Hi All-

I've been a happy Sirius subscriber for years, but when I bought my TL in February, I thought XM couldn't be that different. Turns out, I hated it. So for Father's Day, my wife agreed to put Sirius in my car. I wanted to have it done professionally, but not spend too much money. I also was dead set on having a direct line level connection, but didn't want to burn the ability to use our Ipod. I also didn't want to ruin the clean interior of the TL with random gear and cables hanging everywhere.

I had seen someone else on here install a Starbase, which I liked the look of, even though I really wanted a Starmate 4. I went to Car Toys here in Seattle, and talked with them. After looking at how big the Starmate was, we decided the Starbase was the only way to go. Even though I'd have to give up pausing live radio, I could live with it if it kept the integrity of the interior.

What we ended up with wasn't totally cheap, but didn't cost too much either. The installer put the main part of the Starbase under the kickplate on the passenger side. He put the control panel in the top junk tray under the radio. The problem with the top tray mounting is that if you put the controller far enough back in the tray to close the door, you can't read the whole display. I came up with the idea of velcroing the controller to the top of the door. Now the display hangs where I can read it, but I can easily remove it and throw it in the tray to hide it's existence. I can still charge my cell phone with the bottom car charger either way.

For the audio input, he ran the line through the center console to a cable that sits in the center tray. I can plug it in for Sirius, or I can unplug it for my Ipod. A little low-end, but gives me lots of flexibility. At somepoint I may try to build a little switch so everything can be plugged in at once.

The antenna placement was a little tougher. Originally the installer wanted to place it on the dash, which we tried for a week but simply didn't work. Way to many drop outs. I wanted him to put it behind the factory antenna, but he felt it would be too long for the cable. Ultimately he talked me into putting it on the passenger side of the roof just above the window. It looks fine, but I wish there were a better alternative.

Overall, I'm happy with the customer service I got, and I'm REALLY happy to have Sirius in my car. It is now PERFECT!

Below are some pictures.


Close up of Starbase Controller


Starbase being put away


Starbase gone!


Center Box with Aux In


Front of Car (Antenna over passenger side of window)


Close up of antenna

 

yeah I had sirius forever on my previous vehicles and then i bought the 07 type-s(love it by the way) except xm sucks. it goes out when i go by any three story building to the south of me. heck sirius came in almost anywhere i was.

 

Nice and clean install though I am not quite feeling the antenna.

There have been a few Sirius "conversions" on here, but this is the first I've seen with an external antenna like that. I think others have had success placing the antenna at the top of the windshield behind the visor.

 

Yeah....

When I was looking into converting, there is someone who is selling an adapter that allows you to use the existing antenna.

If I have some time, I'll look it up and post it here.

 

I would love to be able to use the existing antenna!

Maybe people in other parts of the country get strong enough signal to put the antenna inside the car, I can only report that it worked very poorly here in Seattle. I don't love the placement either, but it was the compromise that worked best. We considered top of trunk as well, but believed that the angle of the rear window was too steep and may have blocked the antenna at times. Anyone ever try that? I really wanted to just place it behind the stock antenna, but since there's no moulding around the rear window it would have been tough to conceal the wire.

 

pull the guts of whats under the stock antenna out, and put yours underneath the cover for it.



#7 you should be able to retrofit the sirius one in it if you pull out the XM innerds.

 

btw #7 is 47 bucks and comes painted. If your feeling creative.

 

I found it. All of the info is located at SirusBackstage. You've got to register to see these entries or else it gives you a 404.

http://www.siriusbackstage.com/forum...ad.php?t=84627

Also found some interesting info that there will be a receiver replacement for our cars coming out soon.

http://www.siriusbackstage.com/forum...ad.php?t=98513

http://www.vaistech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=510

Appears as though it might still require the antenna adapter. The other option is to remove the headliner, take out the XM antenna an re-gut it.

Can't wait for this to be released!

 

What is the status of the Sirius XM merger anyway? Wasn't there talk of having just one program running instead of both Sirius and XM?

 

That adapter is awesome. I just sent an email to the builder, I'll report back if I hear from him.

 

I also installed Sirius in my '07 TL-S. I though for a while about using the XM antenna adapter but decided against it. In the end I paid $30 to have a Sirius antenna installed on the lower left corner of the windshield. They ran the cable under the driver's seat to my center console where I have the receiver connected via the AUX port. Signal is great and the sound is awesome. The only downside is not seeing the radio but I got over that quickly.

 

I got a great reply from the guy who builds the adapters, it looks like he does top notch work. I'm afraid it may be a little out of my price range, but I'd sure like to do it!

 

What is he charging for the adapter? I don't think I ever saw any pricing info on any of the forums.

 

Its kind of a custom fit, best to send him a note if you're interested.