RustyShackleford

Looks good. Pin 8 may just affect the illumination brightness, something about the dimming function; nice to know if can be disconnected and things more or less still work. Looks like you put the aux-in jack by the cup-holders, but then you show your device mounted up by the cubby. Why didn't you put the jack in the back wall of the cubby pocket ?

I'm not quite comprehending how you're doing it (something about "CD-ROM audio cables", what the heck is that ??), but the way I did it (just re-working the existing connector) is that I snipped the green wire going to pin 8 and then installed a dis-connect pair (spade or bullet type, from RadioShack). Then, when I re-install the harness in the car, I just connect that disconnect. Did the same thing with the aux-enable wire, going to a wire spliced into the ground wire that goes to the single spade lug on the back of the HU. The heads-up way to do it is to run the aux-enable as a 4th wire to the jack. But you need to find a jack which will connect that wire to chassis ground when you plug something into it; I can't find one, despite extensive search at partsexpress, digikey, and mouser. Maybe that's a reason to spring for the Legacy or Impreza aux-in kit, if the jack in those kits does it. No biggie though.

Yes, if you leave the stock HU plugged in, the HVAC should still work; I find it implausible that disconnecting the antenna will disable the HVAC functions. You'll probably need some sort of adapter for the antenna to plug into the new HU. Of course, you'll probably also want to use the 14-pin main audio cable to interface to the cubby-mounted HU. I'm not sure what affect unplugging IT from the stock HU will have, since it also includes 12v and some "illumination" wires; see http://www.geocities.com/svxdc/Legacy-pinout.htm Hopefully someone who's actually done this will chime in, but I thought I'd try to help. You could also do some searching, people do cubby-area installations of after-market HU a LOT here. Never mind, it looks like your question's be mostly answered in one of the other forums you posted the same thing to "Another cubby DIN install" ...

The case should be a good ground *IF* you remembered to plug in the ground wire - to a single spade lug on the back of the stereo case. I have found other pieces of steel - in particular one just rear of the shifter stalk - that seemed to be a decent ground, but then got weird on me. There are a couple of vertical steel pieces behind where the stereo sits that seems to be solid though.

Just re-installed the re-worked I-85 harness, after using tiny jewelers screw-driver to try to re-bend the little spring tab contactor inside the barrel of the pin (the pins from the the original connector). So far, so good. You can kinda tell if you've bent the contactor back where you want it, by peering into the end of the pin with a magnifying glass and test fitting it on the radio's pins for good friction. This oughta be part of the walk-through. If it doesn't hold up, I'll make a Jeromes-type connector; looks like Mouser might be a good place to buy the parts if you can't cannibalize them. This catalog page looks like what he used: http://www.mouser.com/catalog/637/1445.pdf Or DigiKey, where I THINK the correct part numbers are: WM1114-ND and WM1577-ND.

Thanks Jerome. Like I said, it looks like the pins you used are completely different from the ones in the I85 connector, so they only work if you completely re-work the connector as you did.

Did you ever come up with a part number for the pins in the I-85 connector (the one you re-work to hook up the aux input) ? Mine has some pretty flakey loose connections, and it looks as though the problem is that the pins in the connector no longer make a nice tight connection (on the male pin in the socket on the HU). I can jam a tiny jewelers screw-driver down in from the top edge of the rectangular barrel and kinda bend down the spring tab inside there that makes the contact; maybe that'll do the trick. Jeromes describes how he started from scratch and made his own new 8-pin connector, which isn't a bad idea. But the pins in the connector he spec's are actually different than the one in the existing I-85, but I guess they still work properly ... Looks like someone back in post #139 talks about a PCI-e connector, whatever the heck that is. Looks like this COULD be the right one (sigh) ... http://www.molex.com/pdm_docs/sd/5016481000_sd.pdf

I think I'll just shoot myself instead. (But thanks for the writeup !)

I see no reason to use other than the rec'ed OEM plug (in a non-moded NA engine like mine), which are the "double platinum" FR5AP-11 for my car. I thought these were considered "extra long-life" but the replacement interval is 30K miles, which doesn't quite seem to jibe, but I'm gonna observe it since still under warranty.

