VelvetFoot, It sounds like your problem when hooking up the cable is probably related to the antenna on your car and not the cable, unless you got yourself a bad cable, which I doubt. The cable simply passes the signal to your car's satellite antenna wiring. Many others have used this cable with success.

 

That might be true, but I've not seen comments on signal strength.
Remember, this is XM and not Sirius that I'm trying to hook up.
BTW, the wire was embedded in the styrofoam, like the other wire and connector.

 

My experience with XM and the Sat cable is that it isn't as good as the real XM antennae properly placed outside the vehicle. I get more dropouts with the factory ant and the signal isn't as strong.

In saying all that I still use the factory sat ant. Most of my driving is in and around Philadelphia so I pickup full strength terrestrial signals for most of my driving. Otherwise I end up on highways with no tree obstructions. The 10% I drive on back roads with tree obstructions I get significant dropouts.

 

I wonder if being further south that it would do better. I do know the SAT position is to the south of the US.

I might give it a try when my Clubman gets here.

What you want for the cable?

 

How about 20 buck + actual shipping?

 

just installed the smb cable from cdi in my 08 clubby S. i had to remove the seat, remove the trap door, remove a styrofoam block filler and the antenna plug was on the far right side of the well. plugged in cable replaced removed parts and works like a charm. have not driven to all the known dead spots yet but signal strength is increased 75-100%. even works in my garage, that never happened with the xm factory antenna. thanks for the info.

 

I understand the satellite antenna cable terminates under the passenger seat...but where is the antenna actually located?

 

The sat radio antenna is part of the antenna on the back of your car -- the FM one is the long thing; the sat radio and GPS are built into the base.

The sat radio one comes out under the passenger seat. The FM radio must go to the radio. I'm hoping the GPS one goes to the center console area around the radio as well -- might take that part of the car apart tomorrow.

 

Thanks for the info regarding location of SAT antenna. If you find where the GPS antenna terminates, please be sure to post. I'm sure lots of us can make use of that information.

 

I got the smb cable male / female. However when I try to connect it to the factory plug under the seat it will not click together. How much force should I use? I made sure the connections were clear and if I hold together I get great signal, it just won't stay connected. Any ideas??

 

Just a quick note of appreciation to giancola, DyeLooper, et al. for the great tips offered in this and similar threads. We got the ProClip mount (suggested by DyeLooper and others) for our Sirius Sportster 5 yesterday and the cable from CD International (recommended by giancola) today and everything looks and sounds great. Joyce at CDI remembered giancola and knew exactly what we needed and the mount from ProClip is exactly what we wanted for the head unit.

Thanks all!

 

I've got a MCS 07. Got the smb cbl but can't find where to connect. I found the connector block but not the sat cbl. Is it part of the block or is it a totally separate wire?

 

I think it's a separate wire.

 

I am not sure, on my 08 clubby i had to fish around with my hand to find it under the far side of the passenger seat. it was separate from the rest of the wires. hope that helps.

 

buffetbob1....... the SAT cable is a totally separate wire from the connector block. I have a 08 MCS and the SAT cable is under the passenger seat, under the thin metal plate cover. I had to remove the seat in order to remove the metal plate cover, but others apparently have been able to do the job without the necessity of removing the seat. The cable had enough length to it that once I found it, I was able to pull the connector out from under the metal plate cover (exposed but still under the seat). That way, if at some time in the future I want to remove the extension cable I can do so easily without going through all that was required to find it in the first place.

 

Thanks. I found it way in the back of the cavity. Got it all hooked up and excited and then...my stilleto 2 won't pick up the signal! DOH! Now I'll ahve to trroubleshoot that! Anyone had a similar problem?

 

I just plugged in an extension cable, plugged that into the cradle, plugged in 12V power, and my SL2 worked fine. Are you getting any reception at all?

 

Done! I unplugged the dock and then plugged it back in and it works. Must have taken that to reset the dock. All is well with the world now!

 

How did you route the satellite cable from under the passenger seat to the dash area? I want to mount a Roady XT just to the left of the steering wheel. Thanks for any input or tips.

 

Bama... I routed it under the center console then up to the dock. No idea as to how to run it to teh sterring column. Only suggestion is when you do run it up there to make sure you use nylon cbl ties to ensure the wire stays put and doesn't interfere with anything under there. To remove panels in order to hide the wire make sure you get a "TORX" attachment for a 1/4 in drive screwdriver or wrench.

 

I can also attest that I now have very little problems with reception since the cable install. Now All I need to do is figure out how to wire the power so I can free up the outlet and clean up the cables. Any ideas?

 

Buffetbob1........ I ran a cable direct from the battery and installed a two-hole cigar lighter power outlet from Radio Shack in the footwell of the passenger side (FUSED LINES, of course).........which not only gives me an out-of-the-way outlet for my SAT receiver, but an extra outlet too -- as well as freeing up the OEM cigar lighter outlet. When you remove the battery, there are holes there to breach the firewall. Other than working in a confined space, not a big project.

 

I have that cable for sale, best offer-it didn't work well enough for my RoadyXT. PS: I'm pretty happy with the location in the cubby-pretty stealth, reachable, visible if you REALLY want to see what's playing.

 

xqb3b...Thanks. I'll give it a try in the future.

 

I installed my cable today for use with an XM XpressRC and it works great.
3 bars almost all the time. No drop outs so far.