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Overall Excellent product.
Took about 2 hours total taking my time wanting to be careful. The Subaru dash/console is very easy to put back together compared to some cars I have dealt with years ago. There are no annoying gaps or squeaks with the job completed.
* Pulled power from cigarette lighter:
* Ground: drilled into substantial metal bracket on floor, used small metal screw w/ washer.
* Hot Lead: the loop tip provided w/ the ground lead was broken off on the power lead so I had to strip the wire (I'm assuming the supplied loop would have fit over the threaded positive post in the lighter). Twisted the end, made a little 1/2 loop and positioned it under the metal tab in center of lighter plug. Tightened nut snuggly, don't anticipate any problems.
Fed the inline Fuse block to the lower section of the console below the AC controls for easy access in the event of a blown fuse. I have a 5Spd so no need to mess w/ console, just pop the shift cover and I'm in.
* Bought ProClip mounting hardware: iphone 4 w/ case; Adjustable holder w/ tilt swivel and Pass-Through Connector. The provided iPhone "simple" plug fits very tightly into the Pass-Through on the ProClip. I was at first worried it would not go and was considering returning and going with no pass thru and plugging directly into the phone. Once everything was installed I managed to get the plug inserted, I don't plan on ever needing to disconnect it so all is good. Routed the thick cable back under the dash near the gas pedal, zip tied spare cable length in a few loops. Will be getting a stick-on wire lead to keep the cable tight to the side of the lower console.
Super clean look, drop the iPhone in for continual charging, just off the steering wheel for short reach and easy view. No more messing w/ cables.
* 3.5mm to Armrest: Very easy to route the cable down the passenger side away from the eBrake. Drilled hole big enough to feed the bulky 90 degree 3.5mm jack. Plugged hole w/ black RTV caulking. Thank you for making all the cables long enough to route cables wherever and still have enough length for daily use.
* Super Scary Moment: The only thing that had me worried is when I was testing the system before screwing it back in place. I got mixed results with which lights decided to come back on for the Tuner and the Climate control panel. I cut the tape holding the wire harness in an S shape to allow the stereo to be pulled further out. At one point I got a garbage display of characters on the climate control screen.
Eventually I buttoned the whole thing up with NO LIGHTS working on the climate control panel but all the buttons were functioning. I've heard horror stories about how expensive those circuit boards are to replace. On my first test drive when I looked down miraculously all the lights were on. I do not plan on EVER pulling the stereo back out of the dash!
Overall: Until the kit arrived I was making due w/ an FM transmitter that I will continue to use for bluetooth cell calls (the mic is right in my face on the visor). I live in a small town w/o many stations and the transmitter still sucks; static and low frequency response. Ok for spoken word but unacceptable for music.
When combined w/ the ProClip this is as good as any professional shop could have done. The signal is clean and completely noise free. I should probably have checked to make sure the CD player was functioning before buying and installing this system but luckily it worked fine. Audio from my iPod Shuffle in the 3.5mm sounded great. When switching over to the iPhone it sounded really bad before I realized I needed to unplug the Shuffle. The basic stereo in my XT Limited is supposedly their "premium" sound system but it's really just above average. This at least makes it tolerable.
Rating:  [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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