Bustter

After much research and aggravation, XM is running on the S8 with recent VIN #. I had purchased a Sat Tuner for autopartsnationwide.com a month ago for $113 including shipping (part # 4E0-057-593-A) but found that it needed 2 antenna connections, plus the optical connection seemed to be a misfit with the optical loop in the wire bundle.

Thinking all was lost, I was able to price a Sirius receiver at the dealer for $580 plus tax. While looking at the Sirius receiver, it occurred to me that the optical connector problem was my own stupidity. Not only does the loopback on the wire bundle need to be taken off, but there is a covering on the connector in the tuner that needs to be pulled off also. This solved the optical problem.

For the antenna issue, TERK makes a splitter that turns one satellite antenna wire in, into two wires out. Bought on ebay for $20.00 and waiting for delivery, but in the meantime, the tuner works with just the one green connector. You just get an antenna error message for about 3 seconds when you change channels. The message does not come on if you use presets.

So, all is well, I have the tunes I want, for about $500 less and lower monthly rates since I have other XM radios. If you do this, use promo code XMSCION03 to get 3 months free. Many thanks to others who have also worked through this issue on the A4 B7 forum and navplus.us

D3AeighT

you have an '07 and since Sirius is the "now standard" for Audi and that now perhaps Audi didn't have all the necessary connections available because it is an '07 model? The reason I ask is I'm looking for the same XM satellite module to install on my '04 A8 and have heard there are NO issues what so ever in "connecting to MMI" with a 4E0-057-593-A as long as you have "current" MMI software levels ( ie look in my sig for my software level ).

Bustter

The MMI works perfectly with the tuner (other than the current issue with the antenna error message pending the arrival of the splitter). And yes, that model # is correct.

One question though, if anyone knows-- the display in the dash (not the MMI) only shows the name of the XM "channel" rather than the actual song playing. Is this the normal dash display for those having either XM or Sirius?

MP4.2+6.0

In a 2006 W12 with the adaptive cruise large center instrument panel display and an XM tuner, all I see is the XM channel name no matter how I toggle the display switch on the wiper stalk to try to see more.

Bustter

Too bad. Less info than a $50 add-on sat. radio. I like to have the baseball scores scrolling.

MP4.2+6.0

When I bought the car certified, XM was still hooked up so I have just left it. Sound quality not particularly great (Bose car); not particularly better than FM and inferior to CD's. Awkward pauses when trying to channel surf (like DirecTV has too). No display of what is currently playing even on the MMI screen unless you click on the station. An awful lot of chatter and self promotion of XM on supposedly commercial free stations.

Car just went in today for loss of sat tuner signal too--drops when crossing under freeway bridges even, and then a second time a few seconds later in open air.

Whenever the subscription runs out, I don't see renewing thus far.

Whenever

knepster1

I ordered the satellite. After I plug and play will the satellite prompt in the band section of the radio menu in the MMI turn bold? Right now it is there, but shadowed. Or it will not highlight till the XM is activated. Also, after install, all I do is call up XM with the s/n and 3 mos. trial code and once they activate then the signal will work and I will get the satellite feed through the system.

Bustter

- MMI in mine didn't have anything listed for satellite in the radio section until I installed the tuner (maybe your car previously had a sat tuner that was taken out?). Once installed it became a choice for highlighting/selection with the wheel.

-When you activate any tuner on XM, once you give the s/n and your payment method (you can do this online or by phone), you have to turn on the radio in a spot where the antenna has a clear view of the sky, and it loads all of the channels in about 45 minutes. You'll see them show up on the menu a few at a time until it is finished (with all 200+ channels).

Bustter

living in the wide open spaces, its great to get radio out in the middle of nowhere, way beyond FM range. I also like the variety of programming, and to my ear XM sounds better than Sirius, but obviously not as good as CDs.

Please update us when your service is completed on the antenna. There really are too many drops compared to cheap sat antennas and tuners I've used in the past, even ones just tossed on the dashboard. Don't know if this is a problem with the sharkfin antenna, or a lack of buffering on the tuner (in my others, its about 10-15 seconds, more than enough for overpasses and such). Hope there is an adjustment which can be done.

knepster1

thanks