Redrock_Spyglass

I just took delivery of my new 07 Sahara Unlimited and it arrived WITHOUT the Sirus Satellite radio package. I am partial to the XM format due to the MLB baseball package and the many hours I spend driving in the middle of nowhere.

What options does the group suggest??

I am not opposed to spending a couple dollars on upgrading to a NAV system. At the very least... I am searching for the cleanest install to add XM.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions!

Brett - Riverside, CA

'78 Cherokee Chief
'07 Sahara Unlimited - Red Rock w/out SATELLITE!!!

Motocane

I like XM better than Sirius because of baseball and hockey. I asked an XM dealer about options. He said that he was at an electronics show in Vegas a couple of months ago, and a couple of companies are coming out with a converter that will allow you to convert a tuner from XM to Sirius, or vice versa. I am waiting for that or the merger between XM and Sirius.

Tedlick

I'm pretty sure there's a wiring harness available now (or very soon) for adding an aftermarket head unit to the JK. Replacing the head unit will be your best bet for a clean looking XM install, but if you're not opposed to wires you can also take a portable unit and plug it into the Aux jack in front.

Head unit replacement = cleanest install, but typically the least amount of features for a satellite radio receiver (if you go with a DVD/nav head unit, you probably wouldn't care!) The opening for a new head unit is 2din tall, but wider than usual (so you'll have plastic inserts on either side of a 2din unit).

Plug-n-play portable unit = not as straightforward for controls because you've got 2 devices to work with now, but you get more features with the XM unit.

I wouldn't recommend waiting on the merger, it's going to be up to a year before it's approved by the government, and then even longer until the combined company releases new hardware that works with both sets of satellites.

RLandis

There's no harness available now, and the soonest you're going to see one is this summer....that's after talking w/Scoche, Metra, Aamp of America.

Danoh

I was dealing with the same issue. I had XM in my honda ridgeline and could not live with out. So I purchased the Audiovox Xpress unit. It was cheap at best buy and came with the car kit.

So I went home and installed it using the FM modulator with the SureConnect kit that came with it. I mounted the cradle just in front of the cup holders, behind the stick shift. I had sticky tape on it, and it seems to hold pretty well (I also though of using the cup holder mount, but didn't want to give up that space.) I put the antenna on up on the roll bar, got a great signal (three bars.) I tried it with out the sureconnect first. It came in very weak on many channels w/ static.

I then installed the sureconnect. This is a wire that clips to the antenna (doesn't look good.) This gave decent reception, but you could hear static at low levels and in between channel changes. I could not live with this.

I took my jeep to the install bay at best buy. I felt bad tearing apart my new jeep. I thought I would let the professionals do it. I told him the problem.

Well first he said... you can have your antenna there. I showed him that the signal was at full strength. He then said that is just the way they sound. I asked him about the FM modulator and he was against it. I really don't thing he wanted to do any work.... So I got him to hardwire the power I should have just left.

After leaving, I noticed my ESP light wasn't going off. I took it back and he unhooked it, but no change. He had tapped it into the ignition wires. This wasn't looking good. So I took it in to the dealer. A cog spring? went bad, i think that is what they called it. Anyhow it is some sort of sensor for the ESP. It has been more then a week, and my dealer has not gotten it in.

At this point I was ready to get a sirius head unit at the dealership. But I tried one more think. I bought the inline FM modulator kit ($30) witch also came with a female adapter for the power supply. I hard wired this with a couple of wire taps to the left cigarette lighter. The modulator connects through the antenna cable behind the radio. To use this you have to have 2 antenna adapters which I picked up at circuit city. The first ones they gave me was for a 2006 jeep (they didn't have 2007 in thier book.) This didn't work. I then looked it up on cruchtfield. It said to use the euro adapter (bmw, mercedes..)

So I took the old ones back and got two new ones ($25 each;$50 total ouch..) They looked like they would fit. But of course nothing is that easy. One of the groves in the pastic housing, wasn't quit the same. But I pushed hard enough and got it to connect.

I tested it out. It worked, and it actually sounded pretty good.

It was a very frustrating experience. But I am in business.

RedRocRubi

You did not say what unit you have in your jk. I have the 6 cd unit and my tek geek is going to install xm thru the unit with a harness and just press disc twice and the xm will come on with cd quality sound. this sounds great but will know for sure next week.I'm having a few cool things added and will post the out come when its finished.

Redrock_Spyglass

I have the single disk CD player without the Satellite option. Would love to know more about your work-around. Thanks for the input...

'78 Cherokee Chief
'07 Sahara Unlimited - Red Rock w/out SATELLITE!!!

Tedlick

Let us know how that works when you get it done-- sounds very interesting.

To be honest, I'm skeptical that you can change the behavior of the radio so that pressing the Disc button twice switches to another source, but I'm far from an expert

pebblehoppertj

Man I love my Nexus 50 ! you could record xm on it and it play mp3s too

i love it ! If i get bored of a song i just delete and record some more !!! kinda like an i pod but way better !!!!!!!!!

IGOFSHN

I run XM and it plugs right in the front of my stock 6 disc changer. I hid the wires inside the dash face cover.