Radio/aux input
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Joined: Sep 2014
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Radio/aux input
2003 xlt extended cab. Single Cd/cassette head unit. Has anyone added an auxiliary cable to their factory head unit? ive seen it done on other vehicles. They somehow tie in just a single cable and usually run it from the back of the head unit and it comes out from underneath the passenger side of the dash.
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Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 40
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From: Auburn Hills, MI
Depends on how you want to do it. I ended up being lazy and just swapped for a non-factory radio, but I looked into a few options.
Option 1 - take apart the radio, find out where the tape player feeds raw audio into the main amp, solder on leads to take out of the radio to an external aux jack. The only problem is that the system may detect no tape and thus not power on the amp, etc. So you have to experiment a bit.
Option 2a - there is a CD changer port on the back of your radio. There are aux devices that plug into that jack and emulate the CD changer, but let you plug in an audio cable or iPod. This is the simple option - plug and play, and you're done. Downside is the cost - these are about $100 to $150.
Option 2b - Unfortunately you can't just tap the audio +- wires on the changer port - it needs to communicate using Ford's protoco. However, the protocol is not super secret anymore and some people have gotten it running using a TTL converter and an Arduino chip: http://www.instructables.com/id/Ford.../step3/Finito/
This was the path I was going to take but I never got around to it.
Option 1 - take apart the radio, find out where the tape player feeds raw audio into the main amp, solder on leads to take out of the radio to an external aux jack. The only problem is that the system may detect no tape and thus not power on the amp, etc. So you have to experiment a bit.
Option 2a - there is a CD changer port on the back of your radio. There are aux devices that plug into that jack and emulate the CD changer, but let you plug in an audio cable or iPod. This is the simple option - plug and play, and you're done. Downside is the cost - these are about $100 to $150.
Option 2b - Unfortunately you can't just tap the audio +- wires on the changer port - it needs to communicate using Ford's protoco. However, the protocol is not super secret anymore and some people have gotten it running using a TTL converter and an Arduino chip: http://www.instructables.com/id/Ford.../step3/Finito/
This was the path I was going to take but I never got around to it.
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 111
Likes: 4
Depends on how you want to do it. I ended up being lazy and just swapped for a non-factory radio, but I looked into a few options.
Option 1 - take apart the radio, find out where the tape player feeds raw audio into the main amp, solder on leads to take out of the radio to an external aux jack. The only problem is that the system may detect no tape and thus not power on the amp, etc. So you have to experiment a bit.
Option 2a - there is a CD changer port on the back of your radio. There are aux devices that plug into that jack and emulate the CD changer, but let you plug in an audio cable or iPod. This is the simple option - plug and play, and you're done. Downside is the cost - these are about $100 to $150.
Option 2b - Unfortunately you can't just tap the audio +- wires on the changer port - it needs to communicate using Ford's protoco. However, the protocol is not super secret anymore and some people have gotten it running using a TTL converter and an Arduino chip: http://www.instructables.com/id/Ford.../step3/Finito/
This was the path I was going to take but I never got around to it.
Option 1 - take apart the radio, find out where the tape player feeds raw audio into the main amp, solder on leads to take out of the radio to an external aux jack. The only problem is that the system may detect no tape and thus not power on the amp, etc. So you have to experiment a bit.
Option 2a - there is a CD changer port on the back of your radio. There are aux devices that plug into that jack and emulate the CD changer, but let you plug in an audio cable or iPod. This is the simple option - plug and play, and you're done. Downside is the cost - these are about $100 to $150.
Option 2b - Unfortunately you can't just tap the audio +- wires on the changer port - it needs to communicate using Ford's protoco. However, the protocol is not super secret anymore and some people have gotten it running using a TTL converter and an Arduino chip: http://www.instructables.com/id/Ford.../step3/Finito/
This was the path I was going to take but I never got around to it.
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Joined: Sep 2012
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From: USA
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From: Massachusetts
FM transmitters don't sound as good as the cassette adapters... maybe they've come a long way since I was 16 but the cassette adapters always sounded much better to me... I have a pioneer head unit with aux front and rear and a USB cable from the back of the unit that runs under the carpet and comes out under my seat to which I plug flash drives loaded with tunes that read out on the display
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Joined: Feb 2014
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From: Northern Virginia
I added one to my radio, except I have just a cassette player for my radio in my 97. I just took a cassette adapter and hard wired it into my radio because nobody uses cassette tapes anymore. It works. Sound quality isn't any worse than a strong radio station. But you can't expect a stock radio in a 10+ year old truck to have the best sound quality.