Honda Fit Aux Jack installed!
This article documents my installation of an auxiliary audio jack in my 2007 Honda Fit.
First of all, if you're thinking of buying a Fit and are trying to decide between the Base model and the Sport model, you should probably buy the Sport. You would have to be crazy to go through what I did to add this Sport-only feature to a Base model, even though the price difference between the two trim lines is over $1,000. If your time is worth anything at all, this modification isn't worth it. In my case, it was a challenge that appealed to the hacker in me, so I enjoyed it.
And second, you're probably asking why I bought the Base model if the higher trim line had features I wanted. The reason is simple: the Sport is not just a fancier version of the Base, but rather it's a car with an entirely different character.
The Base is an inexpensive, sensible, compact-yet-roomy car. It gets good mileage, but I can easily carry oversized boxes in it. Typical Honda. I suspect that people who miss the old Civic wagon will love this car.
The Sport, however, is tricked out with a bunch of cheeseball features that I don't want on any car I drive. It has a spoiler on the back. It has a leather steering wheel cover. It has steering wheel paddle shifters. It has alloy wheels. And so on. Pretty much all the goofy ads you've seen for the Fit are supposed to appeal to people who dream of paddle shifters at night. (Rather than people like me who dream of dollar-cost averaging index fund purchases in their Roth IRAs.) Honda attempted to reach two different kinds of people through different trim lines for the same model. So non-sporty personalities like me who want basic creature comforts like remote keyless entry and cruise control are out of luck. I chose to buy the car that matched my personality (boring, economical, etc.) and add the couple missing features I wanted.
That takes care of why. Here's how.
First, I ordered part 39112-SAA-J02ZA, the OEM aux jack itself, from my friendly neighborhood online Honda dealer for about $30. I won't mention who they are because they turned out to be not so friendly; moreover, the online price after shipping and a mysterious "handling" charge was more than I'd have paid buying it list from a local dealer.
Next, I took apart the console in the car. This was fairly easy; there are two clips in the front and two screws in the back. You have to shift into neutral to get it out. Don't forget to unplug the cigarette lighter.
My hope at this point was to find a nicely taped-up plug waiting to be inserted into the back of the aux jack. No such luck. Honda didn't foresee adding this jack as an aftermarket option, so they actually have a different dashboard wiring harness for the Base. What a pain in the neck.
Next I used the online MusicLink installation instructions to tell me how to pull out the radio (or "tuner assembly" in the local lingo). My naive hope at this point was to find either female RCA jacks or a 3.5mm audio plug. Instead, I found a different receptacle that looked unlike anything I've ever seen on Planet Earth. The pain in my neck had now migrated down to my ass.
Several weeks of browsing Digikey and Jameco catalogs followed. I found nothing resembling the right connectors. I wrote various car-audio stores on the web, and the few shops that wrote back said they'd love to hear it if I solved the problem.
Eventually, I decided to take matters into my own hands and soldered ten RS-232 female headers (about $4 for 100 at Fry's) onto the ends of five wires from a cat-5 cable. I wrapped each in electrical tape to prevent shorts. Using some info I found on the web, I concluded that the following pins matched up (5-pin on the aux jack, 20-pin on the radio): 1-15, 2-5, 3-3, 4-13, 5-14. (For the person who buys my car in a few years and wants to know which wire is which, the colors going into the aux jack are 1-O/W, 2-W/G, 3-G/W, 4-W/B, 5-B/W, O=orange, G=green, W=white, B=blue, and "O/W" for example means "orange wire with white stripe.")
Next came the hard part. I pulled out the head unit far enough to reach in behind it and held a mirror in back. Then after approximately 1,000 attempts I successfully pushed all five headers onto the right five pins on the back of the unit. Same with the aux jack, but that one was easier because I could look directly at it. I plugged in my MP3 player and confirmed it all worked, and then carefully reassembled the car (in the process breaking part 83442-SAA-003ZA, list price $3.20, and discovering that I must have broken two of part 91550-S50-000ZL, list price $1.68 each). I also dropped a screw down into the netherworld of the shifter assembly and spent about 45 minutes fishing it out.
I put on a motorcycle helmet and kissed the family goodbye, then drove the car around the block to make sure it still worked. No explosions or parts falling onto the road. The end result is identical to that of an OEM Sport, so I didn't take any pictures for you to see.
As I said earlier, don't do this. Just buy the Sport. But if you think as I do and decided that the Base model was right for you, but still want to play your MP3 player on your car stereo, this method definitely works. Final cost with parts (including replacements of the ones I broke) was about $50.
Good Job!
