Factory Monsoon Radio and XM Radio

[GirlNextDoorTn]

Greetings to all,

I have a few questions. Thought I would throw this out and see what I would get back. I did a search on here and didn't really get what I was looking for back. If anyone has a link to a past post please send it my way. I need the input.

I have a 01 Beetle Sport. It has everything on it minus a CD player.

The first question I have is does the factory monsoon radio have RCA jacks on the back of the radio? Since my car does not have a CD player I am wondering if it possible to hook up the XM radio to where the CD player should be hooked. And play the XM radio through the CD button on the Radio.

Second Question I have is after you have gotten the factory radio out how much of the under side of the dash can you get to? Can you just take out the radio and have enough room to be able to pull wires were you need them to be without taking the whole dash apart?

And with that said how big of a pain in the ass is it to take the dash out to get to what you need to look at to install a XM radio.

What I am going to do with the install of the XM radio I haven't really seen anyone do on here and post about. There is one other one that looked at that is similar to what I want to do but I think that my idea is going to look way better. What I am planing on doing is mount the car cradle where my bud vase once was. My boyfriend has made me a mounting arm that will hold the unit and fit into the vase hole. And what I was wanting to do is run all the wires for the XM down the inside of the whole where the vase was since you can see down in the dash. So this way I will not have any wires showing.

I have a XM 2 Go unit. I got this for a couple of reason one of which is that I travel some during the year and can take this unit with me when I fly and then I can have it in the car. Another reason is the fact that it is smaller in size then the other XM's. And we all know that space is at a minimum.

If anyone has any input I would like to hear.
Thanks in advance,
Paula

[Bonedaddy]

The factory Monsoon radio does not have RCA jacks on the rear. To attach your XM to it (or an MP3 player for that matter) you'll need something called an Auxillary Input Converter. This device plugs into the CD changer plug located on the back of your radio and in turn provides the RCA jacks. This device costs approx $50 or $60 not including the additional cable to merge 2 RCA jacks to a single audio jack.

There is a lengthy and very informative thread on this site. It's for installing an MP3 player but there is very little difference between installing an MP3 player or a satellite radio when it comes to making the physical connection to your radio here.

Check out the installation forum on www.siriusbackstage.com and www.xmsfans.com and search on VW or Beetle.

Also, there is an excellent pictorial how-to by Marvin's Dad on how to install an MP3 player right here.

Lots of people have done this procedure already so there's a ton of information and tips. Pour the beverage of your choice, put your brain into absorb mode and dig in.