Ray-VancouverBC

Been in electronics all my life and being a non smoker, was always mad at the wasted space occupied by the ashtray. Removed ashtray module, made a simple bracket and harness and mounted my Sirius satellite radio inside the ashtray cavity...and it dissapears easily and out of site.

Simple and dirt-cheap Home Depot parts and very easy to reverse....no holes!

If anyone is interested I would be glad to post "how-to" pictures with a step-by-step....

Mine is a 1997 SL500 R129

Davis

Funny you mention this! I took my 99 to our local radio shop and had my sirius installed in the same spot! and now the rest of the story, they told me they would have it done in 2 hours. It took the installer all day! I felt bad, as they honored their original estimate. That aside, I could not be happier with the set up and I highly recommend having this done.

Ray-VancouverBC

Its a 90 minute job if you know what to do.
where did they mount your antenna?
and how did they run the antenna cable???

Sirius channels 3, 4 and 5 sound fabulous on the open road!!!

Davis

He placed the antenna in the far right corner of the dashboard, it is virtually invisible from outside the vehicle. The reason it took so long is twofold; first the radio just barley fit in the cavity where the ashtray was. Secondly, he fabricated a faceplate for the radio which also included a place for the original cigar lighter. He was a perfectionist and he refused to compromise on his attention to detail. All things equal, it should have taken less time. With that said, I am very pleased with the final product. As for channels 3, 4 and 5 you bet, let me recommend channel 74 if you like B. B. King!

Ray-VancouverBC

ok, which antenna did he use?

was it the round magnetic one, square magnetic or the half clam shell one?
.........more after you tell me which one was used.

I used the smallest Sirius 12 volt unit which is the StarMate Replay...(once you have used the REPLAY feature, you will never give it up). This model fits almost the entire cavity with room for all the connections on the side. I had no use for the cigarette lighter but still wanted to have 12 volts available for other devices so I added a fused 12 volt in-line regular DC socket for that purpose....it tucks away until needed.

When I get some time I will post pictures of the bracket with dimensions and the parts from Home Depot that I used. I didnt see the need for a face-plate since my receiver occupies the entire width and dissapears when the door is closed.

yes, there are a lot of great channels.....I guess we all have our favourites (favorites for US viewers). I have only had the toy for 3 weeks and really enjoy driving it. The Bose sound system is superb especially compared to the standard system in my E300 that I just sold last week......enjoy

Davis

He used the half clam shell and set it on a square thin metal plate. The plate was about the same size as the antenna. We may have used the same sirius radio, as it left just enough room for the cigar lighter.

I neglected to mention, that I had the shop install and hard wire my Magellan GPS. I have Nav in my other vehicles and have became rather dependant on this feature (I may be getting lazy) All in all, I'm driving very happy with my sirius and getting "there" with my GPS

sirajp

Hi Ray,

I thought all R129 SLs had a fiber-optic audio system. So how did you connect the audio out from your Sirius radio to the car's radio?

Do you still have the factory audio system?
I want satellite radio and when looking for a replacement deck, I was told that replacing the factory radio/deck in the SLs required replacing all other audio components as well!

Thanks.

Ray-VancouverBC

no, only later models have optical.
FM modulator in the Sirius receiver...works great.
yes, standard Bose system

gqmagic

Any pictures?

Ray-VancouverBC

full "how-to" with pictures posted today.