Post by Marcus AllenI'm not opposed to soldering when it's required, but like I've been saying,
this was a simple plug-in operation. Buy the adapter, plug it in to the rear
of the factory radio, presto, now I have an Aux jack that accepts (as input)
the output of anything with a headphone jack. They also make Bluetooth
adapters that work exactly the same way, (simple plug-in to the back of the
factory radio), but I was ok with the wired alternative.
On two of the Toyotas in our fleet the "SAT" selection on the head unit
can have either a satellite receiver plugged in, or an after-market
Bluetooth unit. On one vehicle there's factory Bluetooth for only the
phone, not for audio, but it has an AUX jack.
Post by Marcus AllenWhile I'm at it, if you happen to have a factory radio that doesn't have an
unused port on the rear, (all Toyota/Lexus radios do since about 1998, I
believe), you can add a universal FM adapter to any car radio going back to
at least the 1940's. These adapters have both female and male antenna
connectors, with the male connector being on a short pigtail. You unplug the
antenna from the radio, plug it into the adapter, then plug the adapter into
the radio.
This is better than an FM modulator that transmits with low power and
doesn't work well (besides requiring power from the cigarette lighter),
but on a vehicle that old you're better off just replacing the head unit
completely.
While you're not opposed to soldering it seems that a lot of people are
absolutely_terrified_ of it! To replace a defective or de-featured head
unit is actually quite easy with the connector kits that are available.
But it does require soldering the appropriate connector for your vehicle
onto the wires from the new head unit. These are now all color coded.
$3.99
<http://www.harborfreight.com/30-watt-lightweight-soldering-iron-69060-8913.html>
$2.99 <http://www.harborfreight.com/lead-free-rosin-core-solder-69378.html>
$3.49
<http://www.harborfreight.com/127-piece-heat-shrink-tubing-set-67524.html>
$14.99
<http://www.harborfreight.com/1500-watt-dual-temperature-heat-gun-572-1112-96289.html>
Not really necessary but makes it easier.
Maybe it's OCD, but I really dislike the kludges of various sorts to get
audio into a vehicle's sound system. Wires running everywhere, cigarette
lighter power cords, etc. I've seen them all, from the FM tuners in the
1960's to add FM to AM radios, to a home-built AUX-In to 8-Track adapter
They might have made
sense when head units were expensive and when it was difficult to
install them, but these days it really doesn't.
Here's a collection of kludges: <
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don't have one of those rotary speaker selector switches that let you go
between the in-dash radio and a separate under-dash head unit with its
own amplifier. Something like this:
<
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Maybe an Cassette to AUX-In adapter plugged into an 8-Track to Cassette
Adapter plugged into an under-dash FM Tuner/8-Track Player connected to
an AM Radio (also see