How To: Install Mazda3 Factory Sirius Satellite Radio Tuner

RedRaptor

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04 Mazda3 Sport GT
How To: Install Mazda3 Factory Sirius Satellite Radio Tuner

With the 2005 models, the stock HU included a SAT button that is used for the factory Sirius satellite radio tuner. The factory Sirius tuner is fully compatible with the stock HU meaning you wont lose the steering wheel controls. Also, all the satellite radio text (station name, song title, artist and category) are displayed on the factory LCD which means satellite radio is integrated with your stock HU.

Here is what is required for this install:

- 2005 Stock HU with SAT Button
- Sirius Satellite Radio Kit 0000-81-G01A
- Mazda Sirius Satellite Radio Installation Kit 0000-81-K02A

Here is a picture of the kit and what it comes with:

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-Sirius Sat Radio Tuner
-Sirius Sat Radio Antenna
-Sat Radio interface cable
-Zip ties, double sided tape, pad protectors and manuals.

Here are the official installation instructions for the Mazda3 5 door and 4 door models.

http://www.finishlineperformance.com/docs/maz3_sat_install.pdf

If you read through the instructions, you will find that it is quite an involved install that would take sometime. Most of the time is spent really taking apart the panels inside the car. I decided not to follow these instructions since I didnt want to take apart the passenger side of the car, nor do I want anything electrical close to my fuel tank.

My install method involves taking out the glove box and installing the Sirius sat radio inside the glove box. You would run the wires (interface cable & antenna) behind the glove box and into the stock HU. The sat radio tuner does get a little warm, so it is recommend that you dont mount it in a super enclosed space (like right underneath the centre vents piece as one user reported the sat radio tuner would not work properly because the dash would heat up from the sun). The official installation instructions also said that the antenna should be placed outside on the roof of the car. Ive done quite a bit of research on antenna placement and Ive found a lot of people are mounting their antennas inside the car with successful results. Some people have mounted theirs on their front dash while others mount it at the back. The key is really how your windshield is angled. A few Mazda3 owners have mentioned that our front windshield works fine with sat radio antennas. Another reason why I wanted to mount the antenna inside is because I dont want to clutter the top of the roof with another antenna.

Here are some pictures on the installation.

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Stock Mazda3 2005 HU with SAT button (required for install).

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Mazda3 2005 HU backside showing the connector for the Sirius tuner.

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Remove the glovebox

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There is a latch door at the back of the glovebox which means NO drilling
for wires. My guess is this door is the US Spec cars that have factory DVD NAV.

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Put some velcro on the OEM Sirius tuner. We will velcro it inside the glovebox to keep it from sliding around.

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OEM Sirius tuner placed in glovebox
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OEM Sirius tuner placed in glovebox backside
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Neatly bundle the OEM Sirius interface cable using zip ties. Leave some cable on both ends to connect to the stock HU and also the Sirius tuner in the glovebox. The cable is very robust so don't be afraid of damaging it when bundling it together.

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Tuck the bundled interface cable beside the PJB. There is a small slot there that is perfect size if you bundled your cable properly. It tucks in very nicely.

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Route the other end of the cable to the front. I zip tied the cable to existing cabling to keep things clean.
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Interface cable routed to the front where stock HU is. The white end connects to the stock HU while the black connector connects to the Sirius tuner.

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Connect the black connector and the Sirius antenna to the Sirius tuner for testing. The reason for this is you don't want to put it into the glovebox to find out that some connection is loose. Connect the white connector of the Sirius interface cable to the stock HU along with the FM/AM antenna and stock interface cable. Make sure all connections are secure and tight.

-Key in and press the SAT button. It should say "Sirius".
-Tune to channel 184 (test channel) to check if you get a signal.
-Make sure your antenna has a clear view of the sky.
-You should hear the preview channel broadcast.

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Once you ensure you have a signal from Sirius, proceed to mount Sirius tuner in the glovebox. Make sure you write down the ESN/Sirius ID found on the side of the tuner down. You will need this # to subscribe. However, if you were to forget this step, you can always find out your ESN/Sirius ID by hold down the TUNE knob for 3 seconds and it will display on the LCD.
As you can see there is plenty of room left in the glovebox.

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This is where I mounted the Sirius antenna.

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Can't find it? There we go. You can mount the antenna behind glass as long as the antenna gets a full view of the sky and there is no metallic tint on the glass. Since no one has their front windshield tinted, this isn't a problem. Make sure you mount the antenna right up against the windshield so that it gets the best view of the sky.

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Here is the driver view of the Sirius set up. SR1 means you're on Sirius and it displays the artists' name and etc. Notice how the Sirius antenna is very stealth and it looks like a little black mouse. It blends in with the dash.

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You're DONE! Put back all the screws, and the carbon fiber trim and enjoy Sirius Satellite Radio!

Initial Review:
My car is a 2004 model so my stock HU did not have the SAT button. I traded my 04 HU + money for the 05 HU. There are three Sirius modes (SR1, SR2, SR3) which works the same as FM1, FM2 giving you a total of 6 presets x 3 = 18 total presets. Sirius has A LOT of contentwe went through some music channels which had some really hype music mixes, talk stations, weather stations, redneck radio and a Truckers Radio Station (loser)

Here is a complete channel listing to Sirius.
http://www.sirius.com/pdf/channelguide.pdf (5MB)

In terms of quality, the talk channels, news, and weather have less bandwidth so they dont sound that good (AM quality). Certain music channels have higher bandwidth and they do sound pretty good. I would say the quality is better than FM but not CD quality, so somewhere in the middle. I still have yet to go through the entire Sirius channels so Ill write more about the content/quality/service later.

