Aux Input CD Stereo Hack

Here's how to add an auxiliary input to your CD stereo on your car.

This method is applicable to almost all vehicles that have an analog CD player. Demonstrated here is a Toyota Corolla.

Adding an auxiliary input to your vehicle is a cheap and easy method to get CD quality audio to your car's sound system from your phone, tablet, bluetooth device or MP3 player.

FM transmitters cause too much interference, static, and have poor sound quality. Aftermarket radios are more expensive, and have a tacky, flashy odd look that won't bode well with a vintage car.

This method employs the use of the CD player lines in the radio. A blank CD is played, and sound input from a 3.5mm stereo extension cable is injected into the analog CD lines going from the radio to the equalizer.

The benefit is the CD player and radio can still be fully functional, and all the equalizer controls (balance, fade, volume, bass, treble, etc) can still be controlled when audio is sourced from AUX.

The radio is opened up and the Left, Right and Ground channels are identified and soldered to. Once the blank CD is inserted, the radio is tricked into reading audio from the CD player, but instead the source is coming from your music device or phone.

A 3.5mm bluetooth adapter can be hooked up to this aux port to expand the functionality to have wireless audio streaming.

Purchase parts and tools for this DIY here:
Aux cable:
Soldering Iron:
Solder:
Philips screwdriver:

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[MemeGang]

Holy crap this went from 0-100 real quick.

[lissymaggie]

I was like, okay I got this and then you started pulling everything apart and I got scared lol

[CautiousCrow]

I got stuck... I didn't have enough change in my tray to purchase a blank cd and wire. :(

[habsom]

Nice snappy video and clearly explained. I sometimes feel like my life is being sapped away when watching other instructional videos which have a 20 minute lead and go off at a million tangents managing to leave out any useful information. Whereas, this video is concise and straight to the point and it actually works, thanks dude.

[patrick]

Well, looks like I’ll just play music out my phone

[hdani]

Just made this mod on a Panasonic CQ-C1311N head unit and it works beautifully! I was using an FM transmitter before, but it always had some awful background noise. With the direct AUX input, it instantly stopped, and the sound is crystal clear. Thank you so much for your guide!

[clashmonk]

Instead of burning a blank cd with blank audio, you guys can use your old cds in pause mode. Cheers

[greggolding]

Just finished doing this, took a few hours (had to learn how to solder basically) but it works!!

[dalelashomb]

I think this videos great ! Everyone keeps saying buy another cheap radio. Why when I have a 400 dollar pioneer and all I need to do is add a aux? Have you heard those cheap stereos, be my guest. I love my music, and when you find the right stereo, you'll do what you can to keep it. Great video bro.

[kmemz]

Two bonus ideas:
1: Get a female connector with a screw clamp, and drill the trim out right between the radio and the vents, and have a port that will be much slower to wear out.
2: run the line to the popout ash tray where you keep all that spare change, and keep a bluetooth adapter handy inside. If you need to turn it on or pair it to another phone, just pop the ash tray. If you need to charge it, pop the ash tray and unplug it, or sneak a 12V cig plug with a USB brick in behind the trim and run one of those cables to the ash tray as well.

[nickstemler]

Thank you for actually explaining the process of identifying what to solder to. No other videos do.

[justanordinaryviewer]

That's a cool engineer perspective to daily problems. Thanks for sharing it with us. Much appreciated dude.

[HailAnts]

This is cool, but a much easier (although more expensive) way is to remove the stereo and just plug in an antenna/aux adapter box. Unlike a wireless FM transmitter they don't get interference and only cost about $20.

[jeremiahhall]

I truly found this very informative!!! I'm still taking my car to the audio shop😑

[Gubel]

You should disconnect the audio-pins coming from the CD-player's DAC-out, instead of leaving them in parallel to the aux-cord.

Don't know the output-impedance of the CD-DAC, but if it's in the range of <100 Ohms, it would be a load for the connected audio source and lower the volume.
Btw: In parallel the CD-audio would also come out of the audio-jack...
(But disconnecting the CDP-Out would cause you to be unable to play CDs anymore)

The "elegant" way would be a 3.5mm-socket with switching-contacts, that connect/disconnect the CD-Out-Pins when pluging in a cable and switch between them! :)

Perhaps you also find a way to activate the CD-funktion without actually playing a CD? (Find the right Pins to bridge?)

Greetz!

[MOTORCITY]

Simple DIY to avoid the possibility of burning your car to the ground, shop Craigslist for a $20 head unit with Auxiliary input. ..
I can appreciate the work you did just probably not something most people would jump into.

[TreboriRobertHZ]

Short explanation is always appreciated. It's time to AUX-hack the old boombox now.

[lateralus]

Mine is a double DINN so I really had to go looking for the solder points. Had to take it apart a few times to make sure the radio, tape deck, and CD player worked.

Burned a silent CD and popped it in. Started up Spotify and that's the clearest signal I've ever gotten out of a phone to a car stereo.

I really appreciate this tutorial. Now, I don't have to go out and buy an after market radio just yet.

[frankbuehner]

Just added my MP3 aux but by spicing into the internal wiring harness from the CD unit to the MB. I'm not a solder guy. But still, tiny wires. For my wiring, the Sony harness has 3 wires separated from the others, a 13 wire harness. A R, a L, and a G. Used a tap but the wires are so thin they were cut so I had to adapt a pinch splice. It works and I have what I wanted. I have a 1999 Olds Intrigue with a Bose dual CD system that all the big guys avoid. This is a sophisticated CD, tape, radio and now I'm happy to have this added feature with all the others unaffected. Yes, you have to make a blank CD.

[ansdguy]

Good video. Clear and to the point. I hate it when the vlogger rattles on about things that aren’t relevant to the topic. That just confuses the directions.😎