How To: Install XM on a Non-Navi XM Ready Civic Coupe/Si (56K'ers go go take a nap)

[Gone]

Well, it took me about 4 hours total, but I was being picky and decided to do the install like an OEM install, with all the wire ties and stuff (not to mention taking pics). The only thing I didn't do OEM is put the antenna in the front passenger's side top corner of the windshield (who the hell wants it there?!)

Heres what you need:
OEM Honda XM Radio Kit
-includes tuner, brackets, antenna, Bus cable, antenna splitter and all the bolts, tape, wireties and wireties with clips you could ask for.
2 Flathead screwdrivers
Phillips screwdriver
8mm, 10mm and 14 mm rachet w/ extension
Scissors
Masking Tape
A shop rag (or something to drape other dash parts with)
Your Radio Code (you'll have to put it in to use the radio)
Now, I didn't disconnect the negative battery terminal, but you can (and probably should) if you do this.

• Remove the lower passenger's side dash piece (below the glove box) by pulling it towards the rear of the car. 4 clips hold in place (in red circles) Then unscrew 2 phillips screws going up into the dash (above the yellow arrows)

• Push in the 2 side flaps of the inner glovebox and remove the glove box.

• Pull steering wheel out and up all the way. Remove the lower driver's side dash (8 clips) by pulling out again.

• Unscrew this screw

• Cover the steering wheel (trust me, you'll hit it) and mask off the radio panel's left border, just incase you hit it (blue arrow) Start pulling from where you removed the gold screw and go clockwise pulling the clips out (11 clips). Then unplug the harness behind the brightness buttons (green circle).

• Stick 2 flathead screwdrivers in these 2 tabs and pry it out. Up inside there, there are 2 screws, take 'em out (its kinda hard to get to them unless you lie on your back on the floor)

• Mask off the dash around the top and right borders of the radio with masking tape. Start in the bottom left corner of the radio and work your way clockwise pulling out all 11 clips. Unplug all the radio and HVAC harnesses.

• This is what your poor car looks like at the moment...

• Unscrew the shift knob counter-clockwise and remove the nut under it on the shifter lever. Pull the silver shifter surround out and pull the boot and surround over the top of the shifter. *Make Sure the E-Brake is all the way up* and pull from inside the console (above the blue arrow) up and out (5 clips)

• Inside the center console, pull out the square rubber mat and unscrew these 2 screws.

• Back up at the shifter, unscrew these 2 screws *Be careful, the aluminum they go into is very flexible!*

• Down in the footwells, these 2 clips (on on each side of the console) pop out with a flathead screwdriver.

• Grab the back of the center console and in front of the shifter (blue arrow) and pull the console back, up and out. Try to keep the front ends of the console out so they don't scratch anything (you might want to cover the E-Brake) There is a small harness for the E-Brake light that you need to unplug (yellow circle)

Now onto the back of the car.

• This next part is a b**** to do, or at least I had a hard time with it! Behind the cushion here (red circle), there sits a 14mm bolt (you'll need the socket extension)

• This is the little MoFo here... You have to pry back the seat cushion while attempting to line up your socket (14mm) and keep it on there while turning it.

• Pull up on the fronts of the seats to unlatch the hooks and pull the whole rear seat cushion out.

• In the trunk, the floorboard attachment hooks over the rear seat hinges. It is held in place with 2 clips. Pull the floor out.

• The trunk latch cover has 2 clips (red circles) and 2 pegs that go into a set of holes (yellow circles). Pull this whole piece up and towards the FRONT of the car (I broke one of the clips, but it still stays on OK...)

• The passenger side trunk liner is held in place by 3 plastic screw clips (turn the center counter-clockwise until it comes out) and a !*#$@% little bastard clip in the floor. I broke this one too, but in my defense it was in there good! Pry it out by pulling a little on each side of it, it'll come out sooner or later. Push the right side rear seat forward and pull the liner out.

• Now we lay the cable. Route the BUS cable under here. Leave yourself enough cable in trunk to reach to the trunk door.

• Run the cable under the side panel with the electrical harness already running through there. Then run the BUS cable under the steel seat support into the footwells. *DON'T ZIP TIE OR TAPE ANYTHING YET, YOU MIGHT NEED MORE CABLE UP FRONT*

• Run the cable along the footwell's rear wall and down under the carpet in the the center of the car to the opening under where the center console sits.

• Keep following the electrical harness up the right side of the center console area, then cross over to the left side just ahead of the shifter.

• Run the cable up in the dash along the yellow arrow, then feed it into the area behind the radio.

• Give yourself enough BUS cable to plug into the back of the radio, then pull the slack to the trunk while zip tying the BUS cable to the harness you followed to the front of the car. You can tie the extra cable together in the trunk.

• Whenever you get a large enough piece of painted metal, use a piece of cushion tape to secure the BUS cable and protect it. I did it about 8 or 9 times by the time I got to the trunk.

• Now this is where I put my antenna, but you can mount it anywhere you want. This thing has enough cable to install it just about anywhere you want (it was made to be put in the front windshield!) I ran the wiring down and under the seat belt then along the corner behind the seat to the trunk.

• Run both wires back up the inside of the trunk's right front wall, taping and tieing as you go.

• This is where I wrapped up the extra antenna wire with some ties. Tape it up good, as it is heavy. Then use some wire ties w/ clips. The green circles are where you use the wire ties w/ clips and attach the clips into the trunk wall holes.

• This hole is where the cables are going into. You have to use these special strips of tape (EPT tape; included in kit) to insulate the edges so it doesn't wear the wire away.