I have noticed that the reception will cut out when driving over an overpass or under a lot of trees. Ive talked to some of the other guys on the Sirius forums who have their antenna mounted inside and outside and they say that this is normal. The only way to prevent is to drive fast under the coveringhaha.

I really happy with the installation method I used. Everything is reversible with the least amount of work. There was no cutting involved and should I decide to sell the Sirius unit later, it would only take 10 min to restore my car to factory. The only downside is that you will lose some glove box space, but with our glove boxes so big already, its a non issue really. The installation is also very clean and stealth.

Enjoy!

Red.
 
nice walk through... god i really really want to get my hands on an 05 model HU so i can enjoy sat radio as well...(with the stock look of course... )
 
hmm this sounds so nice i am gona have to jump on this as well.
tsunami, its on man, im gonna try to get one of those HUs myself.
Red, how much money did you add to the trade?
couldnt you get this from the Stealership?
is it covered by warranty? cause it could break and need replacement... just saying...
 
ZoomVT said:
hmm this sounds so nice i am gona have to jump on this as well.
tsunami, its on man, im gonna try to get one of those HUs myself.
Red, how much money did you add to the trade?
couldnt you get this from the Stealership?
is it covered by warranty? cause it could break and need replacement... just saying...


(fuoops)
 
Getting2knowMaz: I get no random drop outs with the antenna mounted on my dash. As far as I know, even if you have your antenna mounted outside, the signal will drop when driving under an overpass or covering of trees. If you are getting random drop outs, then thats when you know the signal isn't good. So far it works for me. Having the antenna inside is peace of mind.

ZoomVT: The OEM Sirius Tuner can be had at $312 USD at Trussville Mazda. I paid about $40 USD to trade up to the 05 HU. It really depends on the person, my friend offered it to me for free but I wanted to give him some cash for his time. Getting a new HU from the stealership is probably suicide. The Sirius Tuner has warranty and if you get it installed by the dealership, I "think" they give you warranty on the install. But my install method is really simple so if the Sirius tuner breaks, you can take it out and do a warranty claim.
 
RedRaptor said:
ZoomVT: The OEM Sirius Tuner can be had at $312 USD at Trussville Mazda. I paid about $40 USD to trade up to the 05 HU. It really depends on the person, my friend offered it to me for free but I wanted to give him some cash for his time. Getting a new HU from the stealership is probably suicide. The Sirius Tuner has warranty and if you get it installed by the dealership, I "think" they give you warranty on the install. But my install method is really simple so if the Sirius tuner breaks, you can take it out and do a warranty claim.

Damn! $312 for the tuner? seems sky high, can you get non-OEM tuners?... not sure if i would get it for that much. Thanks for the info!
great work on the install
 
ZoomVT said:
Damn! $312 for the tuner? seems sky high, can you get non-OEM tuners?... not sure if i would get it for that much. Thanks for the info!
great work on the install

most af tuners start at 100$$ or you can go with an af hu sat ready those are a bit around 2 bills plus you still have to get the sat reciever, its just sat ready.... so to go with the af hu way it is pretty much the same $$ if not more... if you want a straight reciever you have this god awful silver thingy hangin off your dash but it is cheaper.... you also loose steering wheel controls with the reciever (though the af hu you can get the mod to keep the steering wheel controls though thats even more $$) so for a nice clean look, it really isn't that bad of a price...

yes i have been looking at all of my options for a while now... the only thing i hate is XM has MLB and sirius has NFL... why can't one have both... damn them... damn them all!!!!
 
oh yeah with the the straigh sirius/xm tuner you still have to hook it up to the HU with an auxmod or other method so thats $$ right there as well... 312 is a bit of a chunk but after you look at all the options it really isn't that bad... if you can get an 05 hu that is...
 
Part 2: Sirius Antenna Placement

Here is how I ran the antenna wire and placed the antenna on the dashboard.

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How did you take off the Decoration panel? Just pull on the panel with your fingers? OR did you use a screw driver for the clips?
 
urge262 said:
How did you take off the Decoration panel? Just pull on the panel with your fingers? OR did you use a screw driver for the clips?

To take off the Carbon fiber trim, you don't need to unscre anything. Open the glove box. Slowly take your fingers and slowly pry underneath the trim. It is held in by clips so just use some force to remove each clip. There is a hook at the end of the trim (right side).

Should come off easily with some force.
 
RedRaptor said:
To take off the Carbon fiber trim, you don't need to unscre anything. Open the glove box. Slowly take your fingers and slowly pry underneath the trim. It is held in by clips so just use some force to remove each clip. There is a hook at the end of the trim (right side).

Should come off easily with some force.


ok cool thanks
 
- Sirius Satellite Radio Kit 0000-81-G01A
- Mazda Sirius Satellite Radio Installation Kit 0000-81-K02A

What parts come with the Mazda Sirius Satellite Radio Installation Kit 0000-81-K02A? From the pictures it looks like everything you need comes with Sirius Satellite Radio Kit 0000-81-G01A.

I'm planning on doing this with a 2010. Has anything substantially changed?
 
Thanks for the instructions. I have the sat radio module, everything apart. The only problem is - where is the harness to tap into for +/- power? The installation instructions say there is a "PJB (J-04) 32- pin connector". I see it in the instructions pic, but I don't see it behind my glove box or yours in your pictures. Any help would be appreciated.
 
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