cte430

I was at my dealership the other day talking to the accessories guy and had a very hard time convincing him that people here have done the terk install. I e-mailed some pics to my salesman to give to him from here. Went back today and he said he called MBUSA twice and they said the Terk is not part of the MB sirius package. He said he can get the terk but would void my warranty (LOL. Funny considering I have a Renntech kit. Even my salesman laughed). So, I don't really care about that (even though i'm not sure how an antenna can really do much harm). Anyway, just wanted to clarify that you guys who did this you did have your dealer do it, and they got the terk separately?

MB4Fun

Chris,

I had mine done recently from Caliber Motors in Anaheim, California. They used the small Terk antenna. My wife actually got this for me for Christmas and surprised me with the completed car. My point to this, is that she did not ask for anything special, just said she wanted the sat install for my 04 E320. I would call Caliber and enquire for more info.

Jeff

pa28pilot

For all of the reasons mentioned previously in this forum, I would recommend that you consider a smaller antenna that is actually tuned for the Sirius frequency allocations, as opposed to jury-rigging an XM antenna. The frequencies are pretty close, but the Sirius antennas include more LNA hardware in the antenna enclosure than does XM. (For the electronics buffs out there, there was a great article in IEEE Spectrum with some serious technical detail on both systems.)

Both the SIR-MINI and the American International SIR1-SAF (which I just ordered from Crutchfield) are pretty darn small antennas, and are actually designed for the correct frequency bands.

I just received the Sirius OEM hardware, but don't have the car yet. I think it just cleared customs, which gave me time to swap antennas and add the SIR-SP splitter to the box before I give it to the installer.

sacguy

Are the Sirius parts something you order seperately and then take to a dealer for install or does the dealer have in stock and then install? The 05 E500 I just ordered did not offer the satellite radio as part of the original equipment from the factory. I am purchasing the car through Penske Motor Cars, West Covina, CA

MB4Fun

If you have an 04 or later you just tell them you want the sat install. They have all the parts and integrate it with your command system.

DWP

The "build your Mercedes" section of the MBUSA site lists Sirius as an "accessory" rather than an "option", indicating dealer installation instead of factory installation. The Flash demo of Sirius on the site says that the full factory warranty applies if Sirius is installed at the time of delivery. That implies that Sirius isn't covered if it's retrofitted into an '04 - not that anything is likely to go wrong with a satellite radio system.

Jthurik

My salesperson added sat radio when my car arrived, they use a 3rd party company to add it but It is covered by the warrenty of the car. The cost for install with the Terk was $850. My salesperson said if you order with the car they put a huge hockey puck type antenna on the car. So it looks like this changes dealership to dealership. I like the install so much, Im letting them add the K40 radar/laser dector to the car. (My wife thinks $1100 is to much and I should not speed)

Barry45RPM

The Terk IS way smaller than the MBUSA Satellite antenna. But the MB antenna is nowhere near the size of a hockey puck. Its about 1/2 the size of a Microsoft Basic Mouse. Its black, and would look 1000 times better if it were painted the body color. I have it & dont even see it anymore (much like you learn not to see a small ding in a large body panel that you dont want to fix because you don't want to paint the whole body panel & blend it).

Enjoy the music. Its such a break from AM & FM you'll never go there again!

TPAbnz

Here's the small Terk antenna mt MB dealer installed last week. It's got the dog emblem on the top; the dealer said it could be painted too.

sacguy

Hi TBAbnz,
Is the antenna the small black object on the rear interior deck by the window - or is it mounted on the roof in front of the GPS antenna?

TPAbnz

Sorry about being unlclear . . . it's on the surface of the package shelf, the small black box under the rear window.

sacguy

Thanks TPA Benz! How is your signal with the interior antenna, any problems caused by the window tint, etc?.... I will use your photo to show the dealer in LA when I get my Sirius installed (car is April delivery).

jago1244

rallye did mine. i think the accessory guy is named brian page(?). they provided all equipment and there was no warranty issue.
installed on rear shelf, at bottom of inside rear glass.

interpol

I talked to me dealer (Beshoff Motors in San Jose) before buying the satellite kit and asked them where they install the antenna. The parts lady wasn’t sure, and I was asking her if they install it on the rear deck inside the car. So she called the installers in the back and they confirmed that was where it was installed. Great, I thought, and went ahead and bought the kit and scheduled an appt. for the install.

So yesterday, the satellite kit was installed, but to my dismay, they installed the antenna on the trunk! Which I guess is the “normal” location. I was disappointed because I really don’t like the look of the antenna on the trunk. So I talked with the service rep. and he initially offered to paint the black antenna to match the car color. But I wasn’t happy with that and mentioned to him that when I bought the kit, I was told the antenna was installed inside the car. After talking with the parts department, they said that it “can” be installed there, but by default it’s installed on the trunk. So I thought I was screwed since I didn’t mention the install location when I bought the car in. I asked if they could move the antenna and was honestly surprised when they agreed to move it to the inside of the car, fix the hole in the trunk and give me a rental during the two to three days it would take… all at no charge to me… in fact they were apologetic for the screw up.

