#21 – Install my iPod integration kit into my car

I never did blog about my new Mazda so I’ll start off this post with a little info on that subject. About a month and a half ago I bought a 2005 Mazda 6 (5 door) to replace my old 1996 Chevy Lumina that I’ve had for three years. This was a huge upgrade for me as it was my first car that I purchased through a real auto loan AND it is by far the nicest car I’ve ever had. Granted I’ve only had two cars prior to this but they’ve both been pieces of shit. Anyway, my new car (pictures in due time, I promise) is silver in color, has five doors (including the hatchback) and and is a five speed manual. I love it. Its fast, has tons of room for my bass equipment and camping gear and the stereo doesn’t suck! Now that leads me into my next topic…

Apparently in 2005 cars didn’t yet come with auxiliary inputs so I can’t simply plug my iPod into my car the easy way. Instead I had to drop $124.95 on an iPod Integration Kit so I can listen to music without CD swapping. On the plus side, this little piece of equipment does, in fact, charge my iPod while it is plugged in AND I can control the volume and change songs from my steering wheel controls. Nice.

So two weeks ago I drove back to La Crosse and my Dad and I installed the kit and it worked flawlessly. Sadly, I forgot my camera and couldn’t take pictures of the procedure but it wasn’t very painless at all. I was in business and enjoying 30GB’s of bliss; until the next day that is. I got into my car and noticed that both the front and rear speakers on the left side of the car weren’t working at all. I messed with the balancing and fading without any luck. Next I checked the radio to find that all of the speakers worked fine. Same with playing a CD, all four speakers in the car worked as they should. So the problem was definitely with the kit. Luckily it wasn’t very far into the console and I was able to check the connection but it was solid. It is possible that the connection on the back of the radio is loose but I highly doubt that, since it snaps in place.

Needless to say I was rather disappointed. I sent an email to the folks that I bought the item from (www.therpmstore.com) and they got back to me the next day and after some simple troubleshooting techniques, said they would ship me a replacement. I haven’t gotten it yet but when it comes, I will take pictures (and also some of the car itself) and post about it. Until then, I can’t cross this item off my list but I will definitely do so soon.

Update: The replacement iPod Audio Link came on Monday so I took some time yesterday afternoon to take apart my dash and replace the old one with the new one. Now that I know how to take the dash apart, it was really easy and I got it all done in under 30 minutes. The new integration kit works perfectly and I now have 30GB’s of music in my car and it all sounds great!