve radio reception from what it is now, PLUS remove the unsightly radio antenna. We like listening to the radio.

As it turns out the issue was in the spoiler, so a new spoiler, painted to match and all is well. Gotta love a warranty!