How to use the existing Stock Satellite antenna?

[Buzzard]

Is there a way I can get xm radio while using the little existing onstar antenna in the back of my car? Im not sure if I want to replace the radio or just get a xm unit that u cant see. if I was to get a new radio what bad ass ones would fit? I wouldnt mind having a touch screen or somthign like that but I really dont want another antenna hanging around. Any advice would be cool.

[marlboromike]

it is my understanding that if u did not purchase an XM radio with your car..u cannot add on the XM radio later...it has to do with the factory harness. I bet somebody who knows this area of the harness maybe be able to really give u an educated answer but I asked On Star..they said maybe a module but then they connected me to XM...and they put the Kapput on it...

[fr0stb1t3]

I would be surprised if GM manufactured two different antenna's and harnesses. While they may not have run the wires (which like I said wouldn't be cost effective) I would assume that with the XM module you could get it to work.

Ask your dealer or the Saturn Tech on the forums they should have the schematics of the wiring harness.

[jgeorge]

I don't know about the Sky, but on my 7 Aura, the XM and non-XM versions of the car *definitely* had 2 different wiring harnesses. The Aura I got didn't have XM in it, and I did a lot of research at the dealer on how to put an XM in it, and there were 2 different wiring harnesses for the car, XM and non-XM. I don't know what the differences in the wiring harness are, whether the XM antenna wiring was the difference or if it was the radio end under the dash.

Even if the wiring harness is different antennas are cheap and I'd think they'd all be the same antenna. Googling around a little bit for "onstar xm antenna" is seems that on the 06 and later models the shark fin antenna is actually a quadband antenna unit (Onstar nav, Onstar cellular, XM satellite, XM terrestrial) with 3 connectors on it... one for XM. In this case a different wiring harness may actually *help* you since the XM antenna pin on that shark fin may actually be unplugged and you might be able to tap into it.

Even if all 3 wires are connected you could probably figure out which is which by parking somewhere with marginal cellular coverage (like in a garage or parking deck) and unplugging one wire at a time from the sharkfin antenna and seeing what stops working. The Onstar cellular antenna should be easy to identify, if you can't identify the XM pin out of the remaining two pull one and then go into a good coverage area and ask Onstar to test your location, they should tell you if you can be located or not, and with the GPS antenna unplugged they shouldn't be able to locate you.

I haven't tried this myself, this is just info gleaned from the vast encyclopedia that is google, but it seems to make sense to me.

Cheers,

Joe

[Buzzard]

Good information. I wish I didnt work 80+ hours a week or id be pulling wires out. Well at least thsi is a start and im almost positive some one has tried or knows. Thanks guys for all the info and help. btw The saturn dealership said they would have to sell me a new radio, imagine that.

[jgeorge]

There's a bunch of good XM antenna discussion over on xmfans.com, searching there might yield more info. If you're looking for an aftermarket XM receiver, if you have the GM LAN4 radio (it's got a "cat" button and silver separators between the preset buttons, I *think* all Skys have this radio but I'm not positive, my 07 Aura had one and my 08 Sky does too that's all I'm going on) there are some nice aftermarket XM receivers that hook into the stock radio just like the "factory" one does, you get the data on the stock radio display, all the features on the radio work, it's all pretty sweet. I got an XM receiver and an iPod interface cable from a seller on ebay named "integration_solutions" and the XM functioned identically to the factory XM, and the iPod cable was *much* more useful than the headphone jack "aux input" on the stock radio.

But that's just me. I happen to like the look for the stock radio and I'm not a big enough audio freak to want to replace the whole head unit with something touchscreen or whizzy. obviously there are a zillion more options if you want to go that way, and to be honest I don't know if there's enough room behind the radio or under the glovebox to stash an XM receiver box, you might be space constrained enough to *need* an integrated head unit just for space reasons but again here I'm only guessing. Someone who's actually pulled a radio out of a Sky can give you better info than I have. I've only had mine like 3 weeks and I'm not up to taking the dash apart yet.

[Buzzard]

Yes my radio has a cat button but I was looking at them adds on ebay and they have a seperate satelite antenna. I dont see why I cant use the stock. I still have my fingers crossed on a way.