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Interior: How To: Add Aux Input to pre '07 Cobalts

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Old 12-05-2009, 07:25 PM
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Old 12-05-2009, 07:26 PM
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I guess this may be one of the easiest ways. I too would love to get my iPod in the auxiliary. It fathoms me they never put one in really. Lame!
Old 12-05-2009, 07:53 PM
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Originally Posted by jaydd73
Two questions for anyone that can answer:

1. I have a spool of some good solid copper 18 gauge wire. Is this gauge too thick? Should i go out and buy something thinner like 24 gauge?

2. I planned on using a 3.5mm to RCA adapter, and splicing the RCA ends off to be tapped into the xm input wires. However, im thinking this might not be a good idea since Each RCA has its own ground cable. This means i would need to tap 2 grounds into the radio, and then obviously the rest is the same. Is this a bad idea? although i already bought it, should i just get a 3.5mm end instead?

Thanks Everyone!!
I'm more concerned about #1, please help.
18g is fine. A thicker guage wire is always better then a thinner guage wire. The OP was just trying to advise not using any wires smaller then what the existing wire is. 18g is quite thicker then the 24 maybe 26 guage used in the audio cable. Thicker wire has less resistance. Also you can just connect the audio cables wires directly to the harness wiress rather then adding extending wires, if you have a long enough audio cable. That way you cut back on number of crimped connections (possible points of failure) Just got to make sure your crimps are good, and wires secured, so when you install the radio back in no wiring gets pulled out.
Old 12-05-2009, 08:48 PM
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Originally Posted by ForsakenOutlaw57
I guess this may be one of the easiest ways. I too would love to get my iPod in the auxiliary. It fathoms me they never put one in really. Lame!

let me know if you need help doing it, I did it to mine a few weeks ago and works great. i live 15 minutes from the GW bridge and I'm going to be in the city tomorrow or next weekend to pick up some OTTP mounts, and I'll be glad to help you. Just get an aux cable, i think i have some wire crimps left over.
Old 12-05-2009, 10:31 PM
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Originally Posted by rivaladore
let me know if you need help doing it, I did it to mine a few weeks ago and works great. i live 15 minutes from the GW bridge and I'm going to be in the city tomorrow or next weekend to pick up some OTTP mounts, and I'll be glad to help you. Just get an aux cable, i think i have some wire crimps left over.
Oh I won't be doing it for months, definitely not until spring and warm weather comes. I'll probably be doing it at my cousin's.
Old 12-06-2009, 05:20 PM
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HUGE PROBLEM PLEASE HELP

Hey so i just did this, except i soldered the wires in.
Im guessing a fuse jumped, or the car anti theft system kicked in, bc the ignition cut off system was activated (i think) and now the car wont start. The lights are dim, so i thought the battery was dead which i didnt expect, but still i got a jump and it didnt help. My car wont start....

Any ideas? A fuse maybe?
please help!!
im gonna call GM now,
Thanks
Old 12-06-2009, 05:35 PM
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sounds like you wired something wrong... are you sure you wired the ground to ground? take a pic if you can
Old 12-06-2009, 07:16 PM
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UPDATE!!!!!!

FALSE ALARM!!!!
GREAT SUCCESS!!!
it was a really ******* dead bettery!!

will post picks of the soldering and completed job!!

Last edited by jaydd73; 12-06-2009 at 07:50 PM.
Old 12-06-2009, 07:21 PM
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pull the radio out. You could have pinched a wire putting the unit back in, double check all wires... Make sure factory harness is secured properly, in the deck. If it worked before your wiring was ok (like you said). So im betting its either these two things. Check fuses
Old 12-06-2009, 09:48 PM
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Thumbs up

Originally Posted by SSchargedSS
pull the radio out. You could have pinched a wire putting the unit back in, double check all wires... Make sure factory harness is secured properly, in the deck. If it worked before your wiring was ok (like you said). So im betting its either these two things. Check fuses
Thanks for trying to help
It ended up just being really dead batter...first time i jumped it, the ground cable must have slipped and not created a full circuit, so in reality the battery wasnt really being jumped....second shot it worked fine, and the radio works FLAWLESS!!

