Car audio question ...

[Chester32141]

Recently picked up a 2004 Buick LeSabre  ... Has most of the bells and whistles that were available at the time including XM radio ... when I open the ashtray I find 3 factory installed jacks which according to the Owners manual are available to plug into a cassette deck ... radio has cassette and CD ... I'm wondering if the jack, a 3.5mm, not mini USB can be plugged into an MP3 player and played thru the radio ... I've scoured the Owners manual and found no reference to how to switch the input to these jacks to play them thru the radio ...

Does anyone know if I should be able to play an MP3 player w/ these jacks ?

and ...

Does anyone know how to operate this radio to switch the input to the jack ?

Thanks for any and all input ...  

[Brad Johnson]

The jacks in the glove box are 3.5 mm (1/8") female, or are they some type of multiplug?

Brad

[Chester32141]

There are 3 separate jacks ... one is 3.5mm male ... I believe they are just variations on input jacks ... the one fits an MP3 audio port just fine ...

[roo_ster]

If you have a 3.5mm input jack, your car radio ought to have a "AUX" or some sort of mode to take advantage of that input.

[Chester32141]

No AUX ...

[Doggy Daddy]

I was thinking the switching might be built into the jack, and was searching teh gooklenetz to see if I saw anything when I ran across this post:

I will assume for the moment this is the last of that crap GM thought was a better idea. I know on my wife's 00 Monte SS, that you had to keep the factory radio to keep from having a xmas tree cluster. What most of those guys did was to mount the factory radio in the trunk under the package tray and run a harness just to make sure the module was on the bus. If you deleted the radio, you ended up with a no start condition.

I have to assume you will end up with the same thing. You just have to keep the factory radio in the vehicle somewhere. It's a PITA, but really no too bad.

May or may not apply to your situation, but is something you should be careful of.

Quoted post copied from https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/buick-rendezvous-audio-options/31069/page1/.

[Chester32141]

The radio is integrated into the electrical system so I'd rather not replace it especially since it's an old man's car that probably saw little audio use ... since this is to be my travelling car I'd love to hook MP3 up to it if it's possible ... rather not spend $10 / month for XM radio for as little use as it will get ... Thanks for the help guys ...

One of the replies to the post Doggy Daddy posted mentions plugging the 3.5mm jack into an MP3 and sticking a cassette in the radio and it will play ... worth a try ... (Didn't work but both the cassette and the CD work fine)

[Brad Johnson]

First... Why is the radio out of the car?

Second... Just looked through the owners manual and didn't see anything about a glovebox audio connector. I see references to a cd changer, but that would be in the trunk. I'm beginning to think you have an aftermarket audio interface. Probably something installed so the previous owner could use their ipod, and set up to play through the radio when you tune to a specific channel.

Get pics of the audio jacks so we can see what you're seeing.

Brad

[Chester32141]

Radio pic was similiar one on Ebay ... 99% sure it's factory ... but I hope you're right cause that could make life easier for me ... I'll try some channels ...

[Brad Johnson]

Pics of the audio jacks would help a ton.  Even better would be to pop out the radio or look in the dash and see if you can get the make/model of the interface.  Some of them are ipod/iphone specific.  Others are generic.

I've dealt with a couple of aftermarket interfaces. They used channels at the bottom of the FM band.  Start there with your mp3 player volume set at about two-thirds.  You might get lucky by hitting the SEEK button.

Brad

[Chester32141]

Turns out it's factory installed XM Radio ... the connectors are for antenna, power and audio wired direct to radio via FM antenna  ... appears to have never had an XM tuner installed.  I'd still rather connect the audio jack to an MP3 player but for some reason I can't get anything to come out of the radio after multiple trips thru the FM dial ... does anyone have any experience w/ early (2004) GM XM Delphi radio ?  It acts like I need the XM tuner to operate the audio jack or I need a subscription to wake that part of the radio up ... I thought I could find all this out online but I think the fact that it's ten years old is working against me. 

Thanks for any input ...
 

[Brad Johnson]

If it's factory XM it won't be wired through the antenna jack, it'll be intergrated into the radio itself.  It could have been a dealer installed XM tuner, but I have serious doubts about it being a factory unit.  The connectors and wiring in the pics you sent are pretty generic. Factory engineered optional equipment would be designed with multipin connector similar to the other radio connectors (molex style) for ease and efficiency of assembly.

Brad

[dogmush]

http://www.gmforum.com/audio-aftermarket-electronics-101/how-i-hacked-ipac-oem-into-2004-lesabre-275273/

This might be relevant.

I'd have to see the car to be sure though.

[Brad Johnson]

His setup has an antenna jack plus what appears to be audio and power connections.  I'm guessing it's a garden variety FM modulator installed so the previous owner could use their iPod/phone through the car stereo.  I've installed many of them for friends and family. His connectiins have a similar appearance and setup.

Brad