krf

There are several articles on this forum reference Ipod Adapters, but they weren't clear to me as to my situation and I asked a lot of people and got a lot of different answers....but I wanted to share my findings.

I have the basic radio (no nav and no XM) in my 2007 C6. I am pretty happy with the sound and I felt if I could interface my IPOD....I could keep the factory package and be happy with the radio and spend some "benjamins" on something else (blower, headers, etc).

My first question was....can I use an Ipod Adapter on a non factory XM car ...... well the answer is YES!

Even though the dealers show the part number as different on the base radio heads with and without XM.....my experience was this....I purchased the PXAMG.....found the forum instructions on how to remove the radio.....and installed it.....nothing.....I push the "Band" button and it goes AM/FM1/FM2 ..... no XM1/XM2 ...... CRAP!!!

I sent Peripheral (they make the PXAMG) (http://www.peripheralelectronics.com/) an email and they promptly responded that I should take the car to my dealer (someone with a Tech II) and have them enable the XM ...... they sent me a bulletin on how to do it ..... and I immediately headed out for my dealership.

The Tech at the dealership scrolled down to DRR and told the computer that I had XM and it did not want to accept it the first time without the adapter plugged in....so I plugged the PXAMG in just like I had it in my garage, tech gives it another try and BINGO ...... STOCK RADIO HEAD SAYS AM/FM1/FM2/XM1/XM2 when I push the BAND button !!!

Bottom line.....I'm no expert here, but apparently every stock head is "closet" XM capable ..... the computer just has to be told to use it!

I'm not sure that you can enable the XM without the IPOD adapter or XM/Sirius unit (if thats what you are going for) attached....based on mine not taking it without one plugged into the head unit.....but hey this thing works!


I left my dash out with just the radio bolted in so I could get to the PXAMG if there was a problem and drove my car to the dealership that way.......that way you can confirm everything is working before putting everything back together when you get back home.

Someone on here did an excellent writeup in PDF fashion and that is what I used to install mine.....unfortunately that radio was not a base radio, so I wasn't sure mine would work until now.

I used the PXAMG and got a free PGHGM5 wiring harness (adapter harness....you need this) all with free shipping from AUTOTOYS.COM
for $138.95 ....... that's a lot cheaper than the Pioneer AVIC Z3 I was going to buy!

Also.....I was somewhat apprehensive about tearing into the dash....but it was pretty painless.

Bottom line: Don't give up on your stock base radio.....with this adapter you can have IPOD, XM or Sirius, either HD radio or an extra aux input into your stock system with cutting a single wire!

Thanks to all who took the time to post this stuff ...... this forum is great!

Keith

Front and rear pictures of a base radio:

rgregory

I want to use an Ipod adapter but what I want to do is just leave the ipod in the glove compartment and never touch it. With the ipod set to shuffle everytime the car is powered on.

Can your unit do this?

Thanks.

krf

I don't see why not....I do pretty much the same thing with mine in the center console.....the glove box is an even easier installation.

Keith

mbracer

Hey thanks for this post, I got a PXAMG for christmas for my 2007 base c6 with the base radio system, I did the install and to my surprise it didnt work I did a search on the forum and found your post, so now I have to find one of my GM tech friends with a tech II scanner to turn on XM in my radio. If you have anymore info on this I would appreciate it thanks, Mike.

krf

Hello Mike.....that's pretty much it....have your buddy tell the scanner the car has xm and save the profile...and it should find your PXAMG.....works great!!! Happy New Year! Keith

mbracer

Well I got a friend to turn on the XM feature and it works the sound is great I had replaced the door tweeters with Eclipse 3.5`s and the rear speakers also, I highly recomend this to everyone it really refines the sound on the base system. The only issue I have is I have limited control of my ipod not all the controls on the radio work and get nothing on the display screen to show artist or song title, I think I will try intalling an update of the firmware to the PXAMG to see if this makes a difference, if anyone has any ideas please post them, Mike.

krf

Mike....

It's been a while since I did this and I no longer have my car.....but I had full control of my IPOD Nano and IPHONE and you should have the display for artist and etc on the screen. I left a message with tech support (not much help on a Sunday holiday weekend....argh!) but they called me back and they got me going! It had something to do with stepping through the menu with the band button on your radio head until you see "Ipod" displayed on your radio....there are multiple positions which give you sound I believe, but no data. I hope this helps....I sent you my phone number in case you want to chat about it.

Happy New Year!

Keith

mbracer

SUCCESS!!! I called pac-audio tech support and they talked me through getting into the browse menu properly it made all the difference I can control te ipod with radio controls as advertised and get the song and artist names on the radio display.

krf

Congrat's Mike.....sorry I missed your call, but glad you got her all straighten out! I spent $2000 on a new stereo in my truck and $100 on the IPOD adapter for my vette....I was just as happy with my base vette radio with the Ipod adapter as with the truck system. IMHO.....best audio improvement for the buck out there!!!

SinisterC6

do you remember how much you were charged? ill be going in soon and don't want to be shafted by my stealership

krf

Yea.....I remember all too well.......free....nada.....zip!!!

The dealership was "deserted" and the entire service department was standing around with no work.....economy....the Service Advisor said it would normally be $45, but since I owned a couple Chevy's consider it a "goodwill" token and maybe I would consider them when I needed service.

Needless to say I felt so "dang" guilty, I couldn't wait to get my wife's car in for a service!

Good Luck!

SinisterC6

awesome thanks!

tclhb

Wow, this is all news to me! I googled and found this thread in the very forum I spend my time. How did I miss this?
Could/would a dealer do the entire install, program, etc.? I don't want to tear apart the dash. Man, if I could listen to Pandora through my iPhone in my Vette I would be so happy!

SinisterC6

they sure can, it took me 30 minutes to install the unit, if you have XM it will show up under xm1, if you dont have xm your dealer can tell the computer "yes you have xm" and then it finds this adapter.

i was having an issue where song info wasnt displayed, it was because i had the unit on aux1 and not ipod, guess i should have read the instructions... im using it as an aux input (aux 2 channel) to listen to my htc evo with pandora in the vette

tclhb

Cool! I have the exact same head unit as pictured on the first post. No XM base stereo. Time to talk to the dealer! I had no idea this was even a possibility. Everything I had read up to this point was not a good solution. This looks good!

scale3074

Yup, it might be the right time to talk to the dealer.

C6Doc

I realize that this is an old post but I'm kind of stuck. I installed the PXAMG module in my 07. I took the car to the dealer to have the tech go into the DRR menu and tell the radio that there is an XM connected. After trying several times the tech told me that he can't access the DRR menu because my car does not have OnStar. Has anyone heard of this before? Any suggestions?

Thanks,

-Felix

krf

Felix,

I don't know the semantics of the "DRR" menu....but I had a 2007 with the base radio and no Onstar....I went to my GM dealer and in less than 5 minutes they logged in and simply "toggled" the XM or Sat radio to "on"....saved it and that was it. May I suggest another Tech or someone else with a Tech II programmer???

Best of luck!

Keith

Cavi

Mine is a 2006. Looks like the same radio. Any idea if it will work?

0Double D Mods

yes it will work
as long as XM or SAT was programmed to ON by dealer

http://shop.doubledmods.com/C6-CORVE...?categoryId=-1