Ok so I finally got my new car (A4 1.8T Black on Black), I plan on taking some pics of her when the weather around here gets better. My dilemma right now is I can’t get my Sirius radio to work. I was playing around in my trunk today and pulled open the compartment that holds the satellite radio and to my surprise found a Sirius unit (I had just figured I didn’t have it since my SAT button did nothing for me). I checked all the wiring on the satellite unit and they are all plugged in nice and firm. I have a feeling it may be something behind the head unit but I won’t know until I can get a hold of some tools to pull the unit out. When I do press the “SAT” button the FM radio stays on and it just says “RDS OFF” anyone have any ideas? Thank you for any help.

 

well this might sound silly but today sirus and XM got the ok merge together so maybe its not the unit, could it be a possability its the service right now, or is everyone elses working correctly?

 

That's cool didn't know that happened today, but it has done the same thing since I got the car last week.

 

RDS is short for radio data system. Some radio stations send out its station name, name of the song currently playing, and its singer information and if you have RDS on then those information will display on the radio while you're listening. You can turn it onor off by hitting the RDS button on the head unit.

Here is my question, do you have SAT radio service enable? Perhaps the previous owner or dealer cancel the service.

 

I called Sirius and the lady I talked to said that the previous owner did cancel, she told me I qualified for the free activation since I was re-activating the radio. The other strange thing is RDS must be turned on since I do get all the text from that stations, but when I hit “SAT” it says the RDS is off.
Is there a wire in the back of the radio that plugs in that is only for the Satelight?

 

Not sure why SAT keeps saying RDS is off although you already turned it on. Do you have any iPod adapter or additional auxiliary input adapter installed in the car (something like ice-link, PIE.. etc.)? Because those adapters disable satellite radio feature unless you use special harness at the back of the radio head unit.

 

It's most definitely an electrical or wiring problem. That isn't suppose to come up when you hit SAT. It's either suppose to say NO SATELITE or the preview channel will come up. the RDS message only comes on if you press the RDS button (only in FM mode nontheless). So you might need to bring your car in for service to rememdy that problem.

 

You know I think you may be on to something! When I hit “RDS” it starts to do some strange auto scan thing. I guess I’ll be calling Audi. My car is still under warranty is this something they will fix for free? Thanks for your help guys.