Elantra Stereo & Satellite Radio

[karmcc]

I am thinking about putting Sirius statellite radio in my new car. I want to purchase a portable device with a car kit. Does anyone know which car kit to purchase (and if this is a good idea at all). Does the Elantra stereo (2005 car) have an auxiliary input?

[jefboyardee]

My 2005 Elantra GT has no aux input. It’s a great sounding thing, but has knobs only for volume, front/rear and an active bass/treble gizmo. I have no idea if the GLS stereo works the same way.

I’ve been considering XM Radio myself. Its device does not connect to the radio or antenna; rather, it emits a faint FM signal which is picked up by the radio. They say to place the emitter wire near the car’s antenna, which, unfortunately, is in back of the car.

I suppose a visit to the local car audio store would answer our questions about hooking it up. Meanwhile, I’m curious why you prefer Sirius over XM -- I haven’t quite made that decision either.

[karmcc]

Thanks for writing back. I did a bit of investigating between Sirius and XM (Here's a website that has a comparison chart: http://radio.about.com/library/blsatellitechart.htm). Sirius is a bit more expensive (but they offer more incentives for example they throw in free months if you commit to a year or more), but it is commercial free and includes NPR (XM does not have any NPR stations--which is really important to me on long drives). Sirius seems to have more talk in general, and better customer service. I heard that if you don't mind commericals, aren't concerned with NPR, and are a huge sports enthusiast than XM is just as good.

[illusion123a]

Sirius also had NFL and NHL (ha) and will be getting Howard Stern, and eminem has his own raido station. While Sirius is a smaller company then XM, i forsee this changing with in a few years, as people get tired of commericals, and spend more time in their car

[jefboyardee]

Originally Posted by illusion123a

Sirius...will be getting Howard Stern, and eminem has his own raido station.

Personally -- to each his own -- I think those those are reasons _not_ to get Sirius! Anyone know which one carries Rush? Savage?

It seems sick and wrong that either of these stations have commercials... why would I want to pay money to get the same thing I have already?

[karmcc]

Has anyone out there actually put satellite radio in his/her car? Is it worth it? Is neat or are there tons of cords and wires running all over the place? I think the intial installation may also be a bit expensive, and am thinking of waiting for prices to go down.

Oh and yes, it is obnoxious for a paid service to have commercials. As for Rush or Savage, I haven't a clue who offers them (perhaps both?) I'm sure you could email the companies to find out. NPR is the most important to me.

[atc2be]

I've put XM in 2 cars, about tu put it in a 3rd (an 02 Elantra I just bought. I like XM. I got my first XM unit when it first came out. (Sirius was late to launch). The first one I had was a Pioneer with the large antenna and the large box that sat somewhere in the car and then the built in modulator and the seperate wired control unit. I wasn't that impressed but I like it now. My current unit (in my fiance's car and will go in the Hyundai) is the Delphi Roady 2. In my fiance's car I have it wired into the AUX input and in my car I intend on using it's built in FM modulator. The hardest part i'm having about the Hyundai is figuring out where to wire the controller so the minimal amount of wires show. I'm thinking the two false buttons to the left of the Hazard light switch and then running the wires a short distance down the side of the ignition where they won't be seen much. The Hyundai has such a clean look I don't want to ruin it. Anyway, as far as service goes, I have good customer service w/ my XM, all their music channels are commercial free. They have better comedy channels (my favorite). Instant traffic and weather for many cities (including mine) and now they have TONS of sports. They don't have Stern but they do have Opie & Anthony. (I don't care for Stern or the other pair so it doesn't matter to me). Also, XM just added a ton of channels that carry sports live so I'd say their neck and neck. Plus, my Roady 2 leaves a much smaller footprint on the dash and on the roof with it's tiny antenna. Anyone heard an update on Sirius's terrestrial status. See, near me, I don't get good views to the sky when I go certain places, therefore, no satellite reception, but there are terrestrial repeaters in the city so I never loose signal. Word had it for awhile that Sirius's repeater system was sparsely distributed and wasn't that great.

[jefboyardee]

karmcc:

>> Is neat or are there tons of cords and wires running all over the
>> place?

atc2be:

>> The hardest part i'm having about the Hyundai is figuring out where
>> to wire the controller so the minimal amount of wires show.

I guess we’re talking about wires for power, the FM emitter and the
satellite receiver.

On my ‘05, there’s a cubbyhole between the radio and the heater
controls. If the Roady can fit in there, the wires could run through a
drilled hole into the murky darkness behind the dash. If that works, no
wires are seen. If not... ugh.

[atc2be]

I use the cubby hole for CDs...my old unit in the NIssan Altima I had w/ the same cubby used a hole in the cubby for the wires. YOu need a power wire and the antenna wire. Here's a hint for the power wire though. Wire in an extra 12V power outlet behind the dash (u can buy it at Walmart for $4 and just wire it to the existing 12V outlet wires). Then run the wires from the antenna and the power. The FM emitter on the Roady 2 is built-in, no extra wires, it's a beautiful thing!

[jefboyardee]

Thanks for clearing that up, atc2be.

