Sirius XM FM Adaptor Relay Tripping Alarm, and causing a no-start?
 

Lately I've been trying to ID an intermittent problem which seems to slowly be getting worse.

The situation: 2002 Boxster 2.7 with a professionally installed SiriusXM converter, and a Pioneer radio from Crutchfield which I installed.

The symptoms: The car runs great. Normally the car turns on when I turn the key, and the satellite radio and Pioneer radio come right up. The alarm will chirp when I lock the car (even though I thought that I had deactivated that.)

Occasionally when I try to start the car the Sirius unit and the radio will be dead, and the car won't start. I'd noticed a clicking sound from the radio console which I've identified as the SiriusXM FMDA25 FM Direct Adaptor. It's a small black box which switches between the AM/FM Antenna and the Satellite Radio FM out plug.

Using my Durametric OBD reader, I also noticed an "Alarm I48 - Fault 25 "Status lead, signal converter, short circuit to B+". When it happens, it can happen multiple times.

I haven't found much of an explanation for this fault, but I suspect that the "B+" refers to Battery-plus or +12V (as opposed to a short to ground).

If there is no clicking sound, then the tunes come up fine and the car starts.

The relays only seem to cost ~$15-$20, so I'm going to swap it out and see what happens.

Anyone else ever run into this? :confused:

Just logging the solution.

I replaced the relay, and the new one started clicking even faster when the car wouldn't start.

So I pulled out the entire SiriusXM system, and now the car and alarm work fine.