by Boon
Overview:
Integrate your iPod or other mp3 player with your stock Infiniti audio. You will void your warranty on the radio doing this mod, and your tape player will not longer function. The trade-off is being able to get excellent sound quality and a direct connection to your stereo for less than $10.
Difficulty: ***
Time: 1 hour
Cost: $8.99
Tools:
– Phillips head screwdriver
– Wire stripper
– Soldering iron
Materials:
– Electrical tape
– 20′ stereo headphone extension cord
– Solder
– Dummy cassette tape
Procedure:
Start by removing the tape deck.
Keep in mind as soon as the copper seals are removed the warranty is voided.
Remove the mounting tabs on the sides:
Remove 4 screws from the top, 3 from the bottom, and 4 on the back. They are very tight so be careful not to strip them.
Now remove the face, it just clips in on the sides and slides straight off.
Now you should be able to pull the inside structure out of the cage pretty easily.
Now you need to remove 5 screws that hold the tape player assembly onto in.
Then unplug the 2 harnesses.
And then you should be able to easily remove the tape assembly from the unit.
Now the plug that we will be using is the 3 pin plug on the bottom of that tape assembly (1 Yellow, 2 Black Wires) Yellow wire is left input, middle black is ground, and the outside black is right input.
There are numerous ways to tap into these wires, I wanted to be able to easily return this to stock so I spliced into them. This was the best way IMO to do this. BE VERY CAREFUL when doing this as the wires are thin and can easily break. To do this I used a wire stripper to remove the shielding and expose the bare wire.
With all 3 wires exposed use a small pick tool or flat head screw driver to split the wires so that they are open in the middle.
I went to Radio Shack and bought a 20ft headphone extension cable. Make sure it is the standard 1/8″ (2.5mm) jack.
Make sure you cut off the female end and not the male, then remove about 3-4 inches of shielding to expose the 3 wires inside.
Cut back the shielding to expose about 2 inches, then one at a time insert the wires into the opening you made in the harness wires, then wrap them around tightly. This can be a bit tedious do to the tight space but is pretty easy. Wire colors as shown in picture or if not the same colors refer to picture 11 for plug configuration.
Next you need to solder and tape each connection separately. Solder is not necessary but highly recommended.
After soldering and taping everything individually tape them all together then throw a zip tie on for extra support.
*note* Make sure that you DON’T plug the smaller harness back in. The smaller harness must stay unplugged from the tape player. The big harness does need to be plugged back in, however.
Here is a diagram of the path I ran the wire:
Wire comes right out the back, if you want to put electrical tape around the metal edges you can, I didn’t but probably should have.
Now it is ready to put back into the car. I wanted mine in my center console:
I then drilled a hole in the upper portion of the center console to stick the cable through:
Put everything back together and boom, you have a working IPOD!
