-HEF-

Actually not hard as hell. Just a little patience and the right tool. In this case, I use a scribe, which you can get for $5 at any hardware store.

 

Deer Killer compared it to picking a lock. In this case it is a lock with one pin. Run the point of the scribe along the interior channel, find the "bump", lift it and tug on the wire.

 

Cut the wires (you suggest 2 inches; you've actually got about 4" to play with). Strip and solder them up to your new audio cable. Radio Shack has some shielded audio cable that fits the bill. I ran the cable along the harness that carries power to the arm rest 12v socket and seat warmer controls.

 

You're forced to rearrange them because they need to connect to the head unit in that order. Three of the four slots NEED to be rearranged because they're currently empty -- no connectors, no nothing to connect to the head unit. The forth wire can stay put, but it's colored white, which is traditionally used for the right audio channel, so I removed and relocated that one, as well.

 

Positioning the Aux-in port next to the 12v arm rest socket is a tight fit (I've got two blank holes to prove it), so I ran it to the bit of empty plastic next to the cup holder, just behind the e-brake.

 

All-in-all it's a straight forward mod with a few hours of work if you're doing all the proper soldering and heat-shrinking along the way. Drove around with it for the first time today and it's good. The sound is just a little muted, but not bad. The Aux volume control is separate from the radio and CD, to account for varying input levels. Well worth the effort, if you ask me.

 

Edit: Three hiccups in my installation.

 

(1) Location of the aux-in plug: Really, the area near the 12v socket was crowded. Plan carefully if you intend to use this. Look at it from both sides before drilling, and make sure the body of the 1/8" socket clears the body & retaining ring of the 12v socket. Make sure your audio plug won't interfere with any 12v adapters you use in this location.

 

(2) 1/8" mini-plug mounting hole diameter: The Radio Shack model I used requires a .234" hole, which corresponds to an 'A' sized drill bit, or a 15/64" bit. Neither is a common size in most tool boxes. 7/32" didn't cut it, and 1/4" would have been way too large for a tidy fit.

 

Also worth noting that the plastic Subaru uses in the center console assembly is thick enough that there isn't much audio jack thread sticking through to screw the retaining ring on. So I countersunk the underside of my armrest using a 5/16" bit. This provided clearance for a small plastic riser at the base of the audio jack, and allowed the jack to extend through enough to grab it and secure it with the provided hardware.

 

(3) I needed an antenna adapter, because my head unit came from a salvage with a clipped antenna lead. Luckily, Best Buy stocks the Metra adapters for 2005+ Subarus, and I was easily able to splice this on to the antenna lead.

 

 

this is great info. thanks for sharing.

can i verify the process flow for the stereo swap to get aux-in? here is how i understand it. buy one part (86201AG67A Radio Ay Up2 $450). remove old stereo. chop up the i85 so that the wires from the harness are fed to the correct pins in the new stereo. connect new stereo and screw into car. is it that simple? does the new stereo come with an aux-out cable?

 

instead of hacking up the i85, did anyone cut all the wires except the green one off the harness, leaving about 2 inches on the connector side. then use wiretaps or bullet plugs to reconnect and change up the wiring configuration? i think it would be way easier than trying to rework the connector and remove the wires etc. it would def be cleaner, but as DK said, it is hard as hell.

DK, have you been able to find a source for this? I would be willing to invest some $$ to make it work

 

i would too.

let me know. if it is fairly reasonable, i'd consider going half in for the cost of the materials, and if you give me a finished working product, i'll call it even. you'll have cash, i'll have my harness, and the handful of other people who are interested and lazy like me can pony up some dollars to have their harnesses too. a win all around.

deer killer, how hard would it be for you to put together a wire harness for the i85 rewiring job? i assume you'd need a female that you'd plug the i85 from the car into, some wires that are rerouted properly (using the config that you showed in post #2) to a male i85. if you could go ahead and put that together, that'd be great. i'd be willing to pay a more than fair price for it.

 

aside from redoing the i85, everything else is plug and play for installing the 07 stereo in an 05 leg it seems. no?

where's that how-to, you git!? i am wating to pull the trigger on a new headunit, pending this explanation. i don't need to replace the arm rest unit so that the aux-in female plug is available in there. i am content to run the aux wire to anywhere in the cabin.