I will post pics, once i find a host site to upload the pictures to.
Old 12-07-2009, 02:18 AM
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right on. glad you got it goin
Old 12-07-2009, 04:02 PM
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Originally Posted by ForsakenOutlaw57
Oh I won't be doing it for months, definitely not until spring and warm weather comes. I'll probably be doing it at my cousin's.
cold weather doesn't stop me from working on my car
Old 12-08-2009, 03:09 AM
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Originally Posted by rivaladore
cold weather doesn't stop me from working on my car
me neither!! it was snowing while i was soldering mine in
Old 12-12-2009, 02:34 PM
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Just finished this last night. Works great! gpro, thanks for a great how to!

Two thumbs up!


[IMG][/IMG]
Close up view of the 3.5mm Aux Plug

[IMG][/IMG]
Finished Product

Last edited by RoelSS; 12-15-2009 at 02:07 PM. Reason: added pic
Old 12-26-2009, 10:05 PM
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Hey guys i was planning on doing this and i was wondering if you could let my know which aux input cable you used and how you mounted it in the center of the black piece of the radio bezel
Old 12-27-2009, 02:12 AM
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Originally Posted by weskimo
Hey guys i was planning on doing this and i was wondering if you could let my know which aux input cable you used and how you mounted it in the center of the black piece of the radio bezel
Here is the part:
[IMG][/IMG]

Here is the drilling:
[IMG][/IMG]

Real simple

Last edited by RoelSS; 12-27-2009 at 03:49 PM. Reason: fixed picture
Old 12-27-2009, 09:22 AM
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the picture of the part isnt coming up when i click on it
Old 12-27-2009, 03:55 PM
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Picture link fixed. The part was only $1.60. I bought 2 just in case I messed up the 1st one.

Here is a pic of the jack getting pressed in to the drilled hole:
[IMG][/IMG]

Last edited by RoelSS; 12-27-2009 at 03:55 PM. Reason: Automerged Doublepost
Old 12-27-2009, 04:30 PM
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Click...
Old 12-29-2009, 12:42 PM
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great write up thanks for all the help. just did this to my car and it works perfectly
Old 12-29-2009, 10:12 PM
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See, I'm not that creative and handy to do something like that. I probably could, but I'm afraid of messing something up in the process. I would love to have some help when I do it.
Old 12-29-2009, 10:39 PM
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Wow, I am so shocked at how popular this how-to has become. I had no idea when I was writing it, that it would be so helpful.

It seems to have helps so many people, I almost feel bad for the people on the internet who sell a harness to do just this......almost

On another note, just did a google search on "cobalt xm aux input harness" and the 4th result was a plagiarize copy of my write-up on another site.

Last edited by gpro; 12-29-2009 at 10:39 PM. Reason: Automerged Doublepost
Old 12-31-2009, 01:22 PM
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if someone can tell me how to upload pictures, i took a lot of pictures of my install....it looks really nice, looks like it came stock!
I put the aux input on the right side of where there 12v power outlet is right under the climate control.
id love to post the pics, so keep me posted.
Old 12-31-2009, 01:30 PM
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to think i wasted all that money on crutchfields adapter lol
Old 12-31-2009, 01:34 PM
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Originally Posted by gpro
'Wow, I am so shocked at how popular this how-to has become. I had no idea when I was writing it, that it would be so helpful.

It seems to have helps so many people, I almost feel bad for the people on the internet who sell a harness to do just this......almost

On another note, just did a google search on "cobalt xm aux input harness" and the 4th result was a plagiarize copy of my write-up on another site.
No kidding. The poster, "JapEatr" sounds like a familiar name from this forum as well. This sucks for you and you dedicated time for someone else to just copy and paste without giving you the proper credit.

But I thank you for this, It is really good!


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