wumarkus

This is my first REAL post here. I've been lurking for a few weeks while I've been contemplating getting my TSX. I finally picked it up last Monday (black on black 6-speed with nav) and have definitely been pleased with the purchase. I had the day-off today, and I'm going out of town, so I *NEEDED* my XM by tomorrow. So I went to the local dealer, paid $42 for my harness (I couldn't find it any lower anywhere), spliced together everything, and even though I was a bit aprehensive, I went for it, and it worked out. Here are some more details:

I started with the snhond + accord harness splicing, and it turned out perfect. The pictures and directions are easy to follow and take no time at all. Definitely use a small mirror to help get the harness into the port correctly when you actually plug it into the nav system.

I had the tuner that looks like this:
http://www.smarthome.com/9293.html

This was installed in the main storage space and was very similar-looking to the Kenwood installations (I think the Sony might be a bit smaller, though)

I ended up using the screw from the home kit, since the car kit mount added an inch to the unit, which I made it harder to use (there is a scroll wheel and button on the top of the unit). Basically, I drilled one small hole in the bottm and used one screw into the casing to keep it in place. It's not as sturdy as using 4 bolts like the Kenwood people, but it's good enough for me. I also needed a 1 inch hole in the back to accomodate the wires.

I used the magnetic-mount XM antenna and placed it on the roof. The channels around the back windshield were a perfect fit to get the wires into the trunk. I then ran on the passenger side around the seats and under the trim. After going across, under the glove box, and into the dash, it was a perfect fit, and I had a few feet left over.

The Sony also needs a 6V source, so I got a radioshack cig adapter along with my ground-loop isolator and tapped into the wire-loom of the other power socket (next to the not-an-ashtray). I did NOT have to remove anything to get to this, I just took off the grey tape stuff, exposed the loom, and tapped into the thickest gauge wire. Then I just grounded to the frame somewhere. I was able to then use the cigarette plug from the XM to the tapped-in radioshack receptacle and hide everything along with the SNHOND module and replace the unit.

I'm SORRY, I don't own a digital camera, so I don't have pictures, and won't be able to really give you any other than the finish product, but it looks pretty similar to the Kenwood installs. I took my time and it was about 2 hours to get everything done. I'm pretty pleased with the results, and I have to thank everyone here who got those awesome instructions out there.

Next up, remote radar detector and OEM shock-sensor alarm add-on. I'll let everyone know how those turn out and maybe I can borrow a camera from somebody next time.

If you have any questions or need some help, please reply to this post or send me a PM!

-wu