There is a thread about a similar topic, but a solid conclusion was never really arrived at, and my question is slightly different.
I have a stock 99 beetle stereo in my car, with a 6 CD changer.
I have been looking to add a AUX input (I know I will lose the use of my CD changer), but cannot figure out wich type of cable I will need. I know it must be the same 8-pin format as the CD changer it will replace, but that still leaves me with two options.
The first is simply a cable. The second seems to have some sort of amplifier or something attached. I would rather save the $50 and by the cheaper cable if that will work. If not I will have to shell out the $60+shipping for the other.
I ran into a similar dilemma back in 2007/08 when I had my 02 Beetle with Monsoon. I believe either will work fine, but, you may want to let some of the others who have been working more with this in recent years than I have chime in before you buy either one of these. What I can tell you is that I bought a similar setup from Enfig, except, the one I bought from them plugged into the CD changer cord in the trunk. Being that the converter has female RCA plugs, I ran a male RCA to 3.5MM male cable, then a 3.5MM female-to-male audio extension cable (from RadioShack) to the front of the car where I plugged my iPod in.
In the 99 that I have now, the previous owner essentially did the same thing. I'm not sure what's in the box attached to the wires, perhaps it is an amplifier...I don't know. I'm far from being a stereo guy and I don't want to mislead you. I don't know the brand of the one in that car, but I can certainly take a look at it when I get home, if you want. (the car isn't on the road)
I'm not sure if you are aware of this or not, you probably are, but you're going to need something like this if you go with Enfig's product:
I don't work for Enfig, and I definitely don't know anyone that does, but I can tell you that when I was questioning what you're looking at, they were extremely helpful. What I liked about Enfig is I knew that what I bought would definitely work with my car once I confirmed it with them. The only downside with the eBay one that I can see is if you need to return or exchange it, it will have to go back to China, which may or may not take a long time depending on where you are. I don't know if you noticed that or not.
Please feel free to ask me about it if what I said was confusing..it's early morning and I haven't had enough coffee yet, haha.
Still most curious to know if the $10 Cable will work???
Hopefully someone who has tried the blitzsafe that plugs directly into the HU can let me know if that one works. I would prefer to run the cable out of the dash, rather than up from the trunk if possible.
I have an adapter for the cd changer port in my trunk. Just tricks the car into thinking there is a changer when there isn't one (I didn't have one anyway, just monsoon). Works pretty good.
I PM'ed N7plus 1 to find out which cable he had tried. He had in fact tried the $10 cable!!
He said
"yeah the $10 one....i tried it, hit cd to use that output and it switches back to radio after it thinks theres nothing there"
So it looks like you do need to trick the deck into thinking that there is a cd player attached. That is what the box on all the $60+ AUX input adapters must be for.
So, that was the answer to the question.......Case Closed
I had a similar dilemma, and initially bought the cheap cable. It did not work, as you found. The Blitzsafe one works fabulously, however.
I believe that the cheap-cable option is only for stereos that have built-in aux functionality already — they have all of the wiring and stuff there, but simply don't have the socket. These stereos are found in mostly newer Volkswagens; not sure if that includes Beetles, but if it does it would only be the 2006+ ones.
Starting in 05 the Beetle has an aux jack under the heated seat switch bezel , it coincided with the new console design that was flattened out for a cellphone or iPod and the cup holder was moved to the ebrake area. How it is wired in I'm not certain but this retained the cd changer feature
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