I thought this would be a good first Mod for me to share with everyone. I don’t know if this is really covered yet, but it can’t hurt to have it up twice. My car is wrecked right now and I am having Saab withdrawals.
So I got really tired of listening the radio and making CDs all the time, but I kinda like my factory radio still (aka can’t afford in dash Nav) so I took apart my factory radio and figured out how the best way to add an aux port for an iPod or MP3 player. After testing a bunch and reading tons of forums I finally got it to work.
I was able to add an MP3 aux port into my radio and I didn’t lose my Onstar, Phone, radio or CD player. It was pretty simple and the way it works is it overrides the radio. So if I want to listen to the radio I unplug my aux cord from my MP3 and the radio plays. If I want to listen to my iPod I just plug it in while while in radio mode and my iPod starts to play.
You WILL be required to solder to be able to do this modification.
Also when the iPod is plugged in and nothing is playing it will be silent but if you turn the radio volume to max you will be able to hear the radio slightly. I havent had it affect my music at all, and I am pretty picky about that type of stuff.
READ WHOLE THING FIRST
Materials
1/8 Female Stereo Jack from RadioShack
Heat Shrink tubing
3ft Wire (thats way too much but its easier to cut, than it is to grow wire)
I forget what gauge wire I used but I think you can get a good sense from the pictures
Tools
Wire strippers
soldering iron
Drill Press (Regular drill is fine with a steady hand)
Caliper
1. First unplug the battery to the car. I then removed the radio from my Dash. You can use the saab radio removal thingys or like me just use a coat hanger. It helps if you pop the ACC out so you can kinda push the radio out from inside. If you have no idea about this part watch a youtube video on removing the radio.
2. Once the radio is out and unplugged take it to your desk and flip it upside down. You want to take off the back cover and the faceplate. When taking off the faceplate make sure not to rip off the LED light that is attached to it.
3. Once the faceplate is removed, I found that the best spot to place the new AUX port was in the very lower left of corner of the face plate. There I didn’t have to do any modification or cutting the insides to make it fit. The first picture shows its placement and how it looks.
4. Before placing the AUX port onto the faceplate it makes things a lot easier if you solder three ft long wires to the three tabs of the port. I have the AUX pinout pic attached. I would mark the wires as well so you know which is which.
5.Pretty simple I just used a caliper got as close to a drill mark as I could for the AUX and then I used my drill press and drilled the hole size that should be mentioned on the radioshack aux bag. and I then installed the AUX on the faceplate. It would be wise to heatshrink over each of the open connections so nothing can possibly short out.
6. Now in my pictures I used the blue wire as a GND and the Yellow wires as my left and right. Since I don’t have my car right now these are the only pics I have to work with till an update. But I will try to explain the solder locations.
7. If you have the unit in front of you and faceplate is facing towards your person. Then on the left of the PCB there should be a long line of small solder points. In my picture the yellow wires are connected to them. And you are specifically looking for the ones labeled “L” and “R”. Those are the ones that you want to solder to.
8. Then you want to solder your GND to one of the bigger bent in tabs with solder already on them. Try to choose one that is closer to the two yellow wires. All the GNDs are common to one single GND though so any of them its ok.
Thats about it. You just have to put it back together after. I would secure the wires down with elec. tape and make sure you don’t pinch any.
If you want to test it first without really doing soldering. what you can do is solder the GND wire and then plug the radio back into your car and test it out by playing the radio and then touching the wires to the two spots. And you will see that the radio cuts out and then your mp3 plays.
I will be happy to answer any questions and any feedback is appreciated
So I got really tired of listening the radio and making CDs all the time, but I kinda like my factory radio still (aka can’t afford in dash Nav) so I took apart my factory radio and figured out how the best way to add an aux port for an iPod or MP3 player. After testing a bunch and reading tons of forums I finally got it to work.
I was able to add an MP3 aux port into my radio and I didn’t lose my Onstar, Phone, radio or CD player. It was pretty simple and the way it works is it overrides the radio. So if I want to listen to the radio I unplug my aux cord from my MP3 and the radio plays. If I want to listen to my iPod I just plug it in while while in radio mode and my iPod starts to play.
You WILL be required to solder to be able to do this modification.
Also when the iPod is plugged in and nothing is playing it will be silent but if you turn the radio volume to max you will be able to hear the radio slightly. I havent had it affect my music at all, and I am pretty picky about that type of stuff.
READ WHOLE THING FIRST
Materials
1/8 Female Stereo Jack from RadioShack
Heat Shrink tubing
3ft Wire (thats way too much but its easier to cut, than it is to grow wire)
I forget what gauge wire I used but I think you can get a good sense from the pictures
Tools
Wire strippers
soldering iron
Drill Press (Regular drill is fine with a steady hand)
Caliper
1. First unplug the battery to the car. I then removed the radio from my Dash. You can use the saab radio removal thingys or like me just use a coat hanger. It helps if you pop the ACC out so you can kinda push the radio out from inside. If you have no idea about this part watch a youtube video on removing the radio.
2. Once the radio is out and unplugged take it to your desk and flip it upside down. You want to take off the back cover and the faceplate. When taking off the faceplate make sure not to rip off the LED light that is attached to it.
3. Once the faceplate is removed, I found that the best spot to place the new AUX port was in the very lower left of corner of the face plate. There I didn’t have to do any modification or cutting the insides to make it fit. The first picture shows its placement and how it looks.
4. Before placing the AUX port onto the faceplate it makes things a lot easier if you solder three ft long wires to the three tabs of the port. I have the AUX pinout pic attached. I would mark the wires as well so you know which is which.
5.Pretty simple I just used a caliper got as close to a drill mark as I could for the AUX and then I used my drill press and drilled the hole size that should be mentioned on the radioshack aux bag. and I then installed the AUX on the faceplate. It would be wise to heatshrink over each of the open connections so nothing can possibly short out.
6. Now in my pictures I used the blue wire as a GND and the Yellow wires as my left and right. Since I don’t have my car right now these are the only pics I have to work with till an update. But I will try to explain the solder locations.
7. If you have the unit in front of you and faceplate is facing towards your person. Then on the left of the PCB there should be a long line of small solder points. In my picture the yellow wires are connected to them. And you are specifically looking for the ones labeled “L” and “R”. Those are the ones that you want to solder to.
8. Then you want to solder your GND to one of the bigger bent in tabs with solder already on them. Try to choose one that is closer to the two yellow wires. All the GNDs are common to one single GND though so any of them its ok.
Thats about it. You just have to put it back together after. I would secure the wires down with elec. tape and make sure you don’t pinch any.
If you want to test it first without really doing soldering. what you can do is solder the GND wire and then plug the radio back into your car and test it out by playing the radio and then touching the wires to the two spots. And you will see that the radio cuts out and then your mp3 plays.
I will be happy to answer any questions and any feedback is appreciated