rljones

I ordered the parts from Sewell (http://www.lexus-parts.com/) about a week ago on-line. I printed the instructions from http://techinfo.lexus.com

It does take a bit of work. You need to remove all of the liners (except maybe the left one) from the trunk. The instructions say to disconnect the battery. I did not do this as it requires re-setting many things (you need to re-initialize the car). I had zero problems despite not disconnecting the battery.

The XM receiver (tuner) comes with a wiring harness and a bracket. The Smart Key is removed and re-attached to this new braket along with the XM tuner. Once the harness is inserted in-between some of the inputs to the amplifier (on right side near the Smart key unit in the trunk), all that is then needed is to connect the antenna.

The instructions say to externally mount the antenna on the trunk lid. No way; this would look like garbage. I mounted it inside the passenger side rear panel (called the roof side rear garnish): its the side panel on the rear window. You pull it and it comes off, attached with 4 clips.

I was also removing my rear seats as I'm in the process of adding more sound proofing to reduce wheel noise and enhance the stereo. So I saw a hole in the rear seat panel about 2 inches from the door frame covered by a rectangular piece of foam. I used this opening to run the anenna wire back to the the XM tuner. (I also completely soundproofed the trunk while I had all the liners out. The other part that helps the stereo is removing the headliner and adding various materials to reduce acoustic reflections.)

I placed the magnetic antenna on the side metal just below the window. When the garnish panel is replaced, it will fit and not even be visible. It works perfectly too. This is my 3rd XM tuner so I added it today to our family account and the reception is excellent.

ecr527

Hey rl,

Do you have any pics of where you mounted the antenna?

Bichon

Thanks for the great writeup, but MicahIS250 spoiled us with his oil change thread. Even the most descriptive prose can't compete with one that includes lots of pictures. I'm sure that while you have the car apart and are busy trying to figure what goes where, it is a pain to pull out the digital camera. But it sure is appreciated!

knox_sport

Hey!

I'm fascinated with your soundproofing. Thought about starting a thread with how you did it? What products you used? And why? Pictures would be even better. But then again, it's just a dream!

blkIS350

Please post some pics of where you installed the antenna when you get a chance.

Thanks!

rljones

Here a couple of poor quality images (sorry). I only thought about photos and posting something after I'd already closed up the trunk, so I have no details where it would be most useful (sorry again).

There two images need some explaining. The first shows the rear interior. The seat bottom is out of the car. The yellow, bright area on the left of the image is the backside foam of seat backrest. I left it inside the car as I was working as the middle seatbelt would have required unbolting and I didn't need to remove it entirely.

The dangling part is the light panel from the headliner that I'd already removed, added soundproofing and replaced.

I'll post later the details of what I used as that info is on another computer. What you see here is an aluminum sided polymer with adhessive on the non-Al side. Over this I added a 1/8" foam. I didn't want to add too much thickness here. On the floor and in the trunk I used 1/8" vinyl with a foam layer. (this was a 2 day project; the hardest part was the driver's side; messy.)

Anyhow, the garnish is seen re-asembled. This passenger side is where the antenna is already placed. Since I had a pain with a couple of clips, I did not want to remove it to photograph it. (Sorry once more.)

The next photo shows the garnish removed on the driver's side rear. I drew a red circle of the approximate location for the antenna. It is really a no brainer to put it in place. The side panel is metal and the base of the antenna unit is magnetized so it sticks by itself. I moved it all around this area and all locations gave perfect reception. It is really not so critical.

rljones

Here's the 2nd image.