Originally posted by ewheeler:
Theres a special going on right now for people who want to sky fi's. Check it out. I want to know how he was able to fit it into the ashtray with the cradel?
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Sorry guys - I forget to turn email notfication on this thread and forgot to check it.
By popular demand and because several people have asked me by email - i will post here a long description of the job and the installation required:
Thank you for the words about the setup.
Here are the gory details about the XM Skyfi install
1. Antenna: This was a 2 on the 1-5 scale - quite easy 15 minutes. Carefully lifted up the rubber/plastic grommet (careful not to break the plastic base the rubber sits on) that feeds wires from the hatch to the passenger compartment. Used some cable ties to tie the skinny XM antenna cable to the outside of the harness cable protector and cut a notch in the rubber base to feed the XM antenna wire to inside the car. Then used silicone to seal the notch on the rubber grommet. Feeding the antenna wire into the headliner moldings inside the car on the rear and passenger side was very easy - not even requiring the removal of the moldings - just slip the wire inside as you work around. Getting in the front of the passenger door (by the dash) was also easy as there was a pre-made cutout there as well. Continued to feed wire under the front dash by just loosening the covers under the glove box and continued toward the center console again just slipping the wire in under - it does help to loosen center console and unsnap it - but no need to remove it (besides it's a pain...)
2. Moving the cigarette holder and the Ashtray modification: This is the most painstaking part of the job. 4 out of 5. Removing the ashtray unit is easy - comes out with one screw on bottom. Removal of the cigarette lighter from ashtray assembly is difficult if you want to preserve the ashtray or the lighter in pristine condition. I managed to do it but it took a good hour. If you don't care about moving the cigarette holder and just want to eliminate it, you can skip to the part 5 of the install - but you will have to provide and wire your own female power adapter for the XM radio ( I used a Radio Shack female cigarette adapter i already had for a previous cell phone). First unhook the 3 wire electrical plug from the VW adapter but MAKE NOTE OF ORIENTATION (skinny power wire is for the light). carefully un-snap the small light and lens from the cigarette holder, then carefully work to loosen the cigarette holder from its ashtray base (be patient...) - mine was really tight and difficult to get off. Be careful not to break the nice round plastic bezel lens in the front of the OEM adapter.
3. Power considerations: To run the VW adapter to the center console position, lots of fabrication of electrical connectors was necessary. Original adapter plug was cut at the 1 inch mark in order to re-use at the new console position. The VW adapter has Power ON ALL the time - so cut each wire individually or better yet remove the fuse before cutting off original plug. You will need a 3 foot length of similar gauge 3-wire to extend lighter power to console. You also will need some sort of "Y" at the radio end - one leg to a female cigarette adapter plug (to plug in the XM adapter - DO NOT cut off XM adapter as it reduces current from 12 to 6 volts.) The other leg goes to your 3 foot extension cable for the console (that has the original oem plug now soldered on the console end). I used molex plugs for all connections (and since I am in the computer business, I used a Y hard drive cable connector which was perfect for this purpose as it is the correct gauge of wire and comes with 2 male and 1 female molex. Running the wire along the passenger side of the console was easy - just slip it underneath - being careful to avoid sharp metal edges or screws. Using the molex allows you to unplug the whole thing should any trobleshooting ever be necessary.
4. VW cigarrette lighter in console: (4 out of 5) Modifications needed. Carefully pry out the rubber coin holder and takes 3 or 4 of the rubber slits and hollow out this rubber piece to fit the OEM cigarrette adapter in there - it can be done with friction fit being careful to make sure that NO rubber part comes in contact with the metal parts of the cigarette adapter (they will heat up and possibly smell bad or get burned). The inside hole of the coin holder housing in center console needs to be opened up a bit to fit the original cigarette holder also (although the hole there looks like it was already made for one - possibly a New Beetle type center console cigarette holder might fit in there with no modification (I didnt have time to research that as I was already in the middle of the mod.
5. running the cassette adapter wire into the front of the dash can be done fairly stealthily but prying it into the sides between the radio and climate contols. Make sure cassette goes in big label side DOWN (the VW cassette player faces the opposite direction of most cassette units. Otherwise your adapter and cassette heads will not line up properly and one channel will be louder than the other. There are NO other connections to the OEM radio - this is a 2 out of 5.
Based on past experience I do not recommend using FM modulators - the ideal is to get a aux plug adapter that is available in the aftermarket - I may do that next. The cassette adapter works surprisingly quite well in the meantime.
6. I put some thin insulating foam in the ashtray hole to protect the XM. NO modifications to the XM base holder are necessary. I also fabricated two thin plastic rails (cdrom rails split along the long end...
and screwed them to the side of the ashtray hole so that I could keep using the originall ashtray door to slide on top of the rails and to conceal the XM radio. I don't plan on taking my unit out to the house at all. My friend that works at XM radio calls this part the 007 mod
I told him I haven't put in the ejection passenger seat for those wanting to listen to regular FM yet.... besides i don't have a sunroof....
7, the Skyfi unit is superb - no dropouts. the display is easy to see in the tray location - no glare. It also has programmable presets and a remote control that operates all functions and fits nicely on the drivers side door pouch. Actually you do not have to touch the main unit at all.
Enjoy!
[ February 14, 2003, 18:20: Message edited by: JettaJeddi ]