first, im glad to join a sight dedicated to Saturns. I just purchased my first Saturn, a 2007 Ion3 Sedan. I've been doing car audio systems for 18 yrs now and I'm not stopping now: the Ion has a future in the world of mobile electronics.


My first hurdle is the mandatory OnStar system that I got. I am hoping to utilize the existing Onstar antenna as my XM antenna as it serves both functions for vehicles with the XM or Sirrius packages (confirmed at the dealership). I got behind the headliner this weekend and found that the connections for the OnStar antenna are the same as any XM or Sirrius receiver which makes me think that all I have to do is buy an XM antenna cable and run it to my XM receiver.


does anyone know anything about using the OnStar antenna for this purpose?

 

I believe on your car saturn makes their own digital antenna for the XM and another onefor onstar...For using the onstar antenna for XM radio purpose i don't know...If you are considering disconnecting you onstar antenna using it as a XM radio antenna i don't know if you should do it. It will interfer with the vehicle communication system and will set a fault in the BCM for onstar inop.

 

what would happen if the BCM had a fault for the onstar? to be absolutely honest, i never wanted onstar. i dont want onstar. i dont need onstar. it was a feature that was mandatory to get if you bought the car. so, if it faulted, would it be a major ordeal or simply me put me back to a point that i want to be in anyway (w/o onstar)? i had intentions of yanking the onstar out anyway, or at least the brain and mirror (and replacing the mirror with one that self adjusts to light and has a compass such as what's in my 95 F150).


the dealership's service dept advised me that the antenna on the car serves as the antenna for xm if the customer had an xm package. that's what's got this whole idea rolling. are you suggesting though, that it's in fact, a different antenna?