Installing Aux Input to Stereo

senordingdong

My last car only had a tape deck which suited me down to the ground because I was able to use one of those wired cassettes to play my ipod.
I hate listening to the radio.

Now I have a new car and unfortunately it has a cd player in it so the previous solution is out the window.
Is it possible to install an AUX input into the stereo and is it a big job?

advertsfox

What's the car? Focus?

senordingdong

Focus, 07.

advertsfox

senordingdong wrote: »

Focus, 07.

Cool well you should have an Aux button on your HU already, you just need to add an aux-in cable into the back for your MP3 / iPod / iPhone to work.

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/FORD-FOCUS-AUX-MP3-iPOD-iPHONE-HTC-ADAPTOR-LEAD-FREE-PINS-2005-2007-/150803810734?pt=UK_In_Car_Technology&hash=item231c9b89ae

senordingdong

advertsfox wrote: »

Cool well you should have an Aux button on your HU already, you just need to add an aux-in cable into the back for your MP3 / iPod / iPhone to work.

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/FORD-FOCUS-AUX-MP3-iPOD-iPHONE-HTC-ADAPTOR-LEAD-FREE-PINS-2005-2007-/150803810734?pt=UK_In_Car_Technology&hash=item231c9b89ae

Yeah there is an AUX button but no input for it. Unless it's hidden in the glove compartment or something.

Thanks for the link. Do you know is it a simple enough job to remove the front of the car stereo to install that cable?

mgbgt1978

Have a look here,

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056292726

Bpmull

Op I have the same car and installed an aux in only a few weeks ago. It's really simple. I bought the lead below. I just used a nail file as a radio key (probably would be easier to buy the radio keys its less fiddely but the nail file will work). Pull out the radio slot the block connector in run the lead out through the glove box job done literally a 5 minute job. I've been using mine ever since with no problems.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006PEXH3W?ie=UTF8&force-full-site=1&ref_=aw_bottom_links

senordingdong

Thanks for the input lads, lot of help.

mgbgt1978 wrote: »

Have a look here,

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056292726

That's weird, he is suggesting that it is a standard feature in his 07 Fiesta, but not in my 07 Focus. Better go on an expedition into the glove compartment before I go taking the radio out.

R.O.R

senordingdong wrote: »

That's weird, he is suggesting that it is a standard feature in his 07 Fiesta, but not in my 07 Focus. Better go on an expedition into the glove compartment before I go taking the radio out.

Before buying any cables, just check there isn't a white circle with a hole in it around the top of the glove box (gearstick side from memory). It's not the most obvious of Aux inputs but is there on quite a few Fords.

It's possibly a black circle, but I think most were white.

senordingdong

R.O.R wrote: »

Before buying any cables, just check there isn't a white circle with a hole in it around the top of the glove box (gearstick side from memory). It's not the most obvious of Aux inputs but is there on quite a few Fords.

It's possibly a black circle, but I think most were white.

Yeah thanks for that, I checked and at the very back of the glove box there is what looks like an aux connection but is actually just a dummy which has to be removed before a real connection can be fitted.

However, after reading that thread that was linked, it turns out that some people take out the stereo only to find that there is already a cable behind there, taped up.

Are the keys absolutely needed to remove to head unit or could some other household object do it? The dealer reckons that since the radio unit in my car doesn't have key slots, the keys won't be of any use.

Here are pictures of the 'blank' or 'dummy' sockets in the glove box.

munchkin_utd

senordingdong wrote: »

<snip>

However, after reading that thread that was linked, it turns out that some people take out the stereo only to find that there is already a cable behind there, taped up.
<snip>

theres loads of cables in behind the glovebox unattached to anything on my focus 07 (same radio as OP).

I ended up getting an aux in cable off ebay and now it works fine.

There was already a cable atached to that input of the radio so with proper electricans tools you could probably test which cables behind the glove compartment lead to the stereo and just attach some class of socket in the glove compartment to the existing cables.

R.O.R

senordingdong wrote: »

Are the keys absolutely needed to remove to head unit or could some other household object do it? The dealer reckons that since the radio unit in my car doesn't have key slots, the keys won't be of any use.

There's no keys for that version of the radio. You need to remove the plastic trim from around it (usually start near the ashtray) and it's probably held in with Torx screws.

R.O.R

Had a look in a 2011 Focus in the garage and the Aux is in there.




Kind of hard to see from your pictures, but if the Aux was there, you'd just see the corner of it in the first one.

Also checked where to start removing the trim, and it's the very bottom of the big silver piece below where the heated windscreen controls are. Should be able to get a flat head screwdriver behind it and gently start to prize it off.

senordingdong

Well that was painful, but it's over now. Uncertainth over getting behind the integrated radio reslted in me visiting the dealership anyway and while I was there I decided to get it done there rather than wait for the part from ebay and make ****e of the car drilling holes in it. Unflrtunately,, the fitter installed the input on the top left, where the airbag switch is to go. This resulted in me being unable to close the glove box whenever the aux was being used so I had to go back and get them to correct it and it is now installed in one of the blank panels behind tne gear stick, and now have a small, pointless hole in the glove box. Pics to follow.

youcancallmeal

I was wondering about doing the same thing on a Mazda 3 2006 or should I just start my own thread?

munchkin_utd

youcancallmeal wrote: »

I was wondering about doing the same thing on a Mazda 3 2006 or should I just start my own thread?

Id say to start a new thread as then everything doesnt get all mixed up amongst each other

senordingdong

senordingdong wrote: »

and now have a small, pointless hole in the glove box. Pics to follow.

...and the plot thickens. After plugging the cable into the aux socket, it came loose and now the sound is fluctuating. Good thing I went to an official Ford dealer(!)

Here are the aforementioned pics

1stpic - the 1st attempt, which left the door unable to close.
2ndpic - The tape covered hole I'm left with.
3rdpic & 4th pic - The aux port in the new location.