My sirius sportster 5 shuts off what it seems to be randomly. However, I think that it is caused by a minor bump on the road or any vibration. I have however had it shut off without the car even moving! Do I need a new car kit? or is it the actual receiver?

SOURCE: Power but no signal

I work for sirius so I know about all of these different issues and the most common one is the connections. It is imperative that the radios be connected to power with the cig lighter adapter. This adapter had circuitry in it that lowers the cars 12 volts to 5 volts which the sirius unit ooerates on. The old units were 12 volt and could hard wired into the vehicles fuse block, but all of the new radios operate on 5 volts. If this is not the issue with either of you then you have defective units. Being that all warranty replacement are with remanufactured units, your chance of getting a problematic unit increases after the initial return of your new unit.

SOURCE: Sportster 4

Dick,
Did u go to the menu to get the Sirius ID# or ESN# or did u get it from the box or back of the unit itself?? I used to work in activations department for sirius and the most common reason that a plug and play unit would not activate is a mismatch in ID #'s. I have seen units with one ID number, but the box or the back of the radio actually being labeled with a different number. By the way,only one signal can be sent to the radio every 20 minutes or so and most reps you talk to don't even know this. So after sending the first signal, all they are doing is clicking a button on the screen and getting a message back that says "Duplicate Provision" meaning that the signal cannot be sent because it is already sent. If you were hearing audio on channel 184 when the signal was sent and you made no adjustments during this time, and the SID or ESN number is the correct one for your unit, and the radio doesn't activate, I would get a replacement. But this never happens in my experience unless there are other signs of defect.

Hope this helps!!

SOURCE: Sportster randomly turns off.

I too started experiencing drop-out/unit lock-ups after two months.  After resetting to factory defaults,per Sirius phone support, without results, only pulling out power adapter would reset the unit.  I suspected a design problem with heat.  I wrapped the unit with a medical cold pack and got stable operation.  Given all the complaints I see on this web site, I suspect Sirius is well aware of the issue, and not addressing it appropriately.    

SOURCE: Sirius Sportster car kit - blown fuses

Try the other adapter and see if it works without blowing the fuse. If that fuse blows also, something is wrong with the radio.

SOURCE: SIRIUS Sportster "Acquiring Signal"

Let me save you $30.00. A new antenna will not help, nor will cleaning the contacts. I just did both of those and it did not help. I have mine in the freezer right now cooling it down. Sirius told me that I should not leave it in the car because it gets to hot. They told me to buy another unit....