PJD642
New Member
Just in case anyone else encounters the same shyt, my 2010 Explorer with factory Sirius satellite radio took a dump on me a week back - I started getting intermittent "Antenna failure" messages last summer on the radio display, and last week it became permanent. The Satellite radio consistently had no signal, while am/fm was fine (obviously, different antennas).
I did a little searching on some Explorer forums, and discovered that the factory antenna is known for poor seal & corrosion. The solution is to buy a replacement Sirius magnetic antenna on ebay or some similar site. Remove the passenger side kick plate, and there is a little metal 4" square box with a yellow connector bolted to the sidewall. Unplug the yellow connector, and simply plug in the replacement antenna. Doesn't look like it will work but it goes right in. Store the excess antenna wire behind the other stuff in there, and decide where you're gonna install the new antenna head. I put mine on the front center of the dash because I didn't feel like running it up to the roof. Replace the kick plate, turn the car on and give it a minute - the receiver will detect the antenna and everything works again. No need to go pay Ford a couple hundred bucks to fix things.
The location of the satellite interface box is obviously gonna be different in each car (some F150s it's in the dash under the radio receiver) but the process & solution is the same.
I should have taken pictures while I was doing this, but it didn't occur to me until afterwards. really simply anyway, you shouldn't need 'em.
I did a little searching on some Explorer forums, and discovered that the factory antenna is known for poor seal & corrosion. The solution is to buy a replacement Sirius magnetic antenna on ebay or some similar site. Remove the passenger side kick plate, and there is a little metal 4" square box with a yellow connector bolted to the sidewall. Unplug the yellow connector, and simply plug in the replacement antenna. Doesn't look like it will work but it goes right in. Store the excess antenna wire behind the other stuff in there, and decide where you're gonna install the new antenna head. I put mine on the front center of the dash because I didn't feel like running it up to the roof. Replace the kick plate, turn the car on and give it a minute - the receiver will detect the antenna and everything works again. No need to go pay Ford a couple hundred bucks to fix things.
The location of the satellite interface box is obviously gonna be different in each car (some F150s it's in the dash under the radio receiver) but the process & solution is the same.
I should have taken pictures while I was doing this, but it didn't occur to me until afterwards. really simply anyway, you shouldn't need 'em.