Sirius Sigma Antenna For Avalon

[ROBTN]

Although the Toyota manual apparently provides that the dealer install the Sirius antenna on the trunk, I e-mailed Toyota directly and they told me the antenna should be mounted "underneath the front windshield". Is anyone familiar with such a mounting location? I researched antennas and see that Sirius makes an antenna called the SIGMA which mounts on the windshield above the rear view mirror. Anybody familiar with this antenna and does anyone know if this is the antenna Toyota now uses for Sirius? Many thanks.

[Dkn420]

I have a 2006 Avalon Limited and the Sirius Antenna is located above the rear view mirror on the passenger side...you might stop by a dealer and look at an Avalon that is factory wired for Sirius...

[ROBTN]

DKN420, was your Sirius factory installed or dealer installed? How has your reception been with your antenna--any dropouts (other than under bridges or in garages)? Also, do you find music stations on Sirius to be better sound quality than FM and as good or almost as good as CDs? Thanks.

[Dr.Quality]

Originally Posted by ROBTN

Although the Toyota manual apparently provides that the dealer install the Sirius antenna on the trunk, I e-mailed Toyota directly and they told me the antenna should be mounted "underneath the front windshield". Is anyone familiar with such a mounting location? I researched antennas and see that Sirius makes an antenna called the SIGMA which mounts on the windshield above the rear view mirror. Anybody familiar with this antenna and does anyone know if this is the antenna Toyota now uses for Sirius? Many thanks.

Ok. I just yesterday (Fr.02.10.06) had the dealership add-on the OEM Sirius kit. [See myprevious post for the Toyota part numbers.] The antenna WAS mounted on the inside of the windshield! For some reason, I have TWO gizmos mounted to the glass!



One is just to the right of where the rear view window is attached. It is rectangular, a little smaller than a pack of cigarettes and 1 inch deep. To the right of that is a SECOND gizmo, that is trapezoidal in shape. The longer end abuts the headliner/window edge and that edge is about 5 inches or so, the shorter end is about 2 inches long. It is also about 1 inch deep. Why all this is required ... instead of the usual smaller single "chunky bar" antenna ... is a mystery to me.

And I didn't ask ... what's done is done. I suppose it is possible that one of these gizmos is doing something else than acting as antenna. But neither is the tuner box. That was installed just as expected, behind the rear passenger side seat/trunk fenderwell area.

From the driver's side, this set-up is almost not noticable ... the rv mirror hides it from view. Also it is not very noticable from the outside. The set-up is behind an extended patch of OE window tint that presumably helps to reduce glare when looking at the mirror. From the passenger seat, it is IMHO pretty ugly. Were it mounted it on the driver's side, it would drive me nuts looking at it all day.

Though it is hard to believe this is so ... with all that antenna up there ... but so far I AM getting some minor dropouts (half second or so) at some underpasses. Sound quality is excellent, though. With that little Terk mini-"chunky bar" antenna external trunk on previous cars, I never had dropout. It is tempting to wish it were there ... instead of these gizmos ... but (as I said in another post), I do like the idea of having the dealer/warranty "boxed in" ... if I have any troubles of any kind down the road, I don't want them hopping on any non-OEM equipment or installation as the excuse.

The OE kit does work with all the buttons on the wheel and the headunit. As I expected, you only get Sirius readout of first ten characters. No scrolling that I can find. There is a button on the headunit called "text." Flipping that will show 1) station #, 2) station name, #3) song title, 4) artist. No scrolling text is something Toyota ought rethink (along with that antenna set-up) when they spiff the car up during the model cycle.

[Dr.Quality]

Originally Posted by ROBTN

Although the Toyota manual apparently provides that the dealer install the Sirius antenna on the trunk, I e-mailed Toyota directly and they told me the antenna should be mounted "underneath the front windshield". Is anyone familiar with such a mounting location? I researched antennas and see that Sirius makes an antenna called the SIGMA which mounts on the windshield above the rear view mirror. Anybody familiar with this antenna and does anyone know if this is the antenna Toyota now uses for Sirius? Many thanks.

Thanks for the research, robtn. I found a picture on the web.

http://www.courtesyparts.com/Merchan...de=999U9-SGMA1

The two-part gizmo IS the SIGMA antenna. Apparently SIGMA is an acronym for " SIRIUS Interior Glass Mounted Antenna."


UPDATE: I have had the Sirius radio w/ SIGMA antenna installed for about a month now. I do have a persistant dropout problem when the car is pointing the wrong way (so that the antenna/sat line-of-site is blocked by the roof. I wanted a dealer install so that I would have full warrenty "closure" (sure that Toyota would have to handle any defects/failures) ... and I didn't want anyone else monkeying around with my new car's electronics/dash. But in terms of reception/dropouts, I now believe the best way to go is to position a standard "chunky bar" antenna at the center rear of the roof near the glass seal, do a neat job running the line through the seal and then running the wire through the roof headliner ... that means you just buy the Toyota part number for the tuner box ... and I think that will mean that you can skip the Toyota part number for the "fit kit."

[Dkn420]

RBTN...The Sirius was already on my car when I purchased it...so I really can't tell you if it was factory or dealer installed...I have the JBL Stereo and not sure if that makes a difference between factory and dealer installed...I haven't subscribed to Sirius yet and it wasn't an option that I was looking for it was just on the car when I purchased it...sorry I can't be of any more help.

[CAPTMARK]

How Much $$$$ Did You Pay For Install-complete W/unit

[burnrubber]

Originally Posted by ROBTN

Although the Toyota manual apparently provides that the dealer install the Sirius antenna on the trunk, I e-mailed Toyota directly and they told me the antenna should be mounted "underneath the front windshield". Is anyone familiar with such a mounting location? I researched antennas and see that Sirius makes an antenna called the SIGMA which mounts on the windshield above the rear view mirror. Anybody familiar with this antenna and does anyone know if this is the
antenna Toyota now uses for Sirius? Many thanks.

The sigma antenna is so new that it isn't in most of the dealers parts books yet. This is the antenna that all sirius equipted 06' and up toyota and nissan vehicles will use. The interior glass mounting location is superior to the old exterior mount style (because it is not routed thru the body seals and thru holes drilled to the exterior of the vehicle which will always cause leaks) instead , the sigma is glued to the windshield with special glue and a single wire is ran from the antenna and tucked in along the edge of the headliner, down inside the a-post finally into the dash into the radio, and free from the elements.
You might have noticed the new 06' GM trucks with the XM radio option have the antenna factory mounted on the exterior above the windshield(square black rubber lump) both toyota and nissan have agreeded that exterior rubber antennas will eventually fail from the elements let alone car washings/waxings.
I am waiting for toyota to release a universal style sigma antenna for older than 06' toyota models for my 05' tundra, which they say is coming soon.

[escpky]

SIGMA antenna is a wonderful device except for 2 issues:

1. In southern California when it is 100+ a simple touch will cause the antenna to fall off the windshield.

2. Reception is abysmal. I have rented many cars with satelite radio. Very few sound as good as the 360 watt JBL setup in my 2006 limited but none of them had the kinds of reception problems this thing has.

If anyone has a good replacement option please post it. The car is pretty nice except for this antenna.