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Successful Installation of SiriusXM radio

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See pictures attached.

Step 1. Put the magnetic antenna near the edge of the rear door chrome trim. Bend the cable then tuck it along the chrome delete downward towards the opening of the rear door. See 'sirius1.jpg'.

Step 2. Tuck the antenna cable beneath the rubber/plastic trim insulation as the white line traced in the 'Sirius2.jpg' picture.

Step 3. Continue to route the cable beneath the backseat carpet then wind it up into the storage space between the 2 front seats.

Step 4. Connect your siriusxm radio car kit to the 12V outlet and connect it to the antenna cable

Step 5. Connect the FM extender to the car kit then repeat step 3 and 2 in reverse order to snake the extender cable all the way to the bottom (inside) of rear windshield. Stick the 2 spots with 3M glue to the windshield and make sure the section between the 2 glue points are straight. See 'sirius3.jpg'

Step 6. Find an unused FM channel then dial your car kit to the same frequency

Step 7. Voila! Enjoy channels like Howard Stern and CNBC that Slacker/Tunein don't offer.
 

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Problem where I live is there are simply no reliably clear FM channels - too much noise pollution in city.

Still hoping someone figures out how to tap into FM antenna module and rig something up.

as the FM unit has been found and looked at, all we really need is someone to figure out how to make an adapter from tesla's antenna connector to regular antenna connector...once that is in place, you can just use the FM direct adapter from sirius directly.

tesla antenna connector - adapter - FM direct - adapter - FM unit

that's the route i'm thinking, if such an adapter were available.
 
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here's my install...the antenna works just fine inside the car. the fm transmitter is acceptable, at least in my area. i have a feeling that will be a problem when i go to LA or SD, but we'll see.

i'm still planning on modifying this a bit as well. i'm hoping that with a blank tray instead of the divided one, i'll be able to set the onyx a little lower and still be able to close the lid to hide it while parked. right now i can (and do) still do that, but it's a bit more of a pain as i have to take the entire tray out and tilt it to stuff it down under the phone dock. ideally if i can get it to sit low enough i'm hoping i can close the lid without moving anything, and potentially even just keep it closed if i get a remote (not sure if the remote is IR or RF). if i did that, i'd probably drill through the side of the bottom part of the console and bring the wires in that way rather than sneaking them under the metal trim like i did (you can see it in the picture, up near the phone dock on the right side).

i have an open e-mail thread with metra hoping they'll be able to figure something out as far as an antenna adapter goes...if that happens, we'll be able to install the fm direct adapter and be all set (as far as both satellite radio and a potential aux input).
 

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here's my install...the antenna works just fine inside the car. the fm transmitter is acceptable, at least in my area. i have a feeling that will be a problem when i go to LA or SD, but we'll see.

i'm still planning on modifying this a bit as well. i'm hoping that with a blank tray instead of the divided one, i'll be able to set the onyx a little lower and still be able to close the lid to hide it while parked. right now i can (and do) still do that, but it's a bit more of a pain as i have to take the entire tray out and tilt it to stuff it down under the phone dock. ideally if i can get it to sit low enough i'm hoping i can close the lid without moving anything, and potentially even just keep it closed if i get a remote (not sure if the remote is IR or RF). if i did that, i'd probably drill through the side of the bottom part of the console and bring the wires in that way rather than sneaking them under the metal trim like i did (you can see it in the picture, up near the phone dock on the right side).

i have an open e-mail thread with metra hoping they'll be able to figure something out as far as an antenna adapter goes...if that happens, we'll be able to install the fm direct adapter and be all set (as far as both satellite radio and a potential aux input).

Nice install! Can you share more pictures and descriptions about how you routed the antenna and FM transmitter into the radio car kit? Also how did you connect the kit to the 12V outlet without having wire dangling outside the center storage?
 
Nice install! Can you share more pictures and descriptions about how you routed the antenna and FM transmitter into the radio car kit? Also how did you connect the kit to the 12V outlet without having wire dangling outside the center storage?

for the fm transmitter at the moment i'm just using the basic one, not the extender - so i only have two wires going to the unit (power and antenna). the hardest part of the antenna routing was to get it under the plastic trim there and the back seat...from there it was pretty easy.

i followed the procedure in jon osborne's youtube videos for removing trim pieces.


in this clip:
around 7:15 is where he shows how to pop the rear seat cushion off
around 9:15 is where he shows how to remove the c pillar trim and the black plastic trim piece that i tucked the wire under

to get the wire underneath the black plastic trim piece (the piece that the seatbelt comes out of) you have to remove the c pillar first (at least i did). this will allow you to pop the black plastic piece up enough to get the wire underneath it. from there it goes behind the corner of the rear seat, and under the seat to the passenger side floor trim. you have to remove the back seat cushion to route it down to the floor trim, but once you have it down there it's really easy to just tuck it under with just your fingers.

