***** This is not a beginner stage install being as the wires you have to splice into are small and delicate. If you don't have experience with this sort of thing I would not recommend going forward*****

***** This WILL void any warranty on your radio as this is the brain of the
entire audio system. If you don't know what your doing then please do not attempt this*****

***** All screws that you will be removing are VERY VERY tight. Make sure you are using a phillips head that seats properly and use a good amount of inward pressure so that you do not strip the screws. DO NOT USE A DRILL/GUN ON ANY OF THE SCREWS*****

***** When this is done you will no longer be able to use the tape player for audio. You do have to still have a tape in the player for this to work. The tape tricks the system into thinking it is playing thus allowing the ipod signal to take over*****

Ok with all that out of the way let me just say WOW. This is such a good solution and works perfectly. Cant tell the difference between this and my wifes car that has a direct ipod connection to her radio. It is PERFECT!!!

Here Goes........

I am assuming everyone knows how to remove there tape player, if not there are many post in here to help. Once you have removed it pick up here.....

Here is our lovely radio, once you have removed those gold metal stickers your warranty is pretty much void on this component, keep that in mind.

Start by removing the brackets on each side, again screws are snug so use a good driver and a good amount of downward force.

Next remove the 4 screws on the top

Then the 4 on the back (Very Tight)

Then the 3 on the bottom

Now remove the face, it just clips in on the sides and slides straight off.

Now you should be able to pull the inside structure out of the cage pretty easily.

Now you need to remove 5 screws that hold the tape player assembly onto in.

Then unplug the 2 harnesses.

And then you should be able to easily remove the tape assembly from the unit.

Now the plug that we will be using is the 3 pin plug on the bottom of that tape assembly (1 Yellow, 2 Black Wires) Yellow wire is left input, middle black is ground, and the outside black is right input.

There are numerous ways to tap into these wires, I wanted to be able to easily return this to stock so I spliced into them. This was the best way IMO to do this. BE VERY CAREFUL when doing this as the wires are thin and can easily break. To do this I used a wire stripper to remove the shielding and expose the bare wire.

With all 3 wires exposed use a small pick tool or flat head screw driver to split the wires so that they are open in the middle.

I went to Radio Shack and bought a 20ft headphone extension cable. Make sure it is the standard 1/8" (2.5mm) jack.

Make sure you cut off the female end and not the male, then remove about 3-4 inches of shielding to expose the 3 wires inside.

Cut back the shielding to exspose about 2 inches, then one at a time insert the wires into the opening you made in the harness wires, then wrap them around tightly. This can be a bit tedious do to the tight space but is pretty easy. Wire colors as shown in picture or if not the same colors refer to picture 11 for plug configuration.

Next you need to solder and tape each connection separately. Solder is not necessary but highly recommended.

After soldering and taping everything individually tape them all together then throw a zip tie on for extra support.

I forgot to take a picture of how i ran the cable, but there is actually a perfect path that I show here to run the wire. ********** MAKE SURE that you DON'T plug the smaller harness back in. The smaller harness must stay unplugged from the tape player. The big harness does need to be plugged back in***************

Wire comes right out the back, if you want to put electrical tape around the metal edges you can, I didn't but probably should have.

Now it is ready to put back into the car. I wanted mine in my center console so I ran the cable down the console.

I then drilled a whole in the upper portion of the center console to stick the cable through.

Put everything back together and boom, you have a working IPOD!

From start to finish this took less then an hour and the outcome is amazing.

As I said you have to keep a tape in the player for this to work, so pull out your old Beastie Boys tape and leave it in there.

If anyone has any questions or needs any help feel free to ask................... Boon

Special Thanks to Stroked 347 for the wiring diagram and to Thirty7th for the info/idea to do this

Modified by Boon at 1:02 PM 4/13/2008

This is an excellent write-up!! We are going to put this post into our Articles section ...

And ... you have earned yourself a custom tag line for below your name. What would you like it to be (clean of course )? Please e-mail me about it!

Z

Awesome walk through of the mod. I'll be doing this over the weekend now that i have a guide. Thanks for the great write up and pics!

I'll be posting my completed Harmon Kardon Drive and play 2 install this weekend which has been dragging on for about 3 months too long.

