I stole the idea from NAM member Nuff - worked great - thanks man!
Just a little velcro tape on top of Sirius Starmate, and on the bottom of toggle panel area. Still can fit a can in the tiny little cup holders too. so much better than that damn giant suction cup on my windshield

 

Not necessary. Looks great!

 

Is that a Heineken in the passenger seat?

 

6 pack sitting on the floor

 

NICE!

 

That's awesome, I've been trying to figure out how to put a Starmate in.

 

Howard and Heineken. Nice.

 

I looked at putting my Starmate there but didn't like that it was hard to get to the buttons and seeing the display while driving. There aren't a lot of good options in the MINI by default. Anyway, here's my solution. I took a piece of straping material that I had from a previous aftermarket head unit install and bent it to shape, mounted the Starmate's cradle to it on one end and bent the strap to screw into the exposed screw that's visible in the bottom of the cupholder. The strap looks like an "S" with the bottom of the "S" bent backwards. I gave up a cup holder but I never used it anyway as they're pretty much usless and I have the big cup holder up high on the downtube. Redneck engineering I guess but it works for me. I haven't gotten around to painting the strap yet but it's not really noticeable in the car.

 

Boooooo!! You should really be listening to O&A. It's much healthier for you. :-)

 

HEY! What's an XM listener doing in a SIRIUS thread? Begone, vile demon!

 

I just got a mini. I'd like to hardwire the Sirius power cord. Where did you do that? How do I remove the radio to plug in the auxiliary input that I bought?

 

As for the hardwiring in the power cord, look around on the web for an "add a fuse" module that allows you to piggyback on another fuse in the box that has a power and ground wire coming off of them that you can tap in to. Mine is just plugged into the lighter outlet. I think Outmotoring might have that add a fuse module.

For the aux input hookup, I believe motoringfile.com has a good writeup on how to install this. For that you can actually reach around the back and just plug it in from the driver knee area and fish the line down through the access door below the switches under the AC.

 

I don't know why everyone thinks it is so much easier to reach around the back to plug it in. Honestly, I could hardly even get my hand back there, yet alone try and find out where I needed to plug it in .


I think It is a lot easier to just take the radio out. To do so:

- Remove the 4 torx screws that hold the downtubes in place.
- Pull back the downtubes enough to reveal the 4 phillips screws (two on each side) that hold the radio in place.
-After those 4 screws are out, you can just pull the radio out.

It really is as simple as that (or atleast it was for me).



By the way, the "Add a Circuit" thing can be purchased at a local Pep Boys or similar store.

 

Thanks for all the info guys (gals?). I will finally have some time this weekend to get to my Sirius install, and I will just take the H/K radio out if it's that quick.

On my other car (Acura CL), you remove the cigarette lighter while getting the radio out. Radio Shack sells clips that pierce the insulation of an exsiting wire and short it to a new wire. That's how I wired the power in the CL, and I have a few left. So anywhere I can identify +12V and GND I can do that again. I suppose I can do that in the main radio harness, or I know there should be plenty of juice to the lighter. The lighter wires will be easy to ID.

How about colors of power and GND on the radio harness? Will that circuit spare another 2A max (inline fuse rating of my Sirius-supplied hardwiring)?

 

Before hardwiring, make sure your unit actually requires 12V. I found out that my sat. radio unit only required 6V and thus was having issues with it when it was being powered by 12V. Luckily, I didn't cause any damage to the unit. I ended up just hardwiring an extra cigarette ligther, and hiding it right above the fuse box. Then, I just ran the power wire for the radio to the fuse box and plugged it into the extra cigarette lighter. It ended up working great because now I can still use the regular cigarette lighter to charge my phone.

 

Charging my phone is exactly why I want to keep the lighter free. The Sirius (Kenwood) does take 12V.

 

How did you get your unit mounted like that ???
I have the same starmate unit and would like to do the same install, do you have instructions for your install ?

 

Has anyone found a power wire and plug that will fit into the Starmate? I want to keep the factory plug intact so I can use the radio in other vehicles. So I need a replacement. Went to a Sirius installer, they had no clue. Radio Shack has a universal that could work, but the plug is a little bit longer than the factory plug and isn't as secure, it loosens up. So, I was wondering if anyone found a real OEM replacement.

 

Frank, I buy a lot of parts for work from Digikey.com and Mouser.com. They have every size power plug if you can't find the OEM. You need to know the inner and outer diameters in mm from the Radio Shack plug and measure the length of your good one. "Locking" type should be what you want. Common sizes can be purchased with the wire, others are the raw plug.