same clip as above, around 3:45 is where he shows removing the under dash passenger side piece.

once you have that off, just tuck the antenna wire behind the corner of the passenger side kick panel trim and then route it across and behind the carpet.


in this clip, right near the beginning he shows pulling the carpeted side panel off.

once you have it routed behind the carpet / above where the passenger under dash piece would be, route it behind the carpet down into the little cubby area underneath the center console but behind where the carpeted side panel goes.


in this clip:
around 4:50 is where he shows how to remove the center console outer trim
around 5:15 he shows how to remove the metal center console trim

from there, you can sneak it up and around towards the console. i ended up bringing it back out of the little cubby i mentioned earlier and around the corner of the console, but behind where the main piece of console is that you didn't remove (if that makes sense, i'll take some pictures later without taking the dash back apart). find a little spot where the plastic is lower and set it there, put some electrical tape on the outside to hold it in place. then run the power wire out next to it, tape that down as well. route it over towards the rear of the console (where the 12v is), and put a few pieces of electrical tape along the way to hold it in place. remove the little rubber bumper from the rear console, run the power wire under it, and put the bumper back on top of it. this will hold that in place when you put the metal trim back on. the wire hides behind the metal trim and center console trim.

from there, everything goes back together the way you took it apart. it's all just either t20 screws, clips or in the case of the under dash piece, the push rivets. by far the hardest piece to get lined up and back together (for me anyway) was the seat belt trim piece in the back. the front pieces were extremely easy to put back on (although the center console trim was really hard to get off, you have to pull really hard). i was afraid i was going to and/or was breaking it as i pulled it off, but it didn't break.

i'll go out and get some pictures with everything back together to better illustrate where i ran the wires, but i don't have time to take the dash apart again right now. my bad on not taking pictures while i was in the process of doing everything...i did it over the span of a few days / two weekends though, so for a week or so i did have wires sitting out on the dash.
 
here's an upload of a screen capture from one of the video clips above to illustrate how i ran the wires without me having to take the dash back apart. the blue line is the power, and goes under the little rubber bumper as shown on the previous post. you just kinda have to figure out where to route it along there that it won't interfere with any of the clips or screws.

the red line is the antenna, and the little yellow arrow shows the corner of the remaining center console trim that i tucked the antenna cable behind. the spot where the red line dips is where i hid most of the slack for the antenna wire - the spot at the bottom of that line is the cubby i was referring to.

they both get tucked into a little dip in the plastic right next to each other, and then the metal trim piece goes over them. you'll be able to see what i mean about the dip in the plastic when you take the metal trim off. i tried to get it as close as i could to the front of the center part...i think the wires are about 1/4 to 1/2 inch towards the back of the car from the front of the middle door when it's closed (i hope that makes sense). i believe i have it almost directly across from the bumper/magnetic catch on the left side.

the middle door will catch on them a bit when you close it, but it will close and stay shut...this is one of the reasons i eventually will probably pull the entire console and drill a hole at the bottom for the antenna wire, i can't imagine it's good long term to have the console door pinching the wires if you're going to be closing it to hide the unit very often.
 

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also, if you (or anyone else) is interested, here's the 12v socket splitter i used:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GRY8MNG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

i needed this because my phone (oneplus 5) uses a proprietary fast charging system that won't work with the front dock. for the most part i still use the dock, but i needed to have a port open just in case i (or my wife, who also has a OP phone) need to juice our phones in a hurry...and obviously the onyx will stay plugged in all the time.

you can see it tucked down there in the rear console cubby, under the armrest. the onyx plus power wire is thin enough to fit under the side trim, but the wire from the splitter definitely is not...that's why i just left it under the armrest and ran the power cable for the onyx into there. hopefully if i ever get the ambition to pull the console and add new 12v ports up front that'll fix everything, but that won't be til after the holidays if at all...
 
i've improved upon this slightly...here's my new install location (please pardon the mess my car is at the moment). i ordered this suction cup mount from amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0057QYF2G/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

i put the included disc on the drivers side wall of the cubby, and then mounted the suction cup to that and tilted the arm so that the receiver would face forward. it's low, but i can still reach the buttons and most of the time i use the remote you see sitting in the cup holder. my favorite part about putting it down there like that is that when i park the car, i can easily close the console and everything is hidden out of sight. don't want to give anyone a reason to break into the car.

i'm happy with this and think this will probably be my permanent install location, provided it stays stuck there. the adhesive on the disc seemed pretty strong, so hopefully it will stay put...the only thing i have left that i want to do is pull the console and add the extra power port up front - when i do that i'll probably drill a small hole to run power and the antenna, and hardwire the power behind the console.
 

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