It turns out if your car radio has a jack in the back to connect a CD
changer or satellite receiver, you can, instead or even in addition to,
connect a device to give you AUX and Bluetooth input, and hands-free
phone calls. Assuming you have a cell phone.

Crutchfiled may have the kit you want, but I got mine, by a different
maker, from GTACarkit.com . They have it versions for lots of makes
and models. I think mostly what differs are the connectors on the end.
And they have detailed videos about how to take apart your dash to get
to the back of the radio.

(In my case, the first time I tried this I had to remove the radio. But
Crutchfield had sent the wrong model. They paid return shipping and
refunded my money promptly. I didn't try again for more years. This
time I was able to reach under and behind the radio and plug in the
cable without removing the radio. )

Everything worked fine from the start, except that the intersting thing
is the AUX cable. It didn't work at all.

Android phone but the same problem exists with iPhones.

After the first cable didnt' work, I tried another and it was fine. It
turned out the first one had TRRS plugs and the second had TRS plugs.
I'd bought one cable when traveling in Europe, at a supermarket I think
but in a section with a bunch of phone accessories, and another one in
the USA from Amazon, and hadn't even noticed they were different. They
were both intended to connect the phone to the car radio. I dont'
remember if they both worked, if I even tried both. Since then the
rental car has changed and the phone has changed.

I was afraid I'd shorted something and burned out the phone's output.
Unlikely with the tiny outputs from a phone, but still.

Anyhow, in practice there can be a big difference between TRS and TRRS.

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-di...es-and-laptops

https://blog.zzounds.com/2020/05/29/...s-trrs-cables/

This is the one that worked, the TRS:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1



OTOH, if you happen to look at a TRRS cable it may well say "Compatible
with Car.... " but not be in the way you want it to be.

On Sat, 17 Apr 2021 19:19:21 -0400, micky wrote:

It turns out if your car radio has a jack in the back to connect a CD
changer or satellite receiver, you can, instead or even in addition to,
connect a device to give you AUX and Bluetooth input, and hands-free
phone calls. Assuming you have a cell phone.

Many OEM Toyota head units have that capability, for example. I added an
AUX input to a 2002 Highlander and a Tacoma pickup, not sure of the model
year of that one. It was all plug and play, other than drilling a hole on
the plastic of the lower dash to mount the AUX input plug. You could also
just let a cable hang down but I wanted a more finished look.

[snip]

I used an iSimple interface on my 2006 Chevy. It added it's menu to
the AM/FM/XM Band switch. Had a 30 pin plug for an Ipod and a aux
port.

It kind of emulated the XM menu I recall. Worked great.

In comp.mobile.android, on Sat, 17 Apr 2021 17:40:01 -0700, Bo Dacious
wrote:

I used an iSimple interface on my 2006 Chevy. It added it's menu to
the AM/FM/XM Band switch. Had a 30 pin plug for an Ipod and a aux
port.

GTA Carkit seems to have started with an iphone, ipod, ipad attachement,
and they sell a handsfree attachement for that, but they also sell the
bluetooth, Aux, handsfree, which as it turns out doesn't including the
ipod cable.

I actually bougght an ipod touch on ebay to use with the carkit, but the
seller wrote me that he tested it one more time and it didn't hold a
charge, so he volunteered to cancel the sale. A good thing since the
kit I bought had no ipod connector.

It kind of emulated the XM menu I recall. Worked great.

Everyone seems happy with these things. It's surprising they didn't
publicize them more, and selll more.

My prvious car had a built in CD changer, which eventually broke, but it
didn't have satellite ability and it woudln't have had the jack I need
for these accessories.

I actually dont' make many phone calls and I get fewer, and fewer yet
when I'm in the car. And I'm usually happy the the local broadcast
stations. I want this thing mostly because it's cool. (And when I was
in Europe there was no talk radio in English (Talk radio in Greek was
all Greek to me), so I used the cellphone most of the time to listen to
NPR etc. If you get the WYPR app, it has On Demand, and in that it
has just about every NPR program, about 55 of them, including Cartalk
and Science Friday, going back 3 to 10 episodes depending on which
program you choose. It's weird to be driving around Greece listening to
American radio and not on the Armed Forces Network.

On Saturday, April 17, 2021 at 7:19:40 PM UTC-4, micky wrote:
It turns out if your car radio has a jack in the back to connect a CD
changer or satellite receiver, you can, instead or even in addition to,
connect a device to give you AUX and Bluetooth input, and hands-free
phone calls. Assuming you have a cell phone.

My 2004 Toyota has a 2008 aftermarket radio. It doesn't do bluetooth,
but it has a USB jack on the front. I'm content to plug a cable between
that and my phone. Voila! Audiobooks.

Cindy Hamilton

In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 18 Apr 2021 04:17:52 -0700 (PDT),
" wrote:

On Saturday, April 17, 2021 at 7:19:40 PM UTC-4, micky wrote:
It turns out if your car radio has a jack in the back to connect a CD
changer or satellite receiver, you can, instead or even in addition to,
connect a device to give you AUX and Bluetooth input, and hands-free
phone calls. Assuming you have a cell phone.

My 2004 Toyota has a 2008 aftermarket radio. It doesn't do bluetooth,
but it has a USB jack on the front. I'm content to plug a cable between
that and my phone. Voila! Audiobooks.

Cindy Hamilton

Yes, a cable would have been good enough. I keep the cable plugged in
all the time anyhow, and I have to plug in the usb charging, so I might
was well do both.. They sold cable-only for the ipod,pad,phone, but
not for Android, so I had to get the bluetooth.

I maybe should have added that GTACarkit also has a USB jack but they
warn you it's only for charging. I bought a usb to 3.5mm adapter (and
they also warn you that they only work if there is something in the aux
input that knows how to interpret USB) and sure enough, it didn't work.

The adapter was not expensive, and I only wanted it for playing
flashdrives, but with the phone there is no need for that. I can use
it for keeping the phone charged, but I'm also putting in a charger
outlet, etc.