Since I’m going to be taking a long road trip from VA to TX next week, I decided I wanted to add a new audio source to my car. Rather than buying a whole new sound system, I decided to do things the “fun” way.
- I soldered a new DC plug to the inside of my console, taping into the pre-existing, externally-accessible DC plug.
- I ran a USB power cable from the DC plug through a small hole drilled in the open shelf in my console.
- I also ran power to an FM transmitter, housed in the slide-out ashtray in the dash.
- I ran the auxilarily input of the FM transmitter through the back of the console and out through another hole in the console shelf.
- Now, from a user perspective, there are aux & power connectors inside my console shelf, and an FM transmitter controller in the repurposed ashtray. The original DC power outlet still works unchanged.
This little project was waaay too much fun… how often do you get to solder wires on the inside of your car’s dash? 
3 Comments for Car Audio
Kris | 6/13/2009 at 3:45 pm
Author comment by Kyle | 6/13/2009 at 4:48 pm
Yeah, I would have liked to tie straight into the sound system, but it’s a proprietary connection. I bought a $40 FM transmitter that has an extremely wide frequency range that is working really well so far.
Lewis | 9/8/2009 at 3:27 pm
It would have been good, if it weren’t for the poor choice of fonts on the stereo system. Have you seen the new Microsoft 2007 fonts? Calibri 11 pt would have been a much better choice.
Now, if only you could’ve gotten into the guts of the stero itself and wired yourself a true aux input, if that’s even possible. This retrofit is certainly useful, but you still have to deal with the FM transmitter.
I had an good yet inexpensive FM transmitter that worked perfectly well for me in Houston and Austin, but it got stolen. I’ve tried another one but the range of frequencies was smaller and it just did not work as well as my old one. Some of the $90 ones might work fine, but in that case I’d already be halfway to just buying a new car stereo that has an aux input.