Hands Free Phone Mic - quality / performance / position, is unacceptable.

[Tomdoc]

Mine is an early 23 model - have had no problems with the hands-free phone and I ask callers if they hear me ok. So far all good. I wonder if later models with extra gizmos are suffering with RFI (interference)

 

[Dok]

I haven't been able to be heard properly on a single call in 18 months. Be it with an iphone, an android, ... I've tried half a dozen phones to no avail.

It's now a joke with my interlocutors when I forget to activate the spearker and leave them a message: “I didn't understand a word, were you in your Grenadier?"

In bluetooth, navigation or music cuts off randomly.

I put my phone on a stand and use the speakerphone (...)

 

[DaveB]

Don't take this the wrong way, nut you have "first world problems".

That would be because I live in a first world country

 

[CHM]

That would be because I live in a first world country

As evidenced by your immediate use of insult. My comment was partly a joke and partly because you are talking about your longing to have two phones connected in a thread about the fact that one phone does not work. If I offended your first-world sensitivities, then please accept my apology.

 

[DaveB]

As evidenced by your immediate use of insult. My comment was partly a joke and partly because you are talking about your longing to have two phones connected in a thread about the fact that one phone does not work. If I offended your first-world sensitivities, then please accept my apology.

My comment was also meant tongue in cheek.

Out of interest one phone works very well, two phones is more difficult, but since software update now works.

 

[Zacman110]

I’ve tested 3 grenadiers, a mid 23, late 23 and a mid 24 here in Aus (friends/mine/loan car) all with an iPhone 13 and the people on the other end all report that on all cars the sound is poor and gets worse the faster you go. “You sound like you’re underwater, and it’s noisy” is the common feedback. I suspect that it’s the software not doing voice isolation very well.

 

[Logsplitter]

I’ve tested 3 grenadiers, a mid 23, late 23 and a mid 24 here in Aus (friends/mine/loan car) all with an iPhone 13 and the people on the other end all report that on all cars the sound is poor and gets worse the faster you go. “You sound like you’re underwater, and it’s noisy” is the common feedback. I suspect that it’s the software not doing voice isolation very well.

I used to have the issue where people couldn’t hear me when using hands free with iPhone 14 but since the latest update all is good , even my mother can hear me now

 

[Zacman110]

I used to have the issue where people couldn’t hear me when using hands free with iPhone 14 but since the latest update all is good , even my mother can hear me now

Update of the car or the phone? Which software version do you have in your car?

 

[Logsplitter]

Update of the car or the phone? Which software version do you have in your car?

Update on the car. I’ll check what version later.

 

[Logsplitter]

Update of the car or the phone? Which software version do you have in your car?

Software version

 

[marcusnilsson]

Bump.

Wondering if anyone knows of an aftermarket upgrade solution to the mic ?

 

[CRH]

Bump.

Wondering if anyone knows of an aftermarket upgrade solution to the mic ?

I'm keeping fingers crossed someone finds a solution soon

 

[tristand]

I had this problem and have solved it, although the solution isn't particularly straightforward. The issue I was having was that there was a large amount of electrical interference causing noise on the microphone signals to the head unit. With the vehicle turned on but engine stopped it was pretty bad, with the engine running it was terrible. There is also an issue with increasing noise as you speed up but that is background noise and is not too problematic. I have a decent amount of knowledge about automotive wiring, ecall system integration etc. which helps.

The core issue for me was down to poor routing of the coaxial cables between the microphones, the ecall system and the head unit. It is tightly bound into a harness carrying high frequency digital bus signals etc. and this was causing crosstalk. There was also a ground loop issue caused by the cable carrying audio from the ecall system to the head unit being grounded at both ends, this issue wasn't too bad so I left it alone.

The system architecture is fairly simple. There are two microphones in the overhead switch panel. Mic 1 is routed straight to the head unit under the steering wheel, on this mic the head unit provides the power supply for the electret microphone. Mic 2 is connected to the ecall unit mounted the the roof above the switch panel, on this mic the ecall unit provides the mic with power. The ecall unit then sends the Mic 2 audio signal down a coax cable to the head unit.

The routing of the cable from Mic 2 to the ecall unit is ok, but the cables from Mic 1 to the head unit and the ecall unit to the head unit were picking up a lot of noise from adjacent cables in the loom.

My solution was to cut the audio input cables to the head unit, the audio output cable from the ecall unit and the cable to Mic 1 and run new coax cables from the roof to the head unit to replace the cables I isolated.

This has made a huge improvement to the audio quality - it is actually usable. There is still background noise / rumbling which is louder at speed but the digital interference noise is gone.

As I said, not a particularly nice fix but it worked for me.

