Interesting discovery today. I bought a new Terk mini XM antenna that I was planning to install on my trunk lid (basically because I *hate* the standard roof location of the XM antenna). I currently have my antenna installed on my rear deck, but was considering moving it to the trunk lid to improve reception. Come to find out that the magnet won't stick to the trunk! Evidently, the trunk is composed of different material than the rest of the car's sheet metal. Kinda surprising, since I figured a magnet would stick just about anyplace on the car. Now, I'll probably install this one on the rear deck as well. Just thought I'd pass it along to anyone who was considering installing XM and was looking for an alternate location for the antenna.

 

Bradshaw - I could be wrong here, but I seem to remember reading something about a year ago that, IIRC, said the hood and trunk of the '04 Maxima are aluminum, which makes the car lighter. Aluminum is not only lighter than steel, it is non-magnetic.

 

why dont you put another magnet on the bottom of the trunk lid, then they'll stick just by attracting themselves to eachother? damn i always get my good ideas late at night

 

I had this setup on my 97 max, since I bought the '04 I moved the antenna inside the vehicle, less reception but its worth it because my 97's trunk was all scratched like mad after I traded in the car and took it off, I mean I am **** etc.. I cleaned it mad sure dirts didnt sit under it, didnt help. If you still want to go ahead with the install I recomend putting some adhesive down, so it cant move and so it wont scratch.

 

DMAD8724,
Boy am I going to show my age now! When I was a kid, a popular toy consisted of two magnetic dogs, one black and one white. The object of the play was to put one above and one below a flat object and then move the top one by dragging the bottom one along the surface. Kept me busy for hours. Did you by chance have any of these?

So that this post is not just fluff, I repeat my XM antenna comments. The factory says that optimum reception is the highest point of the car. That would be that rear roof area. "Rock and Roll" the two satellites are in low orbits and even at that high roof point I still get some fall-off. I think you should bite the bullet on the trunk concept and go for the best reception of XM, it is not bad at all. I think you are taking this much too seriously.

 

My two cents.... I concur with DMad's idea if you want the trunk. I thought of that one myself, but decided against it. I just installed my micro and ended up putting it in the standard location. It's small enough to where it doesn't look bad. Definately not as noticable as the standard shark fin antenna.

Save yourself the trouble from mounting it inside on the rear deck. I tried that initially and the reception was horrible. When I travelled in a southerly direction, I lost reception. When I travelled northerly, I got decent reception, but just couldn't live with it. I mounted it on the roof, near back window and the difference was night and day!

Don't bother with the rear deck, it's not worth it. If you are worried about installing the wire around the window trim, don't be. It's very easy and took me about 15 minutes to do it carefully, once i was able to rip off the plastic piece going down the side of the window. Just follow the Nissan instructions. They are accurate and easy.

 

I currently have my large shark fin antenna sitting on my back deck, and the reception is good although I do get some drop outs once in a while. Anyway, I saw the micro antenna (about 1" square, awesome!) and thouht that wouldn't be *too bad* installed on the car. But, I then thought about painting it.... I wonder how this would look? Has anyone tried?

 

Monotaur, I've been SERIOUSLY thinking about painting mine, using touch up paint... hell, if I screw it up or it looks bad, it is only $29.99 to replace from Circuit City. The only reason I haven't 100% made up my mind is because my car is dark blue, so the black almost blends in well.

My question is, I hear there is like a touch up pen and then a jar of paint. Which one is suppose to look better?

 

We've got a mini-antenna on the rear deck and reception is excellent about 99.5% of the time -- we've heard the same from others too. Before you replace the antenna, you might want to checks the wiring on your current setup. I don't think that there's any guarantee that the trunk mounted one will improve reception. The two XM satellites are stationary, and dependant on your location, the roof could block or weaken reception -- which is why the roof mount was first choice before the minis came along. Perhaps you should contact XM to get their feedback on improving reception first. The Maxima lines are great -- it's a shame to break them if you don't have to -- or so I think.

 

Trunk and hood are aluminum I just used the double faced tape at attach my to the trunk works fine and it's not going anywhere

 

I bought both types of paint to repair a couple of nicks (still haven't done that yet though..). So far, I think the jar is better... I think the pen's 'paint' end is the paint without the clear coat mixed in, and the other end is clear coat. I'd rather go with the jar since it's already mixed together (and cheaper).