It reminds me of a "hack" I did on my beloved (sold) '95 Civic LX. The car had all the practical features except one. A chime to let you know you left the key in the ignition. A quick search on the internet and $10 at RadioShack later, done and worked like a charm.
For next time, try www.mouser.com for electronic parts. Flexible shipping & no min order.
What about an aux jack that plugs into the the connector to the left (the music link/CD changer). I would imagine there would be one.
Do you push the 'AUX' button on the radio to use the player? How is the volume versus the radio? The aux jack you bought, is it similar to a head phone jack?
Darryl,
- Yes, you push the aux button. One of the functions of the plug is to complete a connection across two terminals that lets the radio know that there's something plugged into aux. So unless you have the jack installed, pressing aux won't do anything on your radio.
- You have to turn up the volume on the MP3 player quite loud. This is true of pretty much all aux jacks that take a headphone-level input. Line-level inputs (such as the kind that plug into the proprietary port on an iPod) don't have this issue.
- Yes, the aux jack is identical to a headphone jack.
Thanks! I myself had purchased the aux jack and figured out how to remove the head unit, but I was stuck at where to hook wires. I couldn't find any information for the pinouts of those weird connectors back there.
I want to buy the aux jack itself to install on my base fit. I tried typeing in the 83442-SAA-003ZA number on google, but nothing came up but this page. any idea where I could find it? that would be very helpful.
thank you
Stewart
You can buy the part directly from bernardiparts.com or collegehillshonda.com. However, you'll have to look under the Sport model to find it.
Hey
have you heard of blitzsafe ??? i actually bought the AUX adapater online and had Circuit City install it (by the way... the FIT is so new a vehicle that NO ONE knew how to take the radio out -- i called a handful of diff places to see whether they knew how to take the radio out but none of them had a clue!) anyway, the part itself has two harnessess, one that has pins in it (i forget how many) and one that's just a shell -- and also two rca cables. the only thing is this: when i push the "AUX" button on the stereo, the CDC works sporadically and never consistently. this DRIVES ME INSANE!
i want to take the damn radio apart and install the OEM aux jack my self similiar to what you did, but dont want to f*ck anything up (circuit city damaged my car and has to pay 500 dollars worth of parts and labor)!
what do you think?
I purchased the AUX adapter over the phone from collegehillshonda.com. They have it online in the Honda Parts section under Sports Model, but even thought they have a shopping cart, the cart is not for ordering...so I was told. I will wait before I install the AUX port until I find an easy way to install it to the radio. The nice guy at collegehillshonda.com told me that the AUX will not connect (plug into) to anything cause my Base Model FIT has different wiring set up than the Sport Model. I was also told that there is not a AUX imput port on the back of the Honda radio. There is just one (I think he said) 16 pin plug. This plug must be where the aux input comes in on the sport model.
My question is...how different are the radio wiring cables between the Base Model Fit and the Sport Model FIT. Can you just switch the radio wiring harness from the sport model into the base model? Then would the plug needed be there?
I really want to thank miket for starting this thread and posting the wiring pin configuration.
I was wrong when I said it was a 16 pin... more likey it has a 14 pin and the other (maybe the SPORT MODEL) has 20 pins.
Read more here...
http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.f0cf4db
Looks like the Base model and the Sport model radios have different sized plug on the back of the radios. I believe the Sports model uses more pins.
how do you remove the whole radio....? is there jacks back there...?
What about these?
http://www.autotoys.com/x/cust/home.php?cat=101
Thank you for posting this info. Using this page plus referencing info from another site I did the install and it works great.
Suggestion: when unscrewing the 2 screws holding the unit in place (about -45 degree angle), I dabbed a tiny amount of superglue to the screwdriver to make them stick just enough to stick to the screwdriver so that they wouldn't fall into the well.
Maybe I should've used thicker wires (used ethernet cable) - the sound from my ipod (mp3 128K compression) isn't quite as good as the clearest radio station, but still pretty good.
Though this was a fun project, in retrospect, there's probably a cable with the right harnesses that you can buy from a dealer as the Sport has this feature. Also, though the aux jack is an authentic Honda part, $35 is kind of steep for an audio jack, wow! All in all, still worth it.
Sigh. I just didn't realize that the base model didn't have an mp3 cd player OR an aux jack. Such a vicious and cruel move by Honda to put BOTH of them on the bloody Sport model and neither one on the Base model. Thanks for the info. If I ever get the nerve to take Taz (my car) apart, I'll use this info.
I love my Fit and I am glad I bought the base model. don't need all that other stuff... except the aux port.