• Run the cables through the hole and out from behind the wall near where the trunk drain is. Hopefully you have enough cable to plug everything in.

• I forgot to take pics of the tuner and where to put the brackets and splitter on it, but its fairly easy. These picures should help. Plug everything into the right connectors (they won't fit in any hole but the right one.) and tape all the wires onto the back of the tuner (opposite side as the brackets).
  BUS cable = yellow arrow
  Antenna = green arrow
  Splitter (changes 2-pin antenna jack to 1-pin for ant.) = blue arrow

• This pic shows the brackets on the other side. Loosely put the included bolts into the holes in the brackets, on opposite corners. You'll know which corners because one side's bracket only has one hole.

• Hang the tuner behind the trunk wall and align the bolts with the oblong holes (the tuner will hang diagonally) Tighten the bolts with a 10mm socket.

• Cut the ends of all the wire ties, put everything back in the car and set up your XM radio.

You are officially DONE.
Enjoy your XM Satellite Radio!

[wishingsi]

for antenna it thought we got the body colored roof mounted antenna.? the expect you to just leave it on the front window?
nice install instructions

[Gone]

That is straight from the factory and with the Navigation System too if I recall correctly. I wouldn't really know how to route the antenna wire to the outside of the car though... maybe through a window seal???

Yeah I thought it was crappy too. I don't want that friggin' pack of cig's sized antenna in my Passenger's side windshield! That and they wanted me to mess with the side curtain airbag to run it through there.

[Bryman1111]

Nice post, good job. Little Bastard (thats funny)

[sbigshot]

Thanks for the great post!! Reinforces my decision not to mess with my car and from what the news articles that came out today have said, it doesn't sound like XM is doing that well... I'd hate to go through all of this trouble and expense to have them go off the airwaves in the near future.

[YOGIx213]

Very nice thread. I had no idea that it involved that much work to install XM on an XM ready head unit. Yeesh...

[JnLFG2]

hmm... I had Sirius satellite in my accord, I had the tuner behind the the aftermarket radio, and the antenna on passenger side corner of the windshield. It didn't look bad, the install only took me about 15 minutes rather than 4 hours. But the antenna was also much smaller. That Honda one seems to be pretty big, which would makes it look kinda nasty in the front. Plus I much rather go back to sirius if I ever decide to put satellite in the Si. I loved it, don't want to even try out XM. Nice write-up though.

[Gone]

In my last car I had it behind the dash as well, but with all the cable included in the kit, I would've had a HUGE mass of wires back there too. I didn't feel like trying to hide that along with the tuner.

I, personally, love XM, but I also haven't ever heard anything on Sirius. From what I hear though, XM is going down. So it kinda sucks, but this won't be in long, I'm gonna get the Pioneer AVIC-Z1 when it comes out in a few months. This is just to hold me over 'til then.

[CivicWithNav]

I wouldn't do that if I didn't have XM!

I'd just burn MP3's and play continuous commercial free music

then again, XM came standard

[Gone]

You know, its REALLY not that hard to do, I just took pics of everything for those that aren't that good at this kinda stuff but wanted to try. If I hadn't taken pictures I am sure that I could've finished this in 1.5 to 2 hours max.

Besides, this is how stuff gets started people. Sure it seems hard but this car was JUST released, and for the time being, us people who actually want to mess with our cars are on our own, with no help from aftermarket companies. I'm sure in time, there will be a kit that makes this a 15 minute job, but for now, this is MY solution.

[SiriusInMS]

If you install the XM kit yourself will you still get the first 3 months free? Or is that only if the dealer installs it?

[Gone]

I don't know about that, because I already had an account and I just transferred my radio ID over to the Si.

[hondasense76]

just did plug and play on lx. wanted to run antenna wire to back above rear windshield but no weather strip around it . how do you get around that? had to put on trunk lid instead not as good reseption

[Gone]

Originally Posted by hondasense76

just did plug and play on lx. wanted to run antenna wire to back above rear windshield but no weather strip around it . how do you get around that? had to put on trunk lid instead not as good reseption

If you mean you want it on the outside, just run it out the trunk, then up the edge of the rear windshield between the body panel and glass. It should work, I've done it before.

[hondasense76]

yeah thaks what im talking about but there is no trim on glass to hide wire or to hold wire in place

[iVtechLX]

That's a really good DIY write up. I wanted to do it myself on my LX, but when I went to Circuit City they offered to do it for me for $80. I weighed out my options and since no one had a how to and this being a new car, it was worth the cost for me. Plus the professional install was nice. Nothing plugged into the cig lighter thing and no wires running all over the place. I think they did it in about 30 minutes and did a really good job. Plus I can sleep at night knowing that if anything goes wrong with it, I can take it to circuit city and they'll fix it for free for me or if I get a new car in a few years, they'll uninstall it for free for me.

Now all I need is some speakers, a new head unit and some subs, because let's be honest here; the factory system sucks bad! Maybe next month I'll get it all in one shot and let Circuit City do the install.

[Gone]

As long as you install a Genuine Honda Accessory in your car, its covered by warranty. It doesn't have to be dealer installed, so I don't have to worry about that (or at least my dealer does this).

Hondasense76, there is a small gap between the glass and body panel, the antenna wire will EASILY fit in there. I just went out and checked.

[SiriusInMS]

does the antenna that comes with the honda xm kit have a magnetic bottom on it, or do you have to use double sided tape to hold it down? I'd like to get this factory kit but would like the antenna outside the car.

[Gone]

Double Sided Tape. Somewhere you have to be able to get this outside antenna...

[VICHONDAEX]

Holy Cra@# that's a lot of destroying....