Using the OEM Sirius cable for XM

Hi there,

I have a 2007 Mazda5 Touring that came with the OEM Sirius receiver. I subscribed for a year, but after two years of XM, I decided that the programming on XM was much better, so I didn't renew.

I am currently planning to use a Terk XM Direct receiver that I had in my last car with an Axxess XIA-IO1 adapter, but that means (I think) having to route another antenna cable up to the front of the car, since it looks like the installed antenna cable is only long enough to reach the Sirius box in the trunk. I'm hoping there's a bundle of wire tucked away that I can just extend to the front of the car.

What I would much rather do is just plug in some kind of conversion cable from the XM Direct into the existing cable that runs up to the head unit. No need to yank out the head unit or snake any wires under the carpeting/side panels. Does anyone know of any XM receiver that can use the OEM cable or is it a proprietary connection?

Thanks,
Scott

The OEM SIRIUS Tuner-to-Head Unit cable is propietary... it's an ugly mass of wires coming into a harness plug at both the head unit and Sirius Tuner ends. Going along with this, I don't think you'll be able to direct connect an aftermarket sat radio tuner into the OEM head unit because of the propietary plug.

OTOH, the OEM antenna cable is the standard one plug lead, and I have successfully plugged it into my older generation Kenwood SR903 SIRIUS Tuner.

Mazda/Sirius OEM Cable

Do you still have this cable?

Do you want to sell it? I happen to need one to hook my sirius up in my RX8.

Good luck with your XM install.

Brian

Hmm.... I guess I should set up some notifications for myself. I haven't checked in here lately.

Over the weekend I went ahead and installed the Terk antenna and XM Direct receiver. It turned out to be far easier than I expected, and there was plenty of room to stash the Axxess box behind the factory receiver. Attaching the connector into the MD plug was a bit tricky but once I screwed on the metal bar that came with the Mazda adapter onto the stereo everything was fine.

It all sounds great, but unfortunately I'm not getting any text on the head unit's LCD display from the XM box or my iPod, which I thought was a feature of this adapter. I'm guessing it can't handle text from a source other than the Sirius box. I ordered the Axxess LCD adapter and should get it tomorrow. It's not great, but also not obtrusive either. And since I have the built-in navigation unit I can't put in an aftermarket stereo anyway, so I'll have to stick with it.

The other ugly part is that I now have two satellite antennas on the roof, since the OEM antenna was glued on! The Terk antenna has a nice, strong magnet and it sits right behind the Sirius antenna. As jandree22 mentioned, the plug from the antenna is identical to the plug on the Terk antenna, so now I'm wondering if there's any difference in the internals of the antenna? Could I use that OEM antenna with the XM Direct box? I need some kind of extension cable, since the OEM cable isn't long enough. Either that, or I would need a reeaaallly long pair of RCA plugs and a reeeallly long 9-pin DIN plug from the XM Direct box.

Deep down, I'm hoping that the XM/Sirius merger goes through and that they start broadcasting some channels over both of the services -- then I'll just turn on the OEM box again and use that.

bpg said:

Do you still have this cable?

Do you want to sell it? I happen to need one to hook my sirius up in my RX8.

Good luck with your XM install.

Brian

Click to expand...

Yes I have it, but would like to hold onto it in case I ever switch back to the OEM unit. Sorry (shrug)