Satellite antenna wire

mike kennedy
01-21-2006, 01:30 PM
This is how I ran my sirius satellite antenna wire. Pics are attached.

Start from the roof above the rear sliding window. Pop out the 2 plastic clips on each end of the upper brake light above the window and unscrew the 2 phillips head screws holding the light assembly in. Pull out the light and you could leave it hanging during the install. The brake light wire runs through a rubber (watertite) grommet which you could carefully pry out. You will run your sat wire through that hole.
Position your sat base as recommended by the manufacturer, on your roof. Mine is centered around 6" - 8" from the plastic roof piece which runs across the back of the roof from passanger side to drivers side. This piece joins the metal part of the roof by a series of clips and one clip is centered on the roof. It also has a thin weather strip which runs across the peice where it touches the metal part of the roof. Go around 10" to the left of the center clip and lightly pry up a small area (trying not to damage the clip) of the plastic roofline with a thin butterknife. The fattest part of my wire is the plug on the end which is little less then 1/4' so I made sure I did not pry it up higher then that. Feed your sat antenna wire through that small space and pull all of it through toward brake light assembly. Once it's through make a loop and flatten the wires together so they could be fed through the grommet that you pulled out earlier. Feed in around 6"-8" of wire.
From outside the rear back window, look through the open window at the end of the headliner. Gently pry a small section (8") of the headliner down and with a flash light you could see where your brakelight wires go through the hole. You should see your antenna wires and if not, feed the wires through again. I cut a 12" peice of coat hanger and made a tiny u shape on the end of it with a needle nose plier and used it as a hook to grab the wire.
Pull all the wire through and press the headliner back up. You could then squeeze the wire into the rubber section on the right side of the window and run down and across the back of the drivers side back seat area, down the side of the seat/door molding and across the lower door sills of the front and back doors. Once up front you could pull up the rug (velcro attached) under the pedals, run under the carpet and over to the radio. I had around 18" - 24" of wire left.
Go back where you started and set the sat. base exactly where you want it and press down on the plastic roof peice firmly and then install the grommet you pulled out earlier. When you set the grommet back in make sure the satellite wire is all the way on the bottom of the grommet and not the top ( for moisture reasons) and snap in securely. Replace your brake light assembly and snap in the plastic tabs.
You could choose to run the wire from the back to the front of the center area of the truck if you want. I did not want to have to lift up any carpet in that area and with my experience in running speakers I found my way easier.
Thanks to the other ROC members who helped out with their installation ideas.
Mike
Pictures on the way the next hour.

mike kennedy
01-21-2006, 01:39 PM
installation continue

steveberger
01-21-2006, 01:40 PM
Great "drill free" installation -- A+

Dirty Ridgeline roof -- C- ;)

mike kennedy
01-21-2006, 01:46 PM
installation continuation.

mike kennedy
01-21-2006, 01:47 PM
final finish.

mike kennedy
01-21-2006, 01:59 PM
Done... And MoJo slept through the whole thing.

By the way I siliconed my Base holder to my dashboard. Did not want to drill and it is really strong!:)

bonerep
01-21-2006, 05:17 PM
Nice plate...hehehehehehe

FJTRPH
01-22-2006, 08:37 AM
Nice choice on the S50, I have read bad reviews, but for my purposes it has worked out really well. If you wanted an even cleaner install you could consider plugging into the rear seat power outlet as suggested in previous posts.

mike kennedy
01-22-2006, 12:04 PM
I am not that concerned about keeping the front power outlets clean and unoccupied because:

1. Honda put 2 outlets there to be used.

2. I have 2 kids with 3 electronic gizmos ( nintendo,psp etc.) each to be plugged into the rear outlets. :D

meanmachine19
01-22-2006, 08:38 PM
Well done Mike. Would sure be nice to show off at the next AZ meet! ;)

jerseyshoreguy
01-22-2006, 11:01 PM
Good job Mike!,

I am waiting till I can get a home dock before I permanently mount it and since I am bringing the s50 inside, I just lay the magnet under the moon roof shade (inside) and it works fine here. .. I wish I could use the xm antenna ... but honestly I haven't looked too carefully at it yet. I am also concerned about the roof rack I am not sure if it will interfere from where you have yours.

Do you have a home dock?

Did you get the s50 for the Bruce channel or for Howard Stern?

Will the silicon come off completely? (which did you use?)

Sorry for all the questions.

Thanks,
Chris

Alfer
01-23-2006, 08:04 PM
Smooth install Mike....

I like the way you did NOT have to take off the rear plastic roof piece....

Will move my XM antenna when we get some warmer weather here in the Great White North...

ALfer

Rich W.
01-23-2006, 09:21 PM
Mike,

Great install, especially the creative us of the butter knife. I too installed my antenna through the rear roof. Although I choose to completely remove the top trim piece instead of prying it up.

I see an LBI sticker on the back window, but cactus in your front yard, what gives?

tlaudio
02-05-2006, 11:06 AM
Thanks Mike for the excellent write up w/pics!

After seeing how easy you made it look....I moved my XM Skyfi2 antenna from the dash to the same location.

Two things that made the job a LOT easier:

1. KTC Panel Popper tools (Talked about in most Honda Accessory instructions)
(Pink items pictured below)

2. Grabby Tool - Can run wires w/o removing all panels

I decided to run my wire under the door seals & then pushed the wire out of harms way when re-installing the door seal molding.

Thanks again MIKE!

TL

Jay
02-12-2006, 01:43 PM
Thanks Mike for the instructions, and pics! I did this antenna install myself, and love how it turned out, all wires are now hidden! Also, I just left my starmate replay in the console to hide that aswell. :) Now I just need to hard wire the thing to the stock stereo, because the static I'm getting is horrible!

utvnut
02-12-2006, 05:43 PM
got my S50 home dock yesterday at Best Buy and hooked it up today after shoveling snow. It works pretty good, now I have to remember to bring the unit with me since I used to just leave it in the car most of the time.

I ran the wire through the top roof trim like the pictures too.

Serp
01-11-2009, 07:30 PM
Thanks Mike. I installed my Sportster 5 today running the wire following your method (without special tools) and it worked out great.