**The following is just if someone experiences the side effect of noise from the dummy tape - not trying to take anything away from your write up**

I know several people who did this mod (different cars) and the 'dummy tape' continued to make noise in the player. An easy fix - if it does cause noise, is the following:

1. Disassemble a normal tape
2. Remove the tape from the two geared wheels
3. Replace the tape w/ a rubber band. This will turn both wheels and the rubber will insulate any rattling caused by loose gears.
4. Reassemble the cassette and you have a quiet dummy tape.

I'll do this over the weekend and take pics just as a supplement.

Cool. Awesome info Matt, will have to give this a try.

Y34 Spottings: 5

Thanks!

It sounds perfect. Since it is a direct connection it is the best sound you can get out of a IPOD. Sounds the same as if you had an after market stereo with a direct IPOD adapter. No whine no hiss, just good quality music.........

Do the steering wheel controls work for switching songs etc?

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day,
teach him to use the Net and he won't bother you for weeks."

Good request and question, but, I would be very surprised by this working - he only tapped into the audio lines.

Z

Unfortunately no they don't. Like Z said, it just taps in for signal. You have to control everything else from the ipod itself.

It should however I am not sure if that one is also the head unit. If it is not the brain like in mine, then you can probably find these wires coming out of the back of the unit instead of going inside.

If it has 3 separate large harnesses and the antenna cable in the back (as seen below) then it is probably the brain and this should be the same exact instructions.

Modified by Boon at 1:38 PM 4/12/2008

I just finished the install and it works great! Sound quality is amazing and it took less than an hour to do. Thanks again for the great write up.

It should be exactly the same. Let us know if you give it a shot. Thanks.......

Haha if your in town call.

FYI, I got the same headphone extension as the OP but when I cut the female end off, I had a red wire, white wire and ground. Red went to the far right black wire(right signal), white went to the yellow wire (left signal) and the ground went to the middle black wire (ground).

Quote, originally posted by Manok »

I just finished doing this job on an 04 and it works perfectly. there is no difference between the 03 and 04. Took me a few hours because the wires are pretty small, but it's an easy job. Eight dollars for the wire, two bucks for a blank tape and a few hours of your time. Cheapest ipod solution yet. FYI, I got the same headphone extension as the OP but when I cut the female end off, I had a red wire, white wire and ground. Red went to the far right black wire(right signal), white went to the yellow wire (left signal) and the ground went to the middle black wire (ground).

Glad its the same for the 04 and that everything worked well for you. Thanks for letting all the 04 guys know it'll work........ Boon

Honestly, I wasn't kidding

If I am ever in MI, I will stop over to get this work done :D

Btw, what kind of tape did you get? I have the Dynex cassette thinger I am using right now for my Zune, I reckon I could just use that since it is so quiet

I'm getting a little alternator whine and I can hear the ipod's hard drive spooling up between tracks. Is there anything I can try to fix or reduce this noise?

I do have a problem with volume level. I was using a tape adaptor before and the volume matched the other inputs (CD, Radio) now the "tape" is quieter than before with the adaptor. All connections are good and the solder seems fine as well. Any suggestions? The output on the MP3 is on high as well.

Awesome, thanks for the write up to let the 04 guys know. As far as the volume goes, what kind of MP3 player are you using? is it an IPOD? Mine sounds fine, volumes are exact match.

Nothing against all the different connections you used cause it is a great idea especially the little jumper out of the radio, but the reason I would not suggest it is that every time you add an adapter, you get signal loss, thus sacrificing sound quality. It could honestly be part of your problem with the volume. Especially with the low quality adapters that are generally sold for this application. General rule is every time there is a break in a connection, there will be signal loss. I wouldn't imagine it would be too drastic possibly not even enough to notice, but I just like a straight connection.

Great post and let me know about the volume thing and what kind of MP3 player you are using. Maybe nix that 2' adaptor in the console and see if that helps any.

The reason I asked about which type it was is that different players have different quality output. The Sansa might not sound as good as the ipod or the zune being that it is a bit cheaper player (no offense as I have one as my backup haha). Easiest way to see if it is your MP3 player causing this would be to borrow someones IPOD and see if it is still real low.

If you plug in someones ipod and it sounds louder then you'll know it is the player, if not make sure that you have the wires set up properly. Make sure you didn't use the ground as a signal wire or vise versa. Also just to make sure, you didn't plug the harness back in after making the connections right? If the tape adaptor worked fine with this player before then it shouldn't be the player, but you never know.

Let me know how it works out and if this test doesn't help email me and I'll throw you my number. Might be able to help with something over the phone.