Cassette player?

I use a cassette adapter into the audio jack of the iPad. I do hear the tape mechanism in the quite periods but nothing objectionable. The cassette adapters are less than $10 and sometimes as low at $5.

Bob Wilson

 

Long shot here - any chance a prior owner might have tried installing some aftermarket audio add-on?

I ask because I installed the Dice myself, and it has worked just great ever since I solved one little problem... the problem was that the wire harness that comes with the Dice was only tested on 2004+ and they didn't notice they built it with one side of the AVC-LAN circuit shorted to what turns out to be the tape eject button on a Gen 1. That both made the Dice unit unreliable, and made the tape player always eject tapes. It worked great after snipping that one wire in the harness that came with the Dice.

And yes, the Dice does let you use your existing CD controls to control your iPod. If you set the switches right it appears as a minidisc player on the display, and shows you artists and titles. It also gives you a plain aux 1/8" stereo line input with its own gain and tone settings via the existing controls and display. You want to get a ground loop eliminator (from, e.g., Radio Shack) to reduce noise if you use the aux in.

I have taken off the cluster finish panel and gotten to the radio that way - to reduce your chance of cracking it, try using no tools. Once you've removed all the screws/nuts (make sure not to miss any shown in the manual), I find the remaining plastic clips all take nothing more than gentle hand force to pop out. If you find yourself applying any more force than that, stop, go back, and look at the pictures again for screws/nuts possibly missed.

To get to the two behind the hazard switch, just put your thumbs below the hazard switch and your fingers flat on the top of it (the surface below and in front of the screen), and squeeze your fingers down and toward you using your thumbs. That's all it takes to pop the hazard switch out, and the finish panel edge clips shouldn't require any more force than that either.

But after doing that once and learning where the plugs were on the back of the radio, I found it's quite possible to reach them in place just by removing the glove box and reaching through that opening. A Dice unit or the like can easily be added that way, without disturbing the finish panel at all.

Have fun!

-Chap

 

Yes, that is how you get to it but, it is very brittle and you will almost surely break some of the tabs off.

Here is a guide on pulling it off
Installation Instructions

 

I shot this video back in August of removing the center panel, but only now got around to editing it for a hosting service. Caveat, the panel in the vid is newer than an original one from 2001-3, so it might still not be this easy, but I wanted to post just in case technique has anything to do with it and maybe some breakages can be avoided.

(In case the video embed feature in the forum software gives trouble, here's a direct link.)

-Chap

 

Does anyone here have the diagram for the "Y" connector? I found a factory single disc cd player with the "Y" cable included and after installing, the MPG readouts have been really wacky. Chap suggested the cable could be miswired from the factory. Any help would be, well, helpful! Thanks!

red-one

 

There's a thing that Radio Shack offers that plugs into the power outlet, cigarette lighter receptical. Plug the jacked end into your Ipod or whatever and the little thing broadcasts a signal to the FM radio. I think mine is set to 88.1. Better hurry tho, Radio Shack is fading fast, the one I got was half off a going outa bizness sale.

I went out to the car and got it here's a link to Ebay RadioShack 3.5 Millimeter Universal FM Transmitter # 1201773 | eBay