Does anyone know if the part numbers and all of the major parts are the same for the 04 HU vs. the 05?

Here's what I'm thinking. I want to get XM in my '04 with navi. If the parts are otherwise identical, I should be able to get an XM '05 OEM receiver and install it in the trunk.

Does anyone know all of the parts that are part of the XM system in the '05 and '06? From the reading I've done on this board, it sounds like there's:
1. The receiver (gray metal box in trunk)
2. The antenna mounted to the exterior
3. Cable going from antenna to the receiver, connected to receiver with a small harness
4. Power, audio, and control for XM receiver, connected to receiver with a big harness
5. Obviously a cable (or cables) needs to run to the HU...but I'm wondering if the connector exists on the '04 HU for me to plug into? Can this be done?

Am I missing anything in this list?

If I remember correctly, Honda had XM in the 04 Accord, so it's not entirely out of the question that the connector might exist on the 04 TSX's HU but not be in use until 05. (We've seen similar things on the navi, where there's a connector that's not in use...possibly for future expansion, or because they "borrowed" the part from another car.) Otherwise they would've needed to re-engineer the entire thing to add that connector...which I guess is possible, but I'm holding out some hope that there's a place to plug in.

Maybe we could even tell by looking at the part numbers. Is the HU part number for 04 different than 05?

Does anyone have any insight here? I've stumped the guys at the two Acura dealers I've spoken to.

 

What's a HU?

 

Head Unit

 

Yeah, I'm not sure about this. I would be worried about is whether the 04 HU has the hardware necessary in order to display the station/song name. Have you priced all of the parts yet?

Aftermarket XM receivers are going for pretty cheap nowadays. You can even get ones that buffer the signal and have more features then the OEM XM. Or maybe get the new Pioneer portable. It's just a thought though, and I can understand if you want the OEM integration.

 

Bingo. In my past few cars, I've always had non-factory setups with CD players, etc. One of the reasons I decided to go for the navi in the TSX (rather than get a portable navi) is because I loved the thought of seamless integration. You're probably right -- I could get a good device and a nice mount and it'd probably look good. But it's not quite what I'm looking for.

I priced out the XM parts on acuraparts247.com, and it's $209 for the antenna assembly and $533 for the XM unit. At first I was thinking that a lot of TSX owners don't use their XM, so I was hoping to grab a "used" one pretty inexpensively.

But then...I found this XMDirect tuner box and it's way cheaper than the TSX's OEM XM unit. Looks like $100 for the tuner box plus wiring harness. The only question is -- will it work? It says that it works with select satellite-ready head units (I'm assuming ours is Alpine, since that's what the navi system is?). But we're right back to where we started -- does the 04's HU have the capability to do it?

 

Just talked to the parts departments at three other Acura dealers. All of them say it's impossible -- there were changes to the head unit between 04 and 05. One of them said there's an aftermarket system that can work in an 04, but it's $750 for parts alone, it takes up the not an ashtray compartment, and it's more like an aftermarket system than an integrated one.

Unless anyone on here has any brilliant ideas or ways to make it work, I think my hopes has been killed.