Adding BT to JDM 100 with Nav--thoughts? (5 Viewers)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

mdcoa

SILVER Star
Joined
Apr 14, 2017
Threads
19
Messages
939
Location
Pittsburgh
Bought a 1999 JDM UZJ100 (with Nav-ugh) in Feb. Would love to be able to listen to music in it; if I could just get BT streaming working, I'd be pretty content.

Challenges:
  • FM frequencies in Japan are different than here (with just a couple MHz overlap), so no radio. Radio sucks anyway. And this means US BT adapters that use FM frequencies won't help me out. And Japanese BT adapters that broadcast on Japanese FM channels are technically illegal here.
  • Cassettes suck, and I got rid of all mine about 30 years ago.
  • Factory CD changer works only once in a while--most of the time it can't tell there's a magazine inserted, and therefore won't even eject the magazine
  • Cassette adapters for BT suck--I actually replaced my speakers becasue the sound was so bad I thought my speakers were blown.
  • Plugs in the back of the factory audio unit are different from those of US NAV models, so something like the GROM BT3 is a non-starter (I ordered one and tried)

Possible ways forward:
  • Aftermarket unit to replace whole Nav/Climate/Audio system, like this. But @ActionJimson tried one of these in a JDM with Nav and couldn't get climate control to work, so probably not the best idea.
  • Replace factory amp with an Amp that also has BT connectivity and a controller for BT (JVC KS-DR2104DBT for example). If I can figure out the wiring, this would retain (the mostly useless) factory audio AND let me stream BT.
  • Bypass factory stereo completely and add a marine digital media receiver (either one with a built in amp like this or one with no amp which I could wire in before the factory amp)
  • Or a marine black-box receiver like this, which would also get wired in before the factory amp, and would allow BT, AM, FM, and wired AUX input. Would also render factory audio inop.
I'll obviously be calling Crutchfield for their thoughts on those last three, but wanted to ask the hive-mind here what might be cleanest/easiest/least destructive to existing systems and harness. And am I failing to think of another way ahead that might be even simpler (like splicing an AUX input into the existing harness)? Thanks for any thoughts!
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom