Question about hardwiring Sat Radio
03-07-2006, 01:03 AM
#1
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Location: Basking Ridge, New Jersey
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Question about hardwiring Sat Radio
I just bought Sirius Satellite radio and a Kenwood H2EC receiver. I want to hardwire the unit into my Tc but am unsure of the best location. Has anyone hardwired a plug&play sat receiver? And if so where did u hardwire it and if you have pics could you please post them? I am new car installation and would like to do this the correct way. Thanks for the help in advance.
03-07-2006, 03:00 AM
#2
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Location: Danbury, CT
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i dont know if its the same sirius tuner ...i have the kenwood ken-1, it pretty much looks like a small amp ....i used industrial strenght doubled sided tape, and mounted it in my glove box...looks great, and its right near the headunit
03-07-2006, 03:23 AM
#3
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Well, I'm not familiar with this particular unit, but I'll assume its like all the others as far as connections go.
To hardwire, you can do it many ways, but the easiest is this. Take the cigarette lighter that it comes with and cut off the lighter part. Cut off close to the lighter so that you still have the end that plugs into the satellite unit and the full length of the wire. Then, I would tap into the wires at the cigarette lighter in our cars. The lighter in our cars will have 2 wires going to it. I DO NOT KNOW THE COLORS OF THESE WIRES!!! Haha, I say that b/c if you hook it up backwards, then you will fry your new unit! So, you really need to test them with a multimeter. If memory serves me right, one of the 2 wires is black, and this is the negative wire, the other wire is the positive (not sure what color). Don't hold me to this. I could be wrong!! I work on so many cars in a day, I get em' mixed up w/out seeing them.
Next, you need to know which of the 2 wires that came with your satellite unit are the positive wires. You could do this with a multimeter, but if you are new to installs, you may not have one I realize. What I usually do is open up the cig lighter that came with the satellite unit (the one you cut off). The tip (the part that the fuse connects to) is the positive, the side part of the lighter is the negative. When you open it up, you should be able to see which wires connected to what, therefore telling you which wire is positive and which was negative. Well since you cut it off already, you are probably asking "how do I tell which wire was what?"....right? Haha, one of the 2 wires should have writing on it or have grooves in it or something to distinguish it from the other.
The wire that was connected to the tip/fuse, connect this wire to the positive wire of the cigarette lighter in our car (like I said, I think its the OTHER wire, not the black one...white maybe? I can't remember). The other wire, the one that was connected to the side metal pieces inside the cigarette lighter that came with the satellite unit, connect this wire to the negative wire at the cig lighter in our car (like I said, I think its black, at least it is in most cars).
If you have an aftermarket head unit in your car (not the factory one), you could also just hook the positive wire from the satellite unit into the red wire at the radio, and the negative wire from the satellite unit to the black wire at the radio. This would do the same as above.
This will cause the satellite unit to go on and off with the key, therefore not killing your battery. The piece around the shifter that has the lighter on it just pops off, alllowing you to access the back of the lighter and wires easily. Be careful when removing this piece.
Another option to get away from doing everything I just said, lol, is to buy the hardwire kit for your satellite unit. Most units have one available. This would be a plug that replaces the cigarette lighter that the unit came with. It would plug into the unit, and the other end would have 2 wires, labeled positive and negative. This is excatly what I had you make above, just without all the work!! And w/out the nice labels!! You would then tap into the wires in our car as described above!
Again, I can't stress how important this is to do right, if you do it wrong, you will burn up your unit, or blow fuses, or both. If you're not comfortable doing it, have it done by a pro. I wish I could take pics for you, I just dont have a camera. Sorry this is soo long! Hope it helps!
To hardwire, you can do it many ways, but the easiest is this. Take the cigarette lighter that it comes with and cut off the lighter part. Cut off close to the lighter so that you still have the end that plugs into the satellite unit and the full length of the wire. Then, I would tap into the wires at the cigarette lighter in our cars. The lighter in our cars will have 2 wires going to it. I DO NOT KNOW THE COLORS OF THESE WIRES!!! Haha, I say that b/c if you hook it up backwards, then you will fry your new unit! So, you really need to test them with a multimeter. If memory serves me right, one of the 2 wires is black, and this is the negative wire, the other wire is the positive (not sure what color). Don't hold me to this. I could be wrong!! I work on so many cars in a day, I get em' mixed up w/out seeing them.
Next, you need to know which of the 2 wires that came with your satellite unit are the positive wires. You could do this with a multimeter, but if you are new to installs, you may not have one I realize. What I usually do is open up the cig lighter that came with the satellite unit (the one you cut off). The tip (the part that the fuse connects to) is the positive, the side part of the lighter is the negative. When you open it up, you should be able to see which wires connected to what, therefore telling you which wire is positive and which was negative. Well since you cut it off already, you are probably asking "how do I tell which wire was what?"....right? Haha, one of the 2 wires should have writing on it or have grooves in it or something to distinguish it from the other.
The wire that was connected to the tip/fuse, connect this wire to the positive wire of the cigarette lighter in our car (like I said, I think its the OTHER wire, not the black one...white maybe? I can't remember). The other wire, the one that was connected to the side metal pieces inside the cigarette lighter that came with the satellite unit, connect this wire to the negative wire at the cig lighter in our car (like I said, I think its black, at least it is in most cars).
If you have an aftermarket head unit in your car (not the factory one), you could also just hook the positive wire from the satellite unit into the red wire at the radio, and the negative wire from the satellite unit to the black wire at the radio. This would do the same as above.
This will cause the satellite unit to go on and off with the key, therefore not killing your battery. The piece around the shifter that has the lighter on it just pops off, alllowing you to access the back of the lighter and wires easily. Be careful when removing this piece.
Another option to get away from doing everything I just said, lol, is to buy the hardwire kit for your satellite unit. Most units have one available. This would be a plug that replaces the cigarette lighter that the unit came with. It would plug into the unit, and the other end would have 2 wires, labeled positive and negative. This is excatly what I had you make above, just without all the work!! And w/out the nice labels!! You would then tap into the wires in our car as described above!
Again, I can't stress how important this is to do right, if you do it wrong, you will burn up your unit, or blow fuses, or both. If you're not comfortable doing it, have it done by a pro. I wish I could take pics for you, I just dont have a camera. Sorry this is soo long! Hope it helps!
03-07-2006, 03:28 AM
#4
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Haha, I just re-read this and realized that maybe you were talking about "where" to put the unit, and NOT how to hardwire the power! Oooops, oh well. If you were just wanting to know where to mount it, sorry!! I think hardwiring the power looks better personally though, you dont have to have that thing plugged into your cig lighter all the time.
03-08-2006, 03:09 AM
#5
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Location: Basking Ridge, New Jersey
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I was talking about hardwiring the power, thanks for the great step by step break down. I have the hardwiring kit so I am going to use that and tap into the cig lighter like you suggest. Thanks again for the help!
05-10-2006, 04:36 PM
#7
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I have seen people on teh forums do this with their Sat. Radio...
https://www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=119184
https://www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=119184
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