Has anyone here installed the factory XM system in their tC?
If so, how did it go? (any broken clips, surprises, etc)
Did the factory kit come with an installation manual? If yes, can someone post it or point to where it's available. I'd like to see what I'd be getting myself into now that the price seems to have come way down. ~$300

FWIW my local dealer isn't reflecting the new price--fair enough for now as the Scion website says the price is in CA. I'll just get it off the web then bastards

 

The manual: http://zoltiz.com/cars/tc/files/tcsatell.pdf

The experience: very and very doable. I had a kit pulled from an 04 xB, so it was not complete and antenna was too big to fit in the "tC spot" on the rear fender, and it still did not take too long.

The $300 kit comes with all you need (and I mean all - even zipties). So you will have a fun pleasant experience with the thing.

 

Fanf'ntastic, thanks!

Any idea what the reciever cover "recommended accesory" is? See any need for one?

 

Do you remember what connestor it uses on the back of the radio? Out of the 2 empty ones was it the 12 pin or the bigger one?
Thanks,
JT

 

I did not have a "receiver cover" and you still can't see the receiver under the front seat unless you put you head to the floor. Plus the receiver gets pretty warm, so the cover might make it overheat (I'm sure the Scion engineers thought about it, but still).

The 12pin (smaller one)

 

Did you use the nylon panel removal tool or just a screwdriver? Did the bumper cover come off/snap on pretty easily?

I'm also considering using an antenna with a longer lead to get up higher. It just doesn't make sense where they want to put the antenna...it's just about the worst place considering tree cover along roads. Drivers side would have made more sense to see more sky if it had to be so low on the car. I'm might just adhesive it to the top glass panel also.

If I decide to wuss out over pulling the bumper cover, maybe a through glass antenna would give ok results.

 

I used fingers and a leatherman knife to do all of panel removal - there is nothing tricky except for stupid grocery bag hooks - these were a pain, cause you need to stick something long in the opening at a pefect angle to make the clip unlock...

As for stock antenna position - it's not that bad. Moving it to the roof would not give you much advantage reception wise, and going through the grommet under the bumper seemed like a cool professional idea to me.

Bumper cover comes off very easy - 2 screws on top, 2 bolts in the wheel wells, then 2 clips under the bumper and 2 on the bottom of wheel wells, then it just pops off. I did not have to take it completely off, just one side was enough to safely reach the hole, so do it the right way and run the wire by the manual

And about "through the glass" antenna - I wanted to do it myself, but it's practically impossible to get under the glass on the roof - if you can't see through the roof it means there are 2 layers of metal and no way to squeeze anything between the glass and metal. The only idea that I can come up with is buy a tiny Terk antenna and Y adapter to go from 1-wire antenna to 2-connector that our receiver has.