2000 Saab 9-3 Radio Auxiliary Input Mod
Welcome!
And thanks for visiting my tutorial on how to modify your stock Saab stereo to have an auxiliary input.
Before I get started, I need to put out there;
1. A HUGE thanks to German Alvarez for his tremendous help he gave me during my endeavor, and for his work pioneering this project for every Saab owner. If he hadn't done all the work he had, this page wouldn't exist. You can find his page here: http://technicaldiversions.blogspot.com/
2. A disclaimer: of course, I'm not responsible for your shit if you break it by attempting to duplicate what I did here, so don't even bother me if you're going to attack me based on this page.
3. I have gotten god knows how many emails requesting help with setups that are not Saab stereos. Stop. Don't email me. I'm not trying to be rude or mean, but I don't know anything about them. I barely know enough about this stereo, and only because German told me. I am not going to be able to tell you how to hook up anything if it's not a Saab and it's not an OEM deck. However, I will be as helpful as possible if you have questions and etc regarding THIS setup.
Well first off, I HIGHLY suggest reading German's page before following the directions here, as I had a slightly different setup than he did. His car has OnStar, and mine does not. So right there determines what you want/need to do. Lucky for those of us who don't have OnStar, we don't have to worry about it at all. Also, neither he nor I have a CD changer in the trunk (I don't know if this would affect anything - I only say this because I have my setup wired differently than his, which will be discussed/shown later).
Here are some parts from Radio Shack I used:
Panel mount 1/8" stereo audio jack, PN 274-249 (mine looked different, however I cannot find the package nor the receipt, but this one should work)
SPDT micromini toggle switch, PN 275-625 (again, mine was different, but really, any switch should work).
(A general warning/tip: most images are links to MUCH larger versions, ie: 1280x1024 or thereabouts and they all open into new windows)
Ok, so now assuming you have a good knowledge of what's going on, I'll jump right in.
UPDATE
I no longer suggest cutting the trace as stated below! Many many people have emailed me wondering why they only get sound out of one side of the car after cutting this trace. In fact, when I moved my ground wire, I lost sound from one side also, and just soldered these 2 back together. IN SHORT, JUST DON'T CUT THIS TRACE. I can't verify that this is true stereo output however (most likely, both channels of audio going to both sides of speakers - mixed audio).
As per Germans directions, I cut the trace between TEL L & TEL R and soldered 3 conductor 22ga wire to those 2 solder points and to what I later discovered to be the ground trace.
I suggest cutting the trace with an exacto knife or razor blade at an angle to look like this:
(looking at the circuit board at eye level)
The original length of the wire was about 3ft long (you can always take away, you can't add on), but it could probably be half that long and still be ok. The reason for this is because if you want to remove the radio later, you have slack on this cable to do so. (soon I hope to incorporate some molex quick disconnects so I can completely remove the radio from the car with as little hassle as possible should the need ever arrive).
The other end of this cable will be a 1/8" wall mounted stereo jack.
Hopefully these images will help you determine which wires to solder where.
FYI:
Tip = Tip
Ring = Middle
Sleeve = Base. I had incorrectly labelled those images, as they are more commonly known as tip-ring-sleeve plugs/jacks)
Below I marked some spots where I would move the red wire to instead of the previous picture. That ground spot was not sufficient enough to handle the power, and it was causing problems.
I then covered my crappy soldering job and lightly secured the cable w/electrical tape.
I soldered another cable (2 conductor, 22ga) to the TEL MUTE solder point and to any ground point. The other end of the wire (the same length as the other cable) attached to a SPDT switch. This switch shorts TEL MUTE to ground, which forces the radio into TELEPHONE mode by displaying TELEPHONE on the SID and now it will accept input from our aux port.
Solder the ground to the COM on the switch and the TEL MUTE to either the A or B pin.
Covering my bad soldering job again, and wrapped the 2 cables w/tape to protect them from chaffing against the case.
If you route the cable in the same general direction as I, the cable should be small enough to fit through the opening below the 3 connectors when the bottom plate is installed.
I took this picture before I decided to mount the switch & jack to the blank panel, but basically this is where the extra slack will be. You need to remove the blank filler panel and route these cables through the opening.
I know the picture's crappy, but you have to remove ALL the plastic crap that's inside the filler panel and make it relatively smooth so that the switch and jack will protrude far enough to secure them. I'm holding the other filler panel for comparrison.
You'll then have to drill holes to the correct size of your switch & jack. Mine were 1/4".
A nice blurry image of what it looks like when ready to install.
The finished product!
Feel free to email me at se4587 at yahoo.com with any questions & or comments, I'd love to hear some success stories from others.
