Disclaimer: Doing this modification carries the risk of destroying or damaging your radio: I am not responsible for any damage you cause as a result of this DIY. Carry on at your own risk.
This modification requires that you have the OEM radio from the 96-99.
2000-2004 folks; see the end of this post for your pinouts.
Basically what this hack does is use a 3.5mm headphone cable that you solder to the board of the radio where the CD connects to it. Then a burned CD of "silent" tracks is played, and you can connect whatever device to the cable, and your music plays in CD quality in the car.
--Things you will need:
Tools:
-Soldering iron (pen is best)
-Phillips screwdriver
-Wire strippers
-Dremel
-Small flat head screwdriver
Materials:
-Shrink tubing
-A couple inches of random wire
-Solder (duh)
-3.5mm stereo cable
-Blank CD
-Silent sound clip: (Save As): http://www.instructables.com/files/orig ... 056PBO.mp3
Irreplaceable things:
~1.5 hours
I. Start by removing your radio/cd deck. I won't go into detail here because its pretty self explanatory.
NOTE: If you don't have a CD player in your car, you can still do this mod, but you have to wire in a switch to trick the radio into thinking there is a CD player present. See the end of this post. (credit to Soul Shinobi for this find)
II. Once you have your radio/cd out and in a clean work area, remove the 8 screws that hold the CD deck and radio together on the sides.
III. Remove the two smaller screws from the back of the radio unit.
IV. Using the small flathead screwdriver pry off the top plate.
V. Now take a look at the cluster of pins. After cutting, stripping, and separating the wires from your 3.5mm cable, solder them as shown onto the board. I used a small piece of wire to extend the ground wire of the cable to make it easier to solder, as the connections do get pretty close to each other.
Be sure that wires or solder bridges don't cause a short.
Red goes to "RCH"
White goes to "LCH"
The bare ground wire goes to "S.GND"
VI. Get out your dremel and notch the case of the radio to allow the cable to easily fit through.
VII. Re-assemble the entire unit, and screw the bracket back on to hold the CD and radio together.
VIII. Return to your car, and plug all the connections back in, being sure to re-screw the grounding wire.
IX. Now you need to burn a CD of "silent" tracks. A clip can be found here: (Save As) http://www.instructables.com/files/orig ... 056PBO.mp3
X. Put in your silent CD, press play, connect an audio device to the 3.5mm jack, and see if it works! If it doesn't you either soldered the wrong pins, or possibly shorted out the radio. Also, test your silent CD to make sure it didn't burn improperly.
If it works, jam out to your favorite song, then put your dash back together, and run the cable where ever is most convenient.
If you don't have a CD player: (96-99 only)
Credit to Soul Shinobi for this part, including the pictures.
This situation is basically the same as above, but you must add a switch that connects "B+" and "CD PLAY" together to switch the head unit in and out of aux-in mode.
Black Top: S.GND (Audio Ground)
Red Top: RCH (Audio Right Channel)
Black Left: B+ (Battery Voltage)
Black Right: CD PLAY
White Bottom: LCH (Audio Left Channel)
For you Third-Gen guys:
The mod is mostly the same, but with a different pin configuration.
Credit to beastman for this find and these pictures.
The red wire from your stereo cable goes to pin "a"
The white wire goes to pin "c"
The ground wires go to pin "b"
Let me know if you have questions, or if you find an error in this DIY.
-Nord