Aux line in for SAAB Aero Estate 2001

[Waxa]

Hi,
This may have already mentioned but I could not find it.
After ready threads on adding a aux line by taking out the head unit and soldering I was not keen, as my soldering skills are rubbish. I have a cd changer in the back and thought I could tap into this. The only sites I found for saabs that used the cd changer involved much electronic trickery (because the devices they designed also controled iphone track via the steering wheel). I found a simple way to do this from other car website forums (Honda, BMW etc). All you need is the wiring harness diagram for the harness for the cd changer and cut into the speaker cables , connecting the speaker wires to a lead that I can plug into my phone/ mp3. The lead had left, right and -ve wires, but I split the -ve wire for the right and left sides so there is 4 wires from the cable to match the 4 speaker wires from the Saab cd changer harness.

It worked!! so I got an extention cable and ran it all the way hidden to my front drivers seat, and now I have an aux in. All I do is make sure I have a couple of cd's in the cd changer and select the cd changer on the head unit. I found the sound was a bit lower than the radio and lower than the cd. After searching I found this great little device ( Sound Shocker Pro from phpaudio) that increases the output of the sound. It needs no batteries and works awesome, about $50. For the price of cables and the sound shocker I have an aux in without too much hassle or complications.

The hardest part was finding the wiring harness and taking out the back panels in estate to get to the cd changer (as you have to take out the changer to get to the harness). Taking out the panels turned out to be not that hard, even fiited back in easily. I am quite happy as I never used my cd changer , I used a tape with a line out which always had to be replaced.

I can update with some pictures and the wiring harness diagram if people would like, but I am happy as I didnt have to tackle taking out the head unit and the dashboard is in tact. I also purchase a small portable bluethtooth device to connect to aux line if I ever want to use the phone.

cheers Clayton

[nordwulf]

Great to hear this worked for you. I was thinking doing the same thing a few years ago with the only difference tapping into the connector at the head unit. But I never tried as I wasn't sure if it was going to work. http://saabworld.net/f15/music-playe...ger-line-2259/

[Waxa]

Thanks.. Yes I would have done it through the head as the forums I mentioned did it this way. I was really worried I would ruin my dashboard getting out the Head unit as it is tight, which is the reason for using the wiring harness from the cd changer. The cable to run it back was under $10 so I was happy to do this, it is easy to disconnect and reconnect the cd chnager if need to.