Hello Everyone,

31 days ago I made one of the best decisions of my life by buying a 2005 INFINITI (drives me nuts when people don't spell INFINITI with all caps ) . Out of every aspect and feature on this car, there is only one that I don't love; there is no aux port.

In the past, I have always used a cassette tape adapter to plug my phone into the radio and enjoy my music. FM Transmitters have provide terrible sound quality, and the cassette is much better. However, when I play a CD instead of music from my phone, the quality is substantially better. I sell cars for a living, and I have yet to hear a factory sound system that sounds as incredible as the 8 speaker Bose system that is currently in my car. It is so great that it kills me inside to know that I am not achieving max sound quality through music on my phone.

A buddy of mine gave me some advice, and I wanted to see what everyone else thinks, and even better, if anyone has done it themselves.

His advice was to replace the 6 CD changer with an aftermarket radio. I do not want to rip out the nav system already in the car, so my hope is that by installing an aftermarket radio to work simultaneously with the factory radio, I can acquire a direct aux input to the speakers to ultimately achieve maximum quality of the sound system with music from my phone. The aftermarket radio would only be used for the AUX, while all other functions would still be used by factory radio.

This seems like a highly complex and almost impossible procedure, and I have a general understanding to the field of aftermarket radios and installation, but I'm failing to see how this could possibly work.

What does everyone else think?

Tristan L.
Kansas City, MO

to NICO! Your radio issue is an interesting one. We had a discussion going on adding a Bluetooth adaptor to the older style of Q, but I was never able to figure out how to switch over to an aux input on the 2002+ Q. Someone more knowledgeable about modern LAN based switching could probably figure it out.

There are for sure aftermarket options that don't involved you tearing out the stock nav system. I have a place I took my older 97' for a new radio, much simplier process with the older car that had a double DIN radio that just popped right out. find a good car radio place and let them look at it. YOu could also call Crutchfield and see wha options they have.

Funny you said INFINITI with all caps, what kills me is the Infinity with a Y vs. I at the end

There is a thread here about using the pinout for the CD changer to add a bluetooth connection to the radio. I don't see why the same connection could not be used to add an AUX connection too. Do a search. I'm a little tipsy at the moment to find it.

I have completed an integration of aux cord into the cassette mechanism located in the glovebox. sounds fantastic!
There is a thread where I got the information from, but I can't seem to locate it.
1) remove cassette unit from glove box
2) disassemble unit and remove cassette mechanism.
3) there is a 3 wire plug that connects mechanism to the head unit. (L+, common -, R+), cut this wire and use head unit side of harness
4) attach wiring from aux cord to these 3 wires, leave enough aux cord wire to either mount plug or allow access to plug elsewhere
5) Run the aux cord wire through head unit to rear, there is a spot with enough clearance to pass through unit to outside
6) install cassette player in glove box
7) you will need to place a cassette into the head unit and keep it in there, the unit needs a playing tape for this to work
8) select TAPE on the dash and you now have an aux input!!
9) I have a Bluetooth transmitter plugged into mine and it works flawlessly

I will try to answer questions if you have any

Good information, thanks!