BigB72

Ok I have a Pioneer touchscreen aftermarket radio that I put in last year and I was looking at adding an xm radio to my car. The radio is xm ready but when I looked at the part that I need to connect to the radio is looks like it comes with an antenna. Do I have to use that antenna or will the stock antenna work since the stock radio had XM already on it?

TorchRedFred

Quick answer, you can re-use the cars existing antenna.

The long answer, you still need to buy the Sirius/Xm tuner and attach it to the back of your head unit. You can not re-use the existing factory tuner. To re-use the antenna, you will need to buy a 10ft Sirius/Xm antenna extension cable, available on amazon ($12), and run it from your new tuner to the factory tuner located above the rear drivers side wheel well and attach it there.

My opinion, I tried it and the reception wasn't good for me. I also tried placing the antenna that came with the tuner in a couple of different locations and the reception was still bad, and I ended up cancelling Sirius/Xm on my vette. I'm not sure if it was my location, the car, or anything else. But I know I am not the only person unhappy with Xm reception in a vette with an aftermarket head unit.

Here is a thread done by our former forum audio guy that will show you the steps to re-use the factory antenna.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...is-to-diy.html

BRAVO1

I put a JVC HU in my 99 and installed the SiriusXM unit behind the HU. I ran the XM antenna lead from the rear of the car to behind the HU and placed the small antenna on one of the rear brake light buckets. Works great and I do not lose reception.

Jim

TorchRedFred

Thanks Jim. Based on recommendations from another thread, I tried running the antenna to inside the rear bumper area using a magnet to attach it to the steel bumper, but it still didn't improve my reception much. I'm not sure why some of us seem to have problems with this. I don't know if it's a C6 thing.

jrprich

I agree!
I spent hours over a year or so trying different Sirius antenna locations all around my C5. The best reception was mounting the supplied Sirius antenna on the outside top center of my coupe's rear hatch.
But after a couple of years and thousands of dropped signals, I canceled my subscription. Left the radio and antenna in the car just never used it again.

SRQ Vette

Skip the XM radio receiver and the XM antenna. Get the Sirius XM app on your phone and connect it to your head unit via Bluetooth. It works great.

Rbee775

This is what I did. Allowed me to keep the original Bose system. It cost me $15.