Background:

So I, like many of you, like to have an AUX input in my radio but don't really have the skills to install one into the stock unit so I used a little 3.5mm tape adapter we had lying around the house. It was great. It worked pretty well for quite a bit and then all of a sudden, it randomly ejected. "Hmmm, that's odd." and I just pushed the tape back in and after about 10 seconds of music, it ejected once more. It did this several times until I just decided to take to the internet and see what was up.

What I found:

While searching through the many threads on the subject, I found one from iLounge and read through it to find the solution.

Let the DIY begin!

Here we have a typical Monster tape adapter (which I have a good feeling that a few others here are using).


We then start dismantling it like so. Note that there are typically 5 screws (use the previous image for reference) you need to take out before opening the tape.


Set the screws aside, or throw them around the room and weep, your choice


Open Sesame! Basically, once you've undone all the screws, simply pull the tape apart (GENTLY - note that all the gears aren't always held in the casing with screws or glue). Now that our tape adapter is open, focus on the gear with the black rubber grommet/belt around it (look toward the bottom of the tape's casing) - this is called the pinch wheel.What you will need to do is remove the pinch wheel from the tape casing.


Now your adapter should look something like this. (You may be able to take out the remaining two gears, but I haven't tested that yet)


Now it is time to reassemble the tape! Tighten all the screws and...


Voila! (pictured with the pinch wheel) Now you can pop this into your stereo and start streaming music from your preferred portable device (in my case, an iPhone) in wonderful, uninterrupted bliss.



Explanation:
So basically, what we did was remove the pinch wheel. If you look closely at the area where the pinch wheel is, you will see a small flange. What this small flange does is basically act as the place where the tape "stops" when the pinch wheel hits it and locks. What happens then is the head unit starts to rewind the tape since it has reached its "end". What actually happens is when it rewinds, the pinch wheel locks up and the head unit then things that the tape is broken and ejects it to prevent further damage. What happens now that we've done that is the gears will spin freely and there won't be much of a chance of the head unit ejecting the tape adapter unless another problem is present.

NOTE: Upon doing this, there is a slight chance that the noise made by the gears spinning may get louder. I'm currently experimenting to see how I can fix that.

 

Thanks for the great info, complete with pictures. I did have a converter doing this but already tossed it.

 

wow people still use this? from what i remember not all tapes have that gear so this might not be applicable to some. thanks for the write up with pictures!

 

+1 for hardwire'd aux input.

 

Nice write up. I had the same problem when I was running the oem unit. I was lazy an just bought a new adapter instead haha

 

Thanks guys! On another note, you can remove the remaining two gears (not the spindle gears - the center 3).

I'll be going Double DIN over the summer, but this little thing is nice since I no longer feel the need to maim my head unit (not that I ever did, but dear God was that frustrating...)

 

the aux in mod doesn't even require you to touch the headunit, it's like 4 wires that get intercepted and a power+ground for the switch....

<$25 in materials and lasted me 6+ years so far.

link in the sticky

 

Yeah, I read through it way, I think even before I actually got the car. My reasoning for the new radio is since it comes packed with a bunch of features (Bluetooth, USB, AUX in, to name a few) That, and I'm kind of getting one for free (considering my parents are nice/generous/etc. enough to be getting me one as a graduation present - Oh yeah, I graduate next week on Friday for anyone who's wondering.).

 

Mine kept ejecting cassettes too...dismantled another headunit with a bad LCD screen, removed its cassette mechanism and put it in mine. No problems with ejecting since (though your method is much less involved and lengthy ha).

 

Well, I mean, was your head unit ejecting just any kind of cassette? Or specifically cassette adapters? If it was the prior, then I can see that being justifiable. If it was the latter, well, you took the harder route, but since it's working for you, what's to complain?

 

Unless I'm missing something.... why not just buy another cassette adapter ($5.00) and replace it? I would assume you would be back in business yes? This has happened to me recently and I played with the adapter and cleaner it and so far it's working fine, but for the cost for replacement I'm planning on replacing it soon so that I can still use my Ipod shuffle with my car.

 

I found out not all cassette adapters are made equal. Initially I bought a Scosche version from Walmart, I kept buying new ones since they were reasonably cheap every 7-8 months (only bought two so far), about 7 dollars. But now, they went cheap and only have this off brand made in China instead of Taiwan and the sound quality on it is horrible. I returned it the next day and still have my old Scosche.

Considering this takes less than 3 minutes to do, why even bother getting in the car, driving to the place, parking and then spending 5 bucks and coming back home when you can do it on your couch at home?

Here's what my Scosche one looks like, slightly different but I was easily able to recognize what needed to be removed:

I can confirm this works...back to amazing quality sound instead of fuzzy reception using my bluetooth FM transmitter

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one who uses cassette adapters......well, i take that back, I probably am the only one who uses them. However, mine wouldn't spit the tape out. The thing tried to keep the tape. I guess it liked it so much I dont know. so thats something i have to figure out now. Anyone have any suggestions??

 

I have a tape adapter also, however, the sound quality sucks unless you are at low volume. I had to do this fix to mine also. Now my current setup is a FM direct adapter for my XM radio and a Bluetooth transmitter. Due to where I'm at though there is not really any clean space on the FM band. So I may in the future get an FM transmitter that can use 87.7 and 87.9. My battery powered one does an awesome job when it's set to those frequencies. I use 87.7 since 87.9 had a pirate station on it :/

 

I found out if you set your phone's volume to about 75% and then turn up the radio volume, it retains the quality to pretty high levels. My stock subwoofer even sounds good along with it.