20 Most Recent Sirius Sportster 4 SP4-TK1 Satellite Radio Receiver with Car Kit Questions & Answers

When you disconnect your battery and then reconnect it again, it disables the radio. This is an anti-theft protection for your car radio. The enable your radio the activation code is in your vehicle owner's manual. If you do not have this code you need to go to your vehicle manufacturer's service centre and get them to enter this code for you.

Not advised. They have different resistance and are set up for different Sat signals. Chances are you will decrease the life of your radio if you get a signal at all.

I had the same issue with my Sportster Replay SR2. The backlight was usually out, but would flicker on, especially when I would apply pressure to the back.

The unit only has two screws at the bottom, which I removed. I couldn't seem to remove the back cover and was afraid I might break it, so I snugly put the screws back in and decided to give up until I could find some more information on how to remove the back.

Voila! After putting the unit back into its cradle in my car, the back light worked! I believe that the screws had simply loosened over time, and the connections for the backlight simply were not making contact.

I'm not sure how long this fix will last, but so far so good. So before doing any soldering or monkeying with the connections, just try tightening the screws first to see if it fixes the problem as it did for me.

You are not going to be happy about this. I am actually on hold with Sirius as I am typing this. I am having my account suspended...
For the past 2 months I have had the same difficulties. The unit will work properly for a few minutes and then go crazy. Music cuts out, the screen dims and brightens, the same start-up tone and sometimes the unit freezes and won't respond to the remote or any buttons on the unit. There is usually a high pitched 'whine' in the background of every channel. Quite often after the unit does its start-up tone thing there will be no music at all and I will hear strange noises through my speakers, like a thumping or something.
The reason you won't be happy is because I am on hold with a tech and he told me that my unit is at the end of its life. There is nothing you can do about it. Its dead.
Im sure you are as happy as I am about having to dump another 170 dollars or whatever for a new unit. Its bull. I have been told that the sirius units have a life of about 2-3 years but I didn't know if I believed it. I do now. And I don't know if I will continue business with them.

Welcome to FixYa!
Remove the batteries/power line connecting to the Sirius Radio. Connect it back after 2 minutes. This will refresh the device without loosing any saved settings/informations and will unlock the channels.

Thank you for using FixYa. Have a great day. Jas247

That means there is something wrong with your subscription. I have 2 Sportster and have had that happen to me. You need to call Sirius or log onto your account online. I’m happy to assist further over the phone at https://www.6ya.com/expert/joe_8b8c2cd6ce148309

The buttons are just metal domes glued to a circuit board. After time, pressing the buttons will cause the button strip to shift downward and stop functioning. Open your radio and push the strip back into place.

IIRC, the SP4 has a separate button PCB. That may have just come loose. The connector is just to the left of the power button. Press firmly on that area and see if that helps.

Your car kit antenna is probably bad. Try unplugging the antenna and plugging it back in. Also the connectors between the unit and the dock become dirty and occasionally need to be cleaned. Use rubbing alcohol on a q-tip or a pencil eraser to clean the connections. Also it may just be an audio issue your having so check the menu and see that your FM is on if that is how you receive it through the radio. Often times replacing the antenna will do the trick if none of the other things help.

Alternator noise. Use all shielded audio cables. You can also add 'ferrite rings' to the audio calbe and to the power connecotr cable

Hi,

Your Sportster is freezed,you have to reset it.else some time loose contact in the internal wiring may cause this.You just check for the soldering connection and rehot it.
Please see any of the IC gets to heated,If it is too heated that is the IC you have to replace or rehot it.

The Factory Default option will restore all original factory settings in your SIRIUS Sportster radio. Note that factory default will not reset the lock code if you have changed it from the default lock code.
To perform a factory default reset:
Select the Factory Default menu option.
Select Yes to restore all factory settings or select No to cancel and return to the Menu Options screen.
If Yes is chosen, the radio reverts to the original factory settings for the following parameters:
All presets revert to empty
Reset to Normal Tuning Mode
Reset to default screen (with 2-line PDT display)
Reset previous power state setting to: Off
FM Frequency Setting: 88.1MHz
FM Transmitter: On
Game Alert: Clear all favorite teams
Jump Settings: Clear jump setting
Display Brightness: 80%
Display Contrast: 50%
Auto Memory Search: On
Clear all S-Seek stored entries
Audio Level: -3dB
Confirmation Tone: On
Clock Format: 12 Hour
Clock Time Zone: Eastern Time Zone
Clock Daylight Savings Time: Observed
Alarm: Off
Alarm Time: Cleared (12:00pm)
Program Alert: Off
Program Alert Time: Cleared (12:00pm)
Program Alert Day: Cleared (Monday)
Program Alert Channel: Cleared (184)
Auto Shutdown: Disabled
Sleep Mode: Off


After this pulling out power adapter would reset the unit.

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thank you for using fixya have a nice day:-)

Usually the antenna is not plugged-in all the way, or you have broken the little tiny antenna wire. Try another location first, then try another antenna.