I want to hardwire my XM to the fuse panel in the passenger side footwell.... can I cut the cigarette lighter plug off and just tap into the fuse for the radio, or do i need to add an inline fuse that matches the one that was in the plug?

 

and where should I ground it? Anywhere there is bare metal, or tap into a black wire somewhere

 

You might want to give it its own fuse. and black is not always ground. White is also used as ground, so give it its own ground.

 

You also might make sure that your XM radio is 12v both my Sirius radios had cigarette lighter plugs but had a resistor in them to bring the voltage down to 7.5v going into the radio!!!

There is a 10mm bolt at the bottom of the inside fuse box that is a good groung. Tom is right not all BLACK wires are GROUND!!

 

it's a 5 volt fuse inside the lighter plug.... so should I get an inline fuse to put it in?

 

I bought one of these: XMFanStore 5v Hardwire MYFI-HRDPWR 1 24.98
Power Supply for MyFi,
Inno, RoadyXT, Xpress
Then I bought a add a fuse and put it in the number 21 fuse slot on the lower fuse panel. Use the ground stated above. The nice thing is that fuse 21 turns off with the doors just like the radio. I mounted my xm radio in the top glove box, drilled a hole in it and ran the wires for the power and the antenna down thru the dash. You can't even tell it is there. Good luck.
Jack

 

Yep, fuse # 21. I used a Littlefuse add-a-fuse to add the power for the XM. I wired another lighter socket in that's hidden behind the panel for the power adapter. Most of them run 7.5 volts, so if you hit it with the full 12 it'll nuke the receiver.

 

I just used the resistor that was in the cigarette lighter plugs that came with the receiver. Just took the plug apart and hard wired it all into good old #21 work just like the factory radio