 

[ADVAW8S]

I like to report that my 2025 QM with safari windows has no microphone issue. I have talked several times to different people the vehicles Bluetooth. Each has commented that they hear me great. My mother said the sound was like I was speaking on a land line.

Maybe Ineos has solved the issue on newer models or upgraded the components.

 

[tristand]

I like to report that my 2025 QM with safari windows has no microphone issue. I have talked several times to different people the vehicles Bluetooth. Each has commented that they hear me great. My mother said the sound was like I was speaking on a land line.

Maybe Ineos has solved the issue on newer models or upgraded the components.

Quite possibly - mine is an early 2023 model.

 

[CRH]

Quite possibly - mine is an early 2023 model.

They should be updating ours then as mine is shocking and everyone complains

 

[DoubleDoom]

My wife tells me that my sound quality is awful and crackly and that is on a July 2024 build.

 

[Tom D]

I had this problem and have solved it, although the solution isn't particularly straightforward. The issue I was having was that there was a large amount of electrical interference causing noise on the microphone signals to the head unit. With the vehicle turned on but engine stopped it was pretty bad, with the engine running it was terrible. There is also an issue with increasing noise as you speed up but that is background noise and is not too problematic. I have a decent amount of knowledge about automotive wiring, ecall system integration etc. which helps.

The core issue for me was down to poor routing of the coaxial cables between the microphones, the ecall system and the head unit. It is tightly bound into a harness carrying high frequency digital bus signals etc. and this was causing crosstalk. There was also a ground loop issue caused by the cable carrying audio from the ecall system to the head unit being grounded at both ends, this issue wasn't too bad so I left it alone.

The system architecture is fairly simple. There are two microphones in the overhead switch panel. Mic 1 is routed straight to the head unit under the steering wheel, on this mic the head unit provides the power supply for the electret microphone. Mic 2 is connected to the ecall unit mounted the the roof above the switch panel, on this mic the ecall unit provides the mic with power. The ecall unit then sends the Mic 2 audio signal down a coax cable to the head unit.

The routing of the cable from Mic 2 to the ecall unit is ok, but the cables from Mic 1 to the head unit and the ecall unit to the head unit were picking up a lot of noise from adjacent cables in the loom.

My solution was to cut the audio input cables to the head unit, the audio output cable from the ecall unit and the cable to Mic 1 and run new coax cables from the roof to the head unit to replace the cables I isolated.

This has made a huge improvement to the audio quality - it is actually usable. There is still background noise / rumbling which is louder at speed but the digital interference noise is gone.

As I said, not a particularly nice fix but it worked for me.

So how big a job is this? How easy is it to run the new cables in?

 

[Skydance]

I had this problem and have solved it, although the solution isn't particularly straightforward. The issue I was having was that there was a large amount of electrical interference causing noise on the microphone signals to the head unit. With the vehicle turned on but engine stopped it was pretty bad, with the engine running it was terrible. There is also an issue with increasing noise as you speed up but that is background noise and is not too problematic. I have a decent amount of knowledge about automotive wiring, ecall system integration etc. which helps.

The core issue for me was down to poor routing of the coaxial cables between the microphones, the ecall system and the head unit. It is tightly bound into a harness carrying high frequency digital bus signals etc. and this was causing crosstalk. There was also a ground loop issue caused by the cable carrying audio from the ecall system to the head unit being grounded at both ends, this issue wasn't too bad so I left it alone.

The system architecture is fairly simple. There are two microphones in the overhead switch panel. Mic 1 is routed straight to the head unit under the steering wheel, on this mic the head unit provides the power supply for the electret microphone. Mic 2 is connected to the ecall unit mounted the the roof above the switch panel, on this mic the ecall unit provides the mic with power. The ecall unit then sends the Mic 2 audio signal down a coax cable to the head unit.

The routing of the cable from Mic 2 to the ecall unit is ok, but the cables from Mic 1 to the head unit and the ecall unit to the head unit were picking up a lot of noise from adjacent cables in the loom.

My solution was to cut the audio input cables to the head unit, the audio output cable from the ecall unit and the cable to Mic 1 and run new coax cables from the roof to the head unit to replace the cables I isolated.

This has made a huge improvement to the audio quality - it is actually usable. There is still background noise / rumbling which is louder at speed but the digital interference noise is gone.

As I said, not a particularly nice fix but it worked for me.

Do you know where the head unit is ground to and do you have any pictures of the grounding point? I’m wondering if this can be improved rather than reroute the wire from outside the harness.

 

[tristand]

They should be updating ours then as mine is shocking and everyone complains

I agree. However this isn't the type of issue that they are going to want to fix under warranty, they would need to replace the loom as the fix I carried out would be well outside the comfort zone of their service agents.