Ease of car stereo install

[mu_ohio]

Just wanted to tell everyone that this car is very easy for stereo installs from what I've seen. To begin with, the wiring harness kits are easy to find a Best Buy but you will have to make a trip to Circuit City for the mounting kit. Once I put all of that together it was easy to pop off the dash and remove the headunit. The only stickler was the attenna which is amplified, but so far the headunit is strong enough so I didn't have to splice into the turn on for the amplifier. If you do want to use the amplifier on the attenna you can splice into the black wire that comes off of it and use your remote turn on. I also ran the XM radio line to the back which is very easy. The rocker covers come off very easily and so does the kick panel once you remove the plastic nut. You can easily run any wiring from the headunit down the shifter console and over to the left or right kick panel and then down the rockers. I noticed that the drivers side has a thicker harness which gives you little room. The passenger side has a smaller harness that ends at the B piller, but the whaser line for the rear runs the entire length. Once you run your lines to the rear area, there are a lot of option to route to the back. I hope this is helpful for anyone and I will update you once I install my amps, caps, and subs.

[NSimkins]

quote:The only stickler was the attenna which is amplified, but so far the headunit is strong enough so I didn't have to splice into the turn on for the amplifier. If you do want to use the amplifier on the attenna you can splice into the black wire that comes off of it and use your remote turn on.I am not sure I understand what you mean by this. Are you referring to the factory antenna? If so, what do you mean by it being amplified?quote:I also ran the XM radio line to the back which is very easy.Did you end up installing the XM radio antenna on your vehicle? Did you mount it on the roof? If so, how did you run the wire to it? How to you like XM Radio (if you subscribed to it)?Thanks for your post. I will definately use this info when the time comes to upgrade my system.
[Modified by NSimkins, 10:02 PM 8/11/2002]

[mu_ohio]

The antenna actually has a small amplifier on it for reception. I guess that the factory head unit does not have one built in. I actually confirmed this with a few installers white papers at both Besty Buy and Circuit City.As for the XM Radio, I had it installed in my old vehicle and I loved it. On my Vibe, the box is not mounted down yet because I'm very nervous of mounting anything to my new vehicle until I'm 100%. So far I ran the P-bus cable to the passenger side panel that is removable in the rear. The antenna is about 4 inches from the rear of the vehicle and so far I haven't had an reception problems with the roof rack.

[NSimkins]

quote:On my Vibe, the box is not mounted down yet because I'm very nervous of mounting anything to my new vehicle until I'm 100%.The box you are referring to is the actual antenna or something else? quote:So far I ran the P-bus cable to the passenger side panel that is removable in the rear. The antenna is about 4 inches from the rear of the vehicle and so far I haven't had an reception problems with the roof rack.Which panel in particular are you referring to? I can't picture it. Is the antenna actually mounted on the outside of the vehicle yet?

[mu_ohio]

With the Pioneer XM radio setup, you have a box that is 8 x 6 x 1.5 inches that is the receiver for XM radio. That box uses a cable to plug into the headunit. The actual antenna for the XM radio also connects to this box. The panel that I was speaking of is the one that allows access to the passenger tail light. If you open it up, there is enough room to mount the XM radio box.

[BigWill]

My deck finally came in and I wanted to know about the wiring kit that came with it. Or do I have to go and buy another kind of wiring kit? Talk to me.........