Satellite Radio

[JohnG]

Thinking of installing a satellite radio module to my factory stereo (which did not come with satellite capability). Wondering what is the best location for installing the satellite antennae and how best to route the wire. Does the antennae have to be on the outside of the car? Or could it be installed inside, say up by the rearview mirror?

Thanks for your help.

John

 

[004Gunner]

I can't speak for all the add on satellite units, but mine utilizes an antenna that must be mounted on the exterior. The instructions on any unit will provide guidance on antenna mounting and wire routing so you may need to read up on the specifics of different units. Also you will have options on how to play the signal through your h/u (cassette adapter, FM transmitter, RCA cables). This is how mine is set up: XM antenna on rear of roof just before lift gate. Antenna wire routed into liftgate molding and passing into cargo area, passenger side. Wire runs up passenger side floor into back of center dash bezel. The plug and play unit is plugged into the accessory power jacks and connected to the h/u through a cassette adapter. The cassette adapter was recommended for my unit and trial and error proved that it provided the best signal. It even beat using RCAs to my h/u's rca inputs. Hope this helps with your decision. The process is easy but achieving the look you want will be the biggest challenge.

 

[JohnG]

Thanks Gunner. I sure appreciate it.

John

 

[Finster]

I actually just installed a Sirius plug and play unit this morning. I put the antenna on the roof at the back, tucked the wire into the rubber door sealing at the back hatch, then tucked the wire between the molding and the carpeting running all the way to the front and fed it out through that little wiring access door towards the bottom left side of the driver side dash. The Sirius radio had a FM transmitter built in and I'm currently using that... I don't like how it sound so I'm thinking of getting a new radio with a AUX input built in.

 

[RichAA]

John, check my post: "T1808 / XM / iPod". I did it all yesterday, and it was easy. But there are lots of people with experiance here, and I'm no expert. I put the antenna on the left side of the dash and it (so far) seems to work fine. No wires, no mess.

 

[JohnG]

Thanks again, guys. Rich, nice write-up. I'm happy to hear about the satellite antennae being installed on the interior. Are you still able to use your steering-wheel audio controls?

A friend told me about a $50 XM set he bought from Sam's Club. He rain the antennae from the trunk of his car all the way up to the console, and then he tapped into a 12V plug in the console for power.

On our 4Runners, how easy would it be to tap into the 12V in the little console box, next to the shifter? Do you have to pull the entire console cover off to get to this? Or does the little box just lift straight up and pop off?

Thanks again for the suggestions.

John

 

[RichAA]

Yes, steering wheel controls work fine. The capability is in the Scion head unit, which is plug-n-play with the car. Since it's satellite-ready, it just needs a unit for input. The one I bought is here: http://store.xmfanstore.com/texmfortovex.html

It's quite different from receivers like the Roady, which sends to your head unit via an FM frequency. Those are about $50 (and may be fine for what you need).

Anyway, we're still pretty happy with the results. I'm going to replace the factory speakers when I get some time.

Take care

 

[jrfireboy2]

Hey guys, kind of along these lines I just got a universal tuner to mount and a TOY-SC1 interface that hooks up to the stock head unit so that I can control sirius through my head unit and see the title, artist, etc. on the radio as well. I'm just curious if there is any room in the dash somewhere to mount these things??? The interface has to be within about 12" of the radio and is not very big.