But to get to my point… the tech was initially thinking of moving the antenna to the inside, but obviously the stock antenna is too big to fit in the space behind rear shades. They don’t seem to be aware of the Terk antenna, but said they were going to contact Mercedes to figure out what antenna they need. They said I was their first customer to request an inside install. So does anyone have any additional info on the Terk? Part numbers etc. Is a special wiring harness needed? Just want to have this info in case they’re not able to figure it out.

cte430

Someone may want to confirm because i'm certainly no expert. It was my understanding that the Terk (pics posted here. Do a search) was actually the antenna for XM, not Sirius. From what others said the terk will work with sirius, but it wasn't designed. I forget the technical term that was used. Anyway, if you go to Crutchfield.com and go to SAT, it seems that there is a new small antenna just for sirius. Maybe you should just buy it on your own and bring it to your dealer.

pa28pilot

That's what I did, as indicated earlier in this thread. I went so far as to connect the SIR-SP splitter to the Sirius tuner unit and put them back into the box, so there would be no confusion as to how it connected.

The receiver has blue and white FAKRA connectors, which are intended to either connect directly to an antenna with two connectors (terrestrial/satellite), or a device called an automatic level control (ALC). I have had no luck finding an ALC yet, though I understand they're cheap little devices. The purpose of the ALC is to prevent interference from XM's high powered terrestrial transmitters, amongst other things.

The factory Sirius antenna only has two wires, so you'll need the Terk SIR-SP splitter (which is available everywhere) if you want to use a one-wire antenna, as most are these days.

The SIR-SP has curry and white colored connectors and doesn't exactly mate with the blue and white connectors on the factory receiver. You have a couple of choices as to how to fix this. The proper one is to get an ALC, which would have blue and white connectors on one side, and curry and white on the other, which would then plug into your splitter.

If you survey the Sirius message boards, you'll find a bunch of people who have had their ALCs fail, and who dispensed with them entirely. To do this, you have to shave a little rib off of the factory radio's blue connector and plug the curry connector from the SIR-SP right onto it. I did this, and it works great so far, but I'm still going to try to find an ALC to do it right.

I really like the little American International antenna I referenced earlier in this thread. I think it's the SIR-SAT1. My dealer installed it just in front of the Tele-Aid antenna, and it's really unobtrusive. It also lacks the big "SIRIUS" advertising on the outside. (I have a thing about wearing people's ads on my car without being paid.)

Note - there are competent people on this forum who have good reasons to dislike this sort of install from a technical perspective. You would do well to search for Scorchie's comments about Sirius installs on here before you make any decisions as to how to install your own radio. (I have several radio licenses in my pocket, so I'm not skittish about doing fault isolation if something's not exactly right.)

TPAbnz

The antenna in the picture I posted is labeled "Sirius" and was installed by the dealer.

cte430

Ok, thanks. I do remember reading that guys were installing an antenna that was designed for XM and used a slightly different bandwith (probably not the right word), but still worked OK.

Did you tell the dealer you wanted that antenna or is that what they are installing?

NickIndy

Okay, I had the dealer install the OEM antenna under the rear shelf which that threw a hissy fit over having to do. The reception is HORRIBLE. It seems every time I turn a corner...reacquiring signal. So I'm thinking of putting the Terk mini antenna on the roof just in front of the GPS antenna that is already there. My question....anyone care to give me advice on how to get the antenna wire from up there down to the Sirius equipment in the trunk? Thanks so much!

DWP

I installed the car antenna that came with my XM MyFi portable receiver on the package shelf, just forward of where the shelf meets the glass. I stuck some "hooks"-side Velcro on the bottom of the antenna so it doesn't slide around. I was able to snake the wire through the rear compartment and beside the driver's seat so that only a few inches of wire are visible in the rear. The car antenna is about 1 1/4" by 1 1/2" - I don't know if it's a Terk.

Anyway, the MyFi gets a consistent 3/3 satellite signal and a 2-3/3 terrestrial signal in its inside location. XM receivers allow you to separately measure satellite and terrestrial repeater signal strength - don't know if Sirius receivers have that ability. The only time the satellite signal dips to 2/3 is when I'm heading south and the mass of the roof gets between the antenna and the satellite. So, if you're having trouble getting a good satellite signal for your Sirius setup with a Terk XM antenna, it could be that there is enough difference between the XM and Sirius frequencies to cause problems. Or, I suppose, it could also be that the Sirius satellite(s) just don't put out the signal of the XM satellites. I don't know.

I'm tempted to call this another example of how DCX bet on the wrong horse when it locked us into Sirius for integrated satellite installations - but since I don't really know much about Sirius, I won't.

pa28pilot

First, I'd urge you to consider either the SIR-MINI or the SIR1-SAF, rather than an XM antenna. Second, I think you'll find there's a fair amount of room around the rear window molding all of the way down to the trunk. I can't even see where my dealer ran mine down from the roof, but I'm pretty sure they tucked it under the window seal.

There's a pronounced channel all of the way around the window, presumably to facilitate water drainage.

NickIndy

I'm for sure getting the SIR-MINI, already on order. I knew not to do the XM antenna. Does the antenna stay on through car washes and stuff?

pa28pilot

I have the panorama roof (all glass - magnet won't work), so the dealer techs used double-sided tape of some kind that appears to be holding it very well, even if I'm blasting it with the hose or leaf blower.

sacguy

What is the difference between the two SIR-MINI and SIR1-SAF?

NickIndy

Okay, one more question. It is pretty easy to tuck it under the rear window molding, no problem. But when the wire gets down to the trunk, how do you get the wire into the trunk without just running it over the trunk seal? I really don't want to simply do that because I'm afraid that it will allow rain/snow water into the trunk. Any ideas?