The remaining question is... does the satellite antenna dealy have to be
mounted in the roof, or can it live on the dashboard? If it’s the latter, I
suppose one could route its wire through the defroster cutout.

[atc2be]

You can go through the defroster outlet but I really advise against it. Usually those are fairly sealed systems so you have to find a way to snake through them or worse yet, drill a hole somewhere, plus...i'd imagine 1/2 hour of high-heat defrosting in the winter (if it gets cold where you live) could melt or damage that wire, it' sonly single micro-coax, fairly fragile stuff. I've done a few installs on these things and the best way I can find is this. Mount the antenna in the middle of the back window, very close to the gasket. (the antenna's on the roady 2 and such are magnetic so they're very easy to mount and move, just clean the area first or you get nasty scratches. Then, route the coax under the window gasket (it actually fits quite nice). Go down, through the trunk, along the door sills on either side of the car, up through the front kick panels and then to the radio. They give you something like 14' of cable so there's usually plenty.

[atc2be]

Another quick thought. The antenna's don't do well on the front dash because of the steepness of most windshields, it can't always look at the part of the sky it wants to. However, if you're completely against putting it on the roof, I've heard of people getting better reception placing the antenna in the rear window. Let me know how you make out

[jefboyardee]

Thanks again for all that. I’m still pondering the idea, not sure I’d use it enough to justify the cost. At least I know what I’m in for.

[atc2be]

I use it a lot, and when I bought mine they were giving away the home kit for free. If you can justify an extra $50 or so on the home kit (just another antenna, a little stand, a power adapter, and a 1/8" stereo -> RCA cable then you can probably use it a lot. I have a 40 minute commute to work every day so it's worth it for me!

[atc2be]

Just wanted to let you know that I finally brought myself to terms about installing my Roady 2 in my Elantra. The elantra has a nice clean dash appearance without a lot of clutter or craziness you see in cars like my Saturn so it was hard for me to mess it up and luckily, all said, it didn't end up looking all that bad. I'll put here how I wired it and then if you want, I'll take some pics for you.

1. I placed the small antenna in the center of the rear roof above the rear glass. On the antenna there's a little plastic skrinkwrap stress covering. I placed the antenna so the en d of that was almost touching the gasket (by the way, the Elantra happens to have a nice deep window gasket that very nicely hides the antenna wire.

2. Run the antenna wire under the window gasket (I went to the left, I had a reason for this which I'll get to later, lol). At the corner, simply lift up the corner of the gasket and continue running the wire down the left side of the window under the gasket. (I used a small flat head screwdriver wrapped in a thin rag to lift or pry up the gasket without damaging or scratching anything.

3. When you get to the bottom, run the wire around the bottom under the gasket and then pass it under the trunk gasket to the left of the trunk lid support (I think you'll know what I mean). If you have a GT hatchback, tis will be different for you and possibly a lot easier.

4. Once you get the wire in the trunk, I ran it under the rigid carpet like trunk lining and then towards the back seat under the lining.

5. Getting from the trunk through to the backseat without letting it be seen is a little different of a story and there's a few different ways to do it. Either way you do it, if you have the sedan, the easiest way is to fold the seats.

6. I then ran the wire under the door sills and through the B pillar trim. (This gets a little tricky, when you work behind the B pillar guard, BE CAREFUL. This car has an outboard side airbag sensor and a seatbelt pre-tensioner behind this panel both of which you DO NOT want to disturb. Once you get it through the door sill panels and front kick panel, leave it there, you have fun times ahead.

7. You have two options for power. If the receiver you choose uses 12V then you're all set, do yourself a favor, tap into a reliable FUSED power source somewhere and you're on your way but a lot of these units (including mine) run off of 6V and they get 6V by placing a small transformer in thier 12V lighter plug. Because of this, I went this route. I bought a spare 12V outlet from Walmart (cost me $4 and comes with the wires, only thing I needed was some tap-in connectors or T-Taps). I tapped the 12V plug into the lighter socket wires. (Take out two screws behind the ashtray and gently pull). From there I plugged in the lighter to my Roady 2 and ran the wire down through the bottom of the dash and out of the vent in the trim panel.

8. Now you can mount the receiver unit. The place I chose seemed like the only logical one mainly because I like to utilize all of the Elantra's little cubbys and storage holes. I chose to mount the unit on the dash to the left of the hazard flasher switch (In my car, these two spots are empty and have dummy switches). I suggest if you mount it here using double-stick foam tape (which they use which I happen to find the exact same kind), put a extra layer on the very top and the very bottom (this accounts for the curve of the dash).

9. After mounting the unit, I ran the antenna and power wire up through the bottom trim panel under the steering column (lots of space to run the wire). Then tie-wrapped the extra, tie-wrapped the power and antenna coming out of the radio and it comes out looking pretty nice.

Hope this wasn't too long but I guess it would help anyone trying to mount one of thse units because the other day I saw the exact same car I have (bought at the same dealership ironically) and it had the antenna wire just wrapped around the c pillar and then in through the door...what a hack job...