I’m sure you’ve noticed Roxy not being present in most of the pics from Saturday’s event. Well, instead of spending the morning making her as beautiful as I possible, I instead installed my Aux Port Adapter.
Installation went pretty well, but I will say I had some help from…
- This MINI2 thread, which is where I got the installation location idea
- This how-to
- and this NAM thread (especially helpful if you have NAV)
I went with the under-the-center-console install location, as I do not have a Euro Parcel Shelf (yet) and the glove box is just too inconvenient.
If you haven’t done this yet, as everyone says, it’s easy! The aux adapter literally plugs into the back of your OEM head unit (’03’s and newer). One thing that wasn’t mentioned anywhere that I saw is that I did have to pry the dash up (under the speedo) to get the downtubes out of the way enough to access the head unit screws. Once I figured that out, piece of cake. The official install guide says 30 minutes, but I think, including drilling, it only takes about 15.
So far, sound quality is great, even at freeway speeds (which is saying alot) through my newest toy, the Creative Zen Micro:
Volume controls on the MFSW work as the should, so does the Mode selector. I only wish I could control the tracks using the steering wheel, but I’m not going to complain.
As I heard on Saturday, "it’s about time you got digital in Roxy db!". Yea, well, ok. I did it, so there.
I didn’t have to pry anything on my ’05 to get the downtubes out… Once the downtubes were unscrewed and the console freed up and moved rearwards, I was able to get the downtubes out without problem. What *was* difficult was getting the mirror control out of the console.
Good deal! Any idea on what the dealers charge to install it? I have it on the list of accessories to put on the new MINI but if its really easy methinks I should do it myself, especially if they’ll charge me an arm or a leg for it.
Dealer install? It’s sooo easy, why?
Book is .5 hour of time, so they would charge you probably about $125 for the thing, installed. But the part only costs $40 from the dealer, $49 if you order it from Moss.
$125!!!!!! %!$$ me!
I’ll take that off the list of things for them to do when it arrives. Sheesh.
Oh yea. No kidding tho, a couple of torx drivers is all you need, and about 15 minutes. you have to remove the down tubes, remove the head unit, plug in the port and run the cable down and then put everything back together. Super duper simple.
well, I’ll be doing the window up circuit at some point which pretty much requires the same disassmbley, I’ll do them together.
blalor Says:
The downtubes unscrew on the ’05’s? That’s pretty cool!
Why did you have to remove the mirror control?
Passenger-side Euro Parcel shelf here. That’s where I drilled hole for the jack.
Took me a few minutes on account of removing the glove box.
Just a note about the Zen Micro. I also have the exact setup that you do and found a nice little holder for my Zen Micro at radio shack. It’s actually made for the IPOD Mini, and is made out of some sort of molded foam. You have to trim it a bit to make it fit in the MINI cupholder, but it makes it a little more convenient to see the ID3 tag info and to change tracks, just because of the angle.
sweet! Dang, and I was just at Radio Shack today too. Looks like I’m going back.
Thanks for the tip!