My solution, a FM transmitter for my media player. you get the same results(make sure you find a n empty frequency in your area). No cable hanging. No messing up under the dashboard.
Marcell - You are correct, assuming that you are able to find a radio station suitable in your area. Some cities (such as mine) have no such station. Furthermore, you're still dropping about 50 bucks or more on the plug, although you do get charging capabilities. Also, radio transmitters are not as great when dealing with long drives as well, especially for those of us that do a lot of travelling.
I spoke with a honda serviceman today, to see if I could have the musiclink installed on my fit (I'm not about to drop the 300+, but I was curious). He said it's not possible at the moment because apple and honda are working on a wiring fixup - he described it as a change to the port attaching directly to the ipod (nothing behind the radio) - and suggested that it may be due to the fact that Honda is trying to come up with a system where either ipod or the microsoft player can be used (as a selling point, instead of either or). My guess, once this comes out, it may be possible to attach more directly to the base Fit. After reading this page, it suggests to me that they are looking for a way to make it a purchasable option for the base, in which case a self-install may be much easier in a few months. Just a guess, anybody with more info?
Thank you so much for writing this! I'm trying to decide between the base Fit and the sport model, and I prefer the 'economical' base Fit because I don't want or need a spoiler, alloy wheels, or whatever. Yet I still would like remote keyless entry (which is an option) and to be able to play an MP3 player, like the iPod. The dollar difference between the models is quite a lot, but thank you for demonstrating that perhaps it's worth avoiding the extra effort... especially since I have no installation skills within me and don't even know what an auxillary jack is or does. :)
Do the plug behind the head unit work with this: HON03-PC-SON from P.I.E.
http://www.pie.net/pie_store/shopexd.asp?id=480&bc=no
By the way, here is a link to MusicLink manual (useful for diassembling the dashboard and removing the radio):
https://hondacuraworld.hostasaurus.com/Merchant2/instructions/fit/fit%20musiclink.pdf
Mike,
an off the shelf aux plug will have three connectors ( since they are sort of concentric lets call 'em center, middle, and outside ) .
Did you note how the honda aux plug mapped these to the 5 you mentioned? ( is their electronics ( diodes etc ) in the official honda cable) or is it a direct mapping from 3 to 5? ( or the official aux jack has an insulated switch in addition to the 3 stereo contacts... that would sorta make sense,,, making for 5 connections, and provide an isolated detection of plug insert...
ok, i almost have myself talked into ordering the "official" aux jack.
--Ken
I can confirm that the P.I.E. HON03/PC-SON adapter box and cable mentioned earlier in this thread works to connect an AUX jack; it costs more but it is a great deal easier, as it's just a plug-and-play deal after you manage to pull the radio/HVAC panel out.
You don't have to disconnect all the cables and plugs like the Music Link instructions tell you to. Just follow the install instructions right up to that point, pull the radio back, and insert the plug in the back. I strongly recommend a strong light source (broad daylight will do), a magnetic screwdriver, and a mirror-on-a-stick to pull this off smoothly.
The P.I.E. unit fits neatly beside the glovebox. After installation, just press AUX on the front of the radio and "CDC" appears on the display, and whatever is fed into the RCA jacks comes out the speakers.
The only problem with this method is that the HON03/PC-SON unit has an unnecessary CD changer jack on it, causing you to shell out some money unnecessarily. If someone can figure out the pin scheme to the CD changer plug in the back of the factory unit, I think it's feasible to wire that 14-pin plug directly to the Fit Sport aux jack in a manner similar to the method in Mike's post for the 20-pin connector next to it. Interestingly, this means there's two ways to insert auxiliary inputs. What would happen if both were put in at the same time? It is a mystery.
"...My naive hope at this point was to find either female RCA jacks or a 3.5mm audio plug. Instead, I found a different receptacle that looked unlike anything I've ever seen on Planet Earth..."
To the OP,
I stumbled upon this thread after some research I found a pigtail you can purchase directly from Honda with the male side connectors you need. Order Honda part number 39117-SWA-A00 and cut/splice if necessary.
Have a nice day!
-Sean
Way to go! That is exactly what I want to do to my base model. Thanks for the write up. It took two seconds to figure out what needs to be done thanks to you. Cheers!
Would this work? The Fit apparently has an ipod docking adapter that easily plugs in and is accessed via the glove box (called MusicLink). It costs about $99. Griffin Technology sells a docking adapter for the ipod shuffle that connects via the 3.5 audio plug and on the other side plugs into the ipod craddle connection. While it is specifically for the Shuffle, as the 3.5 audio plug is the same, do you thing it would work with any device that has this output?