Painless Sirius XM install (semi-large pic warning)

[bciesq]

There are a number of threads on installing satellite radio in general and the issue of mounting the magnetic antennae on the aluminum Insight in particular. To the extent that I stumbled on a “good enough” place to mount the antennae, I thought I’d share my install notes.

Background

I’m not an audiophile. I’m still running the stock head unit and the only money that I’ve spent on the stereo has been on a pair of Polk Audio db 651s. I couldn’t bear to throw out the crappy stock speakers, so I put them in rear speaker holes. I had a Skyfi2 sitting around and a long trip coming up, so I decided to perform a quickie install. The following took me 20 minutes.

The Antennae

I won’t rehash the other threads detailing the challenges of mounting the antennae. Suffice to say that I didn’t want to use an adhesive and I didn’t have a fishtank magnet handy. So like a doctor with a stethoscope, I started touching the car with the antennae looking for an elusive spot of ferrous metal. In the end, I found a candidate on the hatchback just underneath the glass:



I ran the antennae wire along the hatchback weather stripping:



Down the pre-cut channel in the cargo area:



And finally under the rocker panel cover:



Continued in the following post.

[bciesq]

The XM unit

I decided to install the Skyfi2 above the cargo drawer to the left of the steering wheel. I decided on that spot because the center console area is sparse enough in the storage department as it is without adding more electronic equipment, and I think that the left side of the steering wheel is a little less conspicuous for thieves. The wires (antennae, cassette adapter and power*), all reach, and the install looks clean considering the 20 minutes that I spent throwing it together.





The cargo drawer still opens, although there is a less room to access it without removing the Skyfi unit.



* I should note that I have a three-plug adapter behind the center console. I keep the XM and a combo phone charger (iPhone and Blackberry) plugged in at all times. This keeps all of the wires out of view.