MDEC

Once you shove the iPod connector from behind the CD player, it easily pops out behind the glove box for you to grab. Once the iPod connector is through, you can use it to help route the other wires. This is a view from behind the CD player:



Use the iPod connector as a fish-tape to lead the other Sirius wires to the glove box (fishing the SCC1 wire and the antenna wire to the glove box). Tape the other wires one at a time to the iPod connector wire and gently pull them to the glove box:

MDEC

I used rug non-skid stuff to wrap the vaistech units. You can buy it at Home Depot. I thought this would avoid rattles:


Here's how I installed the Vaistech units behind the CD player. I had some foam sitting around and shoved that in too.
I tried to get all three units behind the CD player, but it was really tight, so that's when I made the decision to mount the SCC1 in the gove box. The SL2i is mounted the lowest in the space behind the CD player (it's at the bottom in this picture), and the SL2s is directly under where the CD/tape Player will reinstall:

MDEC

With all the added wires, the CD player is a little bit of a struggle to push back in, but it will all fit. You also have to push some wires around to slip the CD player back in... Same for the CD-player-door/phone-drawer panel that reinstalls next. Just make sure wires are not behind the phone drawer as you push it back in. Once installed, check to make sure the door and drawer operate smoothly before you put the three screws back in along the bottom.


I realize I need some closure pictures to wrap this story up...I'll follow up with those within the next few days

CarGuy89

Excellent and very thorough writeup! I didn't want to do this initially, but the more I see these threads the more inspired I get....maybe this will be my summer project.

MDEC

Thanks, CarGuy89!
It really is easier than it appears. If you can change your oil, you can accomplish the Vaistech install. With a wife, two daughters, and a female cat, I wanted to accomplish something manly for a change (right now I am at Somerset Mall typing this at the Apple store while I wait for the three of them shopping...Very unmanly.).

Again, I plan to add some wrap-up final pictures soon.

Both the Sirius and the iPod control through the nav screen, just like my wife's new Taurus....Having the iPod is really great. There's always a song I like! The CD player not being cabable of playing mp3 files almost makes the iPod a requirement.

VNN326

iTrader: (21)

this thread is awsome, i really wanted to do this but.. i wanted to see how it looks like on the navi screen. can you post a video or picture of the layout? i would really appriciate it !

jac430

Great thread!
Although I am not gonna install an ipod adapter, it shows very clearly how to remove parts of the dashboard/center console.
I need that to repair a switch (or to be more precise: a lamp inside a switch).
Thank you!

Jac

MDEC

First, this picture is to prove it all went cleanly back together:



Here is the Sirius interface screen. Push the TEXT button and you see the text message for the station:




Here is the iPod interface screen. Each disc number is a playlist. You can have up to 99 playlists. I took about 300 songs and split put them into 12 playlists with alphabetical names. So, I have about 25 songs per playlist (or disc number) arranged alphabetically by the artists' names. I can find a song I want fairly quickly this way. I also have a playlist with all songs, so I can hit random play of all my songs:

Slvr surfr

iTrader: (1)

How in the world is your nav screen displaying that many characters of a title? . Mine seem to only display a few on ipod and Sirius as i have the Vaistech ipod adapter also and the factory installed Sirius. Does anyone else have an idea???

MDEC

Yes, from some quick research before I bought the SL2s and SL2i, I understood them to display a maximum of 16 characters...but as you can see, the track title is 29 spaces...Go figure.

jayclapp

I use only an iPod with my VisaTech unit and the display looks just as pictured above. My playlist consists of albums only. DISC is then whatever title I have assigned to that album (I make the titles the name of the artist with a dash and then the title of the album). The playlist is alphabetical. TRACK then displays the name of each track as it plays.

I generally want to hear more the newest albums, so I number them 1, 2, 3, etc in from of the artist name. This places them at the top of the playlist. When you tire and want to move them into the alphabetical list, you just remove the number.

I suppose there are a number of ways to generate and use a playlist, but this works for me. I put the playlist into an excel spreadsheet with artist and corresponding album title. That way I can print out a copy of the playlist, which helps because I currently have about 90 albums in my iPod.

Slvr surfr

iTrader: (1)

This has me stompted! At first i didn't see why they made so much space and not use it. No it occurs to me that the space provided can be used to display maybe all of a song or title. Now i need to know how to get it to do it.

MDEC

Yes, that's a great idea. Although I don't have albums, I do have multiple songs by a single artist. I could make a plalylist for each artist. (For example, I would make a playlist called "Beatles" for all the Beatles songs.) I think this would make it easier to search for a particular song than my present method of alphabetical catagory playlists.

Of course, most of the time I just put on the playlist that has all my music and hit random play.

Muti007

Great thread!! Have you tried playing video through the ipod and on the go?

MDEC

No, I chose to install the SL2i-UP for the iPod. It does not have the video capability, just audio.

Vaistech does have a unit that allows audio and video, the SL2Vi.

I selected the SL2i-UP audio-only unit for the following reasons:
1)I didn't see myself watching video in my car.

2)I believe I read that the video can only play with the car parked.

3)Even if the video played with the car moving, I don't see my kids watching it from the rear seat...too far away. They have their own iPods and DVD players. My wife wouldn't watch it either. She has her own laptop with cellular internet on trips.

4)The SL2Vi (with video) is $150 more that the SL2i-UP (audio-only)... $150 extra for something I won't use.

5)Installing the SL2i-UP does not require removing the nav unit.
The SL2Vi does require removing the nav screen, something I wanted to avoid.