I got a SIRIUS One sat. radio reciever for christmas. I tried out the FM transmitter on it and it is pretty decent, but it has an audio out line on the transmitter so I figured I would use the AUX port in the center console so that the audio would be more clear. I picked up a 1/8th male to male phono cable from RadioShack and ran the cable but when I was listening I could tell that I'm getting alternator whine through the speakers. I have an MP3 player that I have connected using the same cable and same AUX in and it doesnt have this issue. I tried plugging the SIRIUS One unit into both different power plugs but I still get the whine noise. If I switch it back to the FM transmitter I dont have this problem.

Anyone know why and how I could fix this? I'm willing to cut off the end of the power cord and splice it into a power and ground underneath the dash (planned on doing it in the future anyway) but I dont want to do that if I will still be getting the alternator whine.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

What Sirius unit?

 

I also installed the SV1 Sirius One in my tC. I cut the cigarette lighter adapter off of the power cord and hard wired it to the cigarette lighter wires (routed the cord behind the dash and then under the center counsel). I also purchased the FM converter made for Sirius units (got mine at Best Buy or Circuit City - don't remember). The FM converter simply plugs into the stock radio antenna input. You then plug the tC's antenna into the adapter. The FM converter wire then plugs into the "FM Out" hole on the Sirius One unit (again ran the wire behind the dash). You still tune the receiver to FM 88.1, but its a direct plug and play and not FM reception. For me, it sounds awesome - no fading in and out and no engine/alternator whine. Good luck. If you have any question, let me know. I will try to help you.

 

I hard wired mine so the line out is going directly into the AUX input that I bought for my Kenwood headunit. At first I thought the transmitter on the S-50 was great. Once I had the hard wire installed..it blew the transmitter away. I could easily tell by switching to my FM 88.1 then to the AUX input. The only problem I see that ScionLawyer did is...don't you lose your all of your radio then? I know you got Sirius to listen to the radio, but still every once in a while I switch back to the FM every here and there.

 

Joco...my radio still works. I turn off the power to the Sirius unit and the radio works just like it did before.

 

I did the same thing as Scion Lawyer did after running into the same problem that you had. I will also attest to the effectiveness of the wired FM modulator.