Do these antennas work as well as the longer ones?

 

For the most part, yes. Mine loses weaker signal more quickly, but by that time the signal was bad enough that I normally couldn't make out what was being said anyway.

The only really noticable thing about my antenna is that when you go under a bridge overpass, you lose pretty much all signal. The factory antenna does not do that. My guess is that not all short antennas do that either, but I'm not sure.

 

I want to remove the HCH center antenna and run the wire for my XM antenna through the same hole. I can't figure out how to take the center antenna off. Can someone help with this?

 

The HCHII antenna is accessed from the interior of the car. If you have NAV, then the module has discrete AM/FM/XM antennas built-in. If you do not have NAV then the module does not have the XM antenna. To remove the antenna module, all you have to do is drop the headliner, then unbolt the antenna module from inside. There are also 2 cables with connectors that have to be disconnected.

To drop the headliner (you just need to do it in the back, not remove the whole thing),

1. Pull off the 2 rear door gaskets along the top of the door jamb.
2. Remove the 2 rear grab handles. To do this, pull off the fastener covers, and then squeeze the handle fasteners to remove them and the grab handle.
3. At the rear edge of the headliner, at the 25% and 75% point, there are two snap fasteners that hold the headliner to the roof of the car. Pop them off and the headliner will drop down.

The cable connectors are on the right side of the car, and the antenna fastener nut is easily accessible.

Keep in mind that the antenna shaft is just for AM reception. The FM and XM antennas are amplified ones and are housed in the base of the antenna. You can remove the antenna shaft and still get XM and FM reception just fine.

I painted my antenna to match the car.

 

My antenna is on the front (2003 model). I dropped the headliner, but I can't see any way to unscrew the antenna. I'll try to make some pictures this weekend to post and see if that helps.