VICOUS

Hello

I just installed the Pioneer x930bt Thanks Dennis what a great person to deal with. Anyway I have tried a couple of locations of the antennas. The latest is above the center a/c vents. While this locations seems to work most of the time I still lose xm 10x more than I did with the stock system, and the nav while driving around my neighborhood lost me several times, showing me as much as 2 street over from where I was. So I am looking for the best placement of these two antennas.

Thanks

Tarheels1

Mine were put at the center of my windshield as close to the hood as possible on the dash. I have heard of putting the antennae under the hood by the battery, but have yet to see one and know how it performs. Anyone out there with experience with this?

BoostRetard

I just tried putting an XM antenna under the hood. I actually put it on the brake booster since it was the larges magnetic item I could find under there away from heat. It was unusable. Cut out way too much. Ended up putting it on the metal crossbar under the tonneau cover. This is in a C5 Convertible. Seem to be better there, although it is still weaker that the typical on the metal roof install.

jahastings

I just did a Sirius install and had the same issues with the antenna not being as good as the factory. Its fixed now and works better than factory. What I did was purchase an Audiovox SUVA2 amplified antenna and put it under the hood on the plastic tray about 2 inches from the drivers side windshield wiper. There is a flat spot there where the sticky backed metal plate can be stuck on to mount the antenna. Then you can run the wire under the weather stripping right into the drivers side of the car invisibly.
Doing this I never loose the signal unless I go under a bridge and it has to be a big bridge. Even spots the factory antenna always cuts out work fine.

I know you have XM but it may be the antenna location that fixes the problem and not really the antenna, or Audiovox may have an XM version.

Grzldvt1

Get rid if the stupid center speaker and put them both in its place. Works like a charm, and th center speaker is like an appendix anyway, a useless organ taking up space. Plus your sound system will sound better.

Craig P

I had exactely the same problem but with Sirius radio

I installed a Kenwood 9980 unit and Sirius radio and located the antenna on top of the center dash speaker under the grid (speaker is unpluged).

I got very poor reception.

I did not want to mount it on the roof for obvious reasons.

I did lots of web searches and reading and some seemed to suggest that having the magnetic antenna base on metal on some kind improves the reception.

My solution was to remove the center speaker and make a 1/2" deep basket out of a left over metal perforated speaker grill mesh. I made this very quickly by using a 3.5" hole saw in a piece of 2X6 wood.

I placed the piece of speaker grill over the hole and used the center piece of wood as a punch to pound the mesh approximately 1/2" deep into the hole, then pounded the edges flat to form a shallow cup.

I trimmed the flanged edge to the size of the speaker od and made a few snips for the hold down screws.

I installed the "basket" where the speaker used to be with the same screws and put both the GPS and the Sirius antenna in it.

I've had good reception ever since.

I'm not trying to explain why, just saying that it worked for me.

P.S.
I also had very poor FM radio reception compared to the stock radio even making sure the antenna was properly powered.

I installed a $7 antennal amplifier (from ebay) and now the reception is as good as the stock radio, not overly great, but just as good as stock

Hope this helps

markcz

I did something similar, but I used a piece of sheet metal to make the bracket.

I'd be willing to bet that just removing the speaker from above the vents would make the reception better (without having to move the antennas).

bass mechanic

i think i choose the best location for XM i never drop any signal. i installed mine above the left rear tail light with 2 sided sticky foam. you just pop the tail light out and reach up under there and stick it on the top of the rounded part of the tail light.
be sure to clean it off first there may be dust or dirt in there that will prevent the tape from sticking.
the antenna does not need to be mounted to anything metal.
i also mounted the GPS antenna for my 9500ci over the top of the right rear tire in the hatch area. fiberglass and plastic are invisable to sat antenna signals.
i mounted the GPS for the nav near the center speaker in the dash because with GPS you already have a sky full of antennas. sat radio has 1-2 satelites so audio is more critical than GPS.
oh and if you have 5.1 surround sound in your car the center speaker works well for that purpose and if adjusted correctly and if your using time alignment it makes for some amazing sound staging!

