jc957

I'm curious if anyone is having a problem with their SLS(Sirius Radio) from Vaistech. In particular, are you having problems with your bluetooth connection between their phone and the car working sporadically since you installed the SLS. The reason I ask is because I am not 100% sure it is from the SLS. I haven't contacted Vaistech yet and asked them since its late friday and they're closed right now but I never had any problems until I hooked up the SLS. However, I also just bought a new phone. The phone seemed to work fine the week I had it before I got the SLS but I'm trying to eliminate possibilities so I exchanged the phone this morning and I still had the problem. I disconnected the SLS and I didn't have any problems the rest of the day. Again, it has been a sporadic thing and I only drove about 2 hours after I disconnected the SLS so I'm not 100% it was the source of the problems. Everything else worked great with the SLS but something is going on so I'm looking to see if anyone else has gone thru this.

Bichon

Which phone and which carrier? (Just in case it isn't an SLS issue)

Tuxlex

It's probably the phone. I had problems with the bluetooth
connectivity on mine. It would work for a week or two, then
all of a sudden it would refuse to connect. Turned out, it was
the phone locking up. A master rest would fix it and it would
work for a day or a week after that. Further trouble shooting
isolated it to entered calendar entries on the phone. Certain entries
that contained alarms locked it up. So I just don't use alarms.
Now it has been working for months without problems.
BTW, the carrier is Verizon and the phone is a V710 with
hacked firmware.

jc957

Verizon is the carrier and the phone is the new LG vx 9900(env). I know the env isn't listed on the Lexus site but the vx 9800 is and this is the same phone with a bigger camera and smaller case so there shouldn't be any problems. The verizon dealer told me they both have the same bluetooth profiles. Plus, this phone just came out so lexus may not have updated the site. I contacted the dealer as well as lexus customer service and they didn't know anything about compatibility.

jc957

Thats interesting. I've never heard anything like that before. I listed the phone info above. I have yet to add anything including entries, ringtones, or anything for that matter and like I said, I changed out the phone yesterday for another one of the exact model and still had the same problem. The only thing I neglected to mention was that I did the key fob program to allow all doors to unlock when you touch the driver's handle just before this all began. I think this was coincidental though as I set it back and continued to have the problem.
My biggest problem is I had three things change all at the same time and I'm now trying to figure out where the problem is...the new phone, key fob, or the SLS. I still have the SLS disconnected and I'm getting ready to go to the gym and finish xmas shopping so we'll see if I have any problems today.

Bichon

Do you still have your old phone? Perhaps you could have customer service temporarily reactivate it to see if that solves the problem. My money is on the phone, not the SLS or door lock.

(Incidentally, Lexus doesn't test phones. The information on their site is provided by an Internet phone reseller LetsTalk.com. URL: http://lexus.letstalk.com.

jc957

I'm going to have to say the phone now as well. Just came home after driving with the ENV and still had problems. I ended up taking my wife's Krazr later on and it worked like a charm. I hooked the SLS back up and tried it again for about 10 minutes and it still worked fine. We will be going out tonight and I'll use her phone as the linked phone but I'm willing to bet that the LG vx9900 is the problem. Hopefully since this is a brand new phone, it is something that Verizon can fix with software updates. Especially since I already gave my old razr to a friend.

jc957

Well guys, looks like I may have spoke too soon. Last night my wife's razr would only work sporadically as well. If there was a time the car didn't recognize her phone, I would have to restart the car and then it would only sometimes reconnect. So now this is with both phones. Today I am going to remove the entire SLS as well as the cables and see what happens. With any luck this will fix the problem because now I am starting to run out of ideas. Maybe a bad cable, maybe not. But at least if it is still screwed up with everything out, I can take it back to the dealer and have them track the problem down.

jc957

Its official...something is wrong with the SLS and I'm guessing its the cable. Probably a bad wire somewhere loose in the bundle. I tried disconnecting and plugging back in to make sure I had a tight connection but still had the same problems. I had disconnected the actual SLS box earlier but still had the problem. This morning I disconnected the cables from the back of the nav and plugged everything back in the original way and I drove all day without a single problem. I'll be getting up with Vaistech on tuesday but don't anticipate any problems having them switch it out for another SLS. Will keep you posted. Merry Christmas everyone.

jc957

I spoke with tech support at Vaistech last night about the problem with the bluetooth when the SLS is installed. Apparently they have discovered(by several other complaints from car dealers) that the Sirius receiver itself needs to be grounded. I had installed mine via velcro under to the back and under the glovebox. I will re-install it some time today but I'm wondering if anyone has installed theirs in a way that grounded it. I'm trying to think of a place that is fairly easy to get to but will do the grounding trick. any suggestions are welcome.

MIAMIGS3

iTrader: (2)

other than this problem are you happy with the sirius ? im thinking of getting one.

BounceNY

iTrader: (9)

I have a similar problem with my SLS. Although I have no problems connecting the phone to the car, sometimes when I make a call through bluetooth, it will connect and but no sound will come out. The person on the other line will be able to hear me but my side is silent. Also, sometimes when I have the voice navigation on it cuts out after the first word or two. I havent figured it all out yet, but I think it has to do with the SLS and when I start the car with the radio turned off. If the radio is on when I start, I havent experienced any issues, so I just keep it on. When the weather gets nicer I will check for loose connections and perhaps ground the chassis of the SLS unit.

But other then this minor problem the SLS unit is great, you now get 3 preset screens (total of 18 presets) with the new version plus an aux input. Its seamlessly integrated into the nav display. Sound quality is pretty good, and I havent had any reception issues (mounted the antenna on the trunk near the rear window break light).

jc957

I have no other complaints. The folks at Vaistech have been great to deal with. The SLS itself worked fine as far as getting the Sirius channels and I have had a SLI since June of 06. I had a couple issues with the SLI but I'm hoping they have been fixed with the firmware update(I just received both back yesterday and will be putting them back in today). I just wish I had known to ground the Sirius receiver before I did the initial installation...it would have saved me a lot of time and headaches.

jc957

Yeah...it sounds like you are going through the same basic thing. The guy at Vaistech said to make sure I ground the Sirius receiver(the black part) and not the SLS unit. He was telling me they have been getting all kinds of calls about the same basic things we are having problems with and were able to isolate it to the receiver. Once everyone made a good ground contact with the receiver, the problems were always resolved. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it does the trick.

BounceNY

iTrader: (9)

Thats good news, I'm glad I chimed in to this thread...I will ground the receiver when I get a chance. By the way, I'm using the SIR-PAN1 receiver.