No Sound Through Aux Input To 6000Cd On Mk2 Focus Lx

[KX36]

HI all,

I've just bought a little cable for the aux input to the 6000CD radio (the standard model without the multi CD changer) on eBay to bring it out to a 3.5mm stereo jack. I took the radio out and was suprised to see there was already a connector in the right place for the aux with the right 3 pins wired up and coming out into the loom, disappearing into the dashboard. I'm not sure if they are connected to anything on the other end, I certainly can't find any 3.5mm sockets around the car but perhaps I'm not looking in the right place.

Anyway, I disconnected that connector and put in this aux connector from eBay, plugged it into my phone and I get no sound. I pushed and wiggled the connectors in case it was a bad connection but still no sound. I checked my phone's headphone jack with some headphones and that works fine, now I'm at a loss as to what the problem is.

Has anyone got any suggestions where I'm going wrong?

Cheers,

Matt

[dezwez]

the 3.5mm sockets come out in the front of the glove box at the top left side

[Goodkat]

Dezwez is right, it is a white connection, just to the left of the glovebox catch in the glove box

Sent via the 'Clacks'

GNU STP

[KX36]

Well I don't have that, I have a bit of perforated plastic that theycould punch out and pop in a socket if the option was fitted, where I thought it was probably meant to be.

That leaves me back to my problem, why aren't I getting any sound out of the speaker when my phone is outputting through the headphones, through the aftermarket cable, into the right pins of the aux input. Is there any procedure for getting this to work, it's not software locked out for example?

[dezwez]

this is the bit your looking for this is a left hand drive so its on the other side of glovebox

[KX36]

Thanks, for the photo, I definitely don't have that. The hole in the panel is just a perforation in the plastic which hasn't been punched out.

I just went out and checked the aux cable with a multimeter to make sure it's been wired up correctly and it looks right. However when it's plugged in I get no continuity from the 3.5mm sleeve connection to the chassis of the radio, whereas I do get continuity from the pin on the back of the radio to the chassis. I tried brushing against the inputs with a battery and get nothing. I took the pins out of the 0.1" female header and plugged them directly into the pins of the radio and brushing the battery now makes sound, but its impossible to put back into the car without shorting one of the channels to ground, so it looks like the problem is the header.

I don't have any replacement female headers but i have male headers and this cable has no problem on those, so it seems the pins on the back of the radio are narrower than the standard pin for these headers. The choise is therefore to try to retension the female header pins to grip the smaller male pins, to splice my new cable into the old connector, to find the original wires in amongst the passenger airbag wires and put a socket on it as the original option would have been, or to put a bit of insulating tape on the individual female crimp pins and put them on individually on the back of the radio.

I did the latter and it worked. A bit fiddly but it worked. I didn't bother insulating the ground pin. I did it outside the car where I could get a bit more room to work and used needle-nosed pliers to get the pins on. Took a few goes to get all 3 on right.