Dave O

I installed a Pioneer 930 BT with XM a little over a month ago. I placed the XM and GPS antennas on top of the center vent as others have done. My GPS was ok, but my XM drop outs were much worse than the stock XM antenna. I had removed the center speaker years ago so just removing the center speaker does not fix the problem.

Today I made a bracket similar to yours above and moved the XM antenna to it (thanks for posting the pic!!!). On a short drive the reception seemed to be better, but I need to do more testing. I'll report back next week after I have had time to drive it more.

bass mechanic

i am telling you guys, move the antenna to the rear tail light (either side) get some 3M 2 sided sticky foam and put it above the tail light.
problem solved, you will never get drop outs as everything back there is invisible to the Sat signal! the antenna would appear to the sat to be floating around in mid air with NO obstruction to anything in the sky!

the time it will take to make a bracket, you can move the antenna to the rear.
i didnt even drill a hole through the back of the car i simply lifted the rubber gasket, ran the wire under there. if you do this, dont run it right up and over the lip or youll kink the wire. run the wire in parallel over about 6 inches so that it gradually runs up and over the lip onto the other side, then reinstall your gasket seal.
i think i had to take a few screws out of the back bumper to slip the antenna connector through. i started at the back of the car because the connector on the end is a lot easier to pass through everything than the antenna.
youll find if you remove 1 tail light youll have plenty of access to everything in the rear.

Dave O

Well, I drove it to work today and no more drop outs other than when passing under large overpasses!!! 100% improvement!!! I also retain my reception when passing under small overpasses. I also get reception in my garage, which I could never get with the stock head unit. Thanks again markcz for the suggestion.

bass mechanic - thanks for your suggestion as well, but my antenna was already wired to the dash and since I had already removed my center speaker it only took a few minutes to make the change. Would have taken much more time to run it to the rear of the car. Bottom line though, my problem is solved with the solution above. I'm sure yours would have worked great as well.

Tarheels1

Do you have any pictures of your instal of the XM GPS antennae?

Thanks Steve

DJLynch

Was there ever any consensus on a better spot? I just did my install yesterday and now im having xm dropout like crazy.

Bassmechanic, do you have any pics of the spot you put yours in?

southlake

The antenna over the tail light worked perfectly for my 1999 Coupe. Easy to put in place and very easy to run the wire up to the console where my XM receiver now hides. Using the FM to receive the audio to the radio and may start looking at how to put the fm adapter into the radio antenna so I can get better sound but for now, this works great.

ALLEN007

I have a Kenwood 6190HD (Nav & XM) on order. So I'm assuming by reading this just go ahead and plan on removing the center speaker and putting the antenna's there? One post say's the system will sound better without the center speaker. Is this true? Thanks!!

One more question, when it come time fror me to install my new unit, is there a picitular way to remove the console or does it just pop out?

markcz

You can bury the nav antenna in the dash (on top of the vents is good), the XM antenna is the one that likes to be on top of the dash as much as possible.

Removing the center speaker is a good idea unless you have onstar or bluetooth connected to it (depends on your interface adapter and how you connect it), if using aftermarket amp or just doing normal 4-speaker setup with oem amp then yank it out.

Dash removal pics in the sticky at the top of this section that Thrash started.

ALLEN007

I do have on-star and the new unit will have blue tooth. I guess I can push the on-star button and see where it is. Im having DD set up the unit. Is there anything I need to tell him so I will be able to remove the center speaker and still have everything work like it should. This is all new to me. Thanks.

markcz

Try it with the center speaker installed, then unplugged. I'm guessing it will work both ways so you should be able to remove the speaker.

ALLEN007

10-4. Thanks

Dragracer_Art

This is EXACTLY what I did.

Removed the speaker and put both the NAV and Sirius antennas in it's place.
I used some black cloth to cover them and put the speaker grille back into place.

Both antennas are completely hidden and function perfectly.