I just did this (ran an 8-guage wire into the center console area for a heavy-duty always-on lighter outlet). It's not quite as straightforward as I'd imagined from the OP, but still worthwhile. I went ahead and removed the left-front wheel and pulled most of the pop-its and screws at the rear end of the wheel-well liner; then I pulled the liner aside to be able to route the wire. I think it was easier doing it this way. (Be careful crawling under there with no tire on the car !!) I also found (I think someone else reported this too) that the "spare" grommet already had something going through it. So I just jammed the wire into the same grommet hole as where the hood-release cable runs, and it seemed to work fine and still looks pretty much air-tight.

WTF is DP and UP ?

I suppose the truly geekly could install a SPDT switch, mount it in the dash somewhere and have a "scary place" option !

Search more. There's a soldering-required aux-in kit, or you could install 3rd-party deck in the cubby.

On mine you remove two screws and pull the assembly out, THEN remove the lens. You might want to put a detailed spec of your car (include year and trim type) so it shows up on your profile ...

Worse yet, mine now have unreliable loose connections once I put it all back together. The pins looked fine to me, and I know what I'm doing, so it's a bit of a puzzle. I guess I'll solder up some new pins and see how that works. Noone else seems to have had this problem ...

More or less. You have to "re-work" the I85 connector. Yep, "we" have. It's a long thread, but worth reading. The first couple of posts will answer most of your questions.

Yeah, I saw that too - what a moron ! I made my map lights way brighte simply by removing the lens/cover thing. It's mostly opague, with a very small hole for the light to shine though. I want to figure out how to enlarge this hole cleanly ...

Ok, then I wouldn't really call it a "hard drive", I'd call it an MP3 player (of sorts). It'll interface with anything that provides an appropriate "line level" analog audio output - once you wire up an aux-in jack as described in this thread. Heck, maybe the '07 HU has a dedicated CD changer port that would work, I'm not really sure - I doubt it, since it already holds 6 CDs.

But to be a little more helpful ... No, you cannot connect your HD full of MP3s to the '07 HU, directly. To do that, you need one of the new H/Us that has a USB input; if your car has the manual (single-zone) HVAC controls, then you can install an after-market H/U without too much trouble; but if you have the automatic HVAC controls (dual-zone), it's virtually impossible, without spending close to $1000 for custom installation, to install after-market H/U. Even if you DO install such an after-market H/U, my understanding is that they are pretty finicky about which USB devices they will and will not work with. So your particular HD may not work. Sorry. Bummer. What the '07 WILL get you is an aux-in, which you have to wire up yourself using the instructions in this thread. Then you can connect an MP3 player (e.g. iPod) which provides an analog output which you connect to the aux-in.

No offense, but if you've read this thread, especially the great posts at the beginning, and you're still this confused, you should probably get someone else to do this for you.

I'm confused by your question. Once you mod the harness going to that 8-pin connector (there are two 8-pin connectors on the back, make sure you mod the right one !) you can install your aux-in jack wherever you please; I put mine in the back of the cubby (which did not even require removing the cubby).

Did you see this thread: http://www.legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3101 On my '97, I found a grommet kinda near the clutch master. Worked out pretty well.

I think you're doing the right thing. If my car had the manual HVAC controls (because it's a Limited, it has the automatic), I would not have thought twice about going to an after-market HU. Good luck getting some of your money back for the '08.

Just for the record, plug changing became WAY easier sometime between MY97 and MY06. The '97 was an UNBELIEVABLE pain, took me two days (not full days), every extension I own and then some, and language that would make Al Swearengen blush. Haven't done the '06 yet, but it's obvious it's gonna be way easier. And it seems clear that doing it from above (that's what SHE said) is the way to go. (From below was the way on the '97).

Yeah, I did re-use it (I edited my post #275 to talk about how I clipped the green wire too, so I could rework the whole harness on a bench). So I don't think that's the problem. I did have to pull the guard out when I was jiggling the pins with a toothpick to verify the pins were the loose connection, but putting the guard back in hardly made the thing solid (until I screwed the HU back into its usual position). I guess the pins must be bad somehow - I have a buddy who's all into "ham fests" and I betcha he has thousands of the pins.