Can a mp3 port be retrofitted to the stock radio? 6 cds in the trunk are a pain in the boot.

 

not a clue...how about one of those mp3 transmitter things?

 

The longer answer is that this gets asked often so read existing threads, which are very detailed if you bother to look.

 

Yes you need to study a bit because there are a number of options for the early cars. No factory setup as the ACM is only for the updated facelift cars and it's really too expensive for what it does.

I love mine but the price has increased since I installed it around 3 years ago.

You might also define what a MP3 port is? I wanted a USB but MP3's can be played thru nearly any connection.
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Sorry about the question's clarity. Should have said "access thru head phone port".

 

When I bought my car it had a Sirius sat radio thing in the ashtray and I had a local shop remove it and put in an mp3 jack that plays thru the stock system. It is tied in to the antenna and requires you to tune to a particular frequency. You then plug in your phone/device and play!

 

If you locate the wires coming from the CD port, you need the left and right channel, you can splice into them from the head unit and take them to a female jack, then when you play cd's you can also play music via the jack plug. You just need a CD burnt with blank tracks in one of the trays and play that when using the jack plug so only the output from the mp3 line is audiable. I've done this to pretty much every car I have owned.

 

iSimple makes fm modulator that connects via bluetooth to mp3 device. It gets great reviews on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/iSimple-ISFM21...th-Transmitter

I'm thinking this is the best way to put connectivity into my S Type.

 

Wow, that's the way to go, hardwired FM modulation that stops any signal from the Ariel, then your free to put the charger where you want. I only do it via the preamp so I can still control the stereo via the wheel controls but this would do the same. As long as you don't get any interference. For $60 it's got to be better than the ones you tune in. In fact the engine noise is better than having one of those, I used one on a trip to Miami and cursed it all the way, enough to stop at a radio shack and buy a cheap set of headphones and a soldering iron and patch it in at the hotel. but that would have been a more subtle solution.

 

I gotta have one.

 

My phone has an FM transmitter built in, so I use that mostly for 'mp3 connectivity' with the jag,

Personally, I want a hard wired audio-in through a headphone jack solution as well, but there really doesn't seem to be any feasible way,

I don't believe my particular STR is compatible with the oem jag ACM,

The XJ guys have had success splicing in line with the CD changer audio out, but this will not work on our updated S-types with their fibre optic wiring in this area,

Seems like aftermarket deck is only real option, which I don't mind doing, but...

Can anyone confirm if my steering wheel mounted audio controls will continue to function with an aftermarket deck?
Do the aftermarket decks and their plug and play wiring harness adapters have a provision for keep the steering wheel audio control functional?

 

Why wouldn't yours work with the jag ACM? I would expect it to.

 

Eh... recall when I first looked into the ACM mine was out of VIN range or something...

I may be wrong, after a brief search, I think it will work on my STR; I think I confused it with the bluetooth connectivity module which isn't compatible with my model year STR,

Either way, looking at it now, the ACM is quite pricey for what it is, I don't think I want to keep my non-navi head unit that bad; rather upgrade to an aftermarket deck I think, assuming the steering wheel mounted controls remain working,

 

I have just bought one of these Buy Car Cassette Adaptor at Argos.co.uk - Your Online Shop for In car DAB and CD car radios.

At £14.99 its a bit more expensive than the cheaper ones but it works perfectly and i am unable to tell the difference in sound from a cd, i have it connected to my S3 phone, playing mp3's and my sat nav instructions.

 

The later cars generally don't have a tape.

 

I know, my 2 kids dont even know what a tape looks like, but the op has a 2002, i thought these had tape players.

You have to be careful what type you buy, i got a cheap one and the sound was terrible, but a friend had just got one and after trying his i was impressed, and got one.

It seems you get what you pay for with these.

I won't miss having to wind in a streamed out tape with a pencil, or having to strip a tape player to remove a broken tape !!

I borrowed a car once with manual windows, my little boy got in and kept looking round the car for a good 10mins, in the end, with a look of defeat on his face he said "where's the button to open the window", he had never seen a manual winding window !!!!!!!

 

No they wheel controls won't work with an after market deck, hence why I hard wire to the head unit. It's a common thing to do with a Pontiac vibe as I looked for the schematics of the jaguar head unit and came across reams of Pontiac owners who did precisely this with pictures of what wires to splice. Some even had a switching jack so with the cord removed it reverts back to the original connection. It's easy to do and you have nothing to loose if your ditching the original head unit, you just need to locate the L+R wires pre amp. And you can do that with an old pair of headphones and some poking around with a wire. Once you have sound you just take those feed wires, the chassis ground to a jack plug and play a blank recorded disc to stop bleed through, you have left everything stock and have full use of the controls

 

If you go to crutchfield.com you will see head units with the capability of using the steering wheel controls. You have to buy an adapter to make it work. I think there are some mixed reviews on how well these adapters work.

 

The Jaguar ACM is a piece of overpriced garbage. Didn't even last 6 months for me.

 

10 years on, 10 hectic years of technology, it's not going to be up to date.