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DIY: 2007+ MDX RES Aux relocation and aux volume boosting
Hi,
(This will be a 2 part thread as I finish it up next weekend)
If you're also upset about the placement of the aux inputs for the MDX with rear entertainment, this project may help you. I'm relocating the Aux input to the console. While I'm in there, I'm also adding a 'passive amplifier' for the low aux volume.
For those who don't know, in the RES MDX, the aux input is taken from the RCAs in the rear. This is begging to be broken off by someone's leg/foot. I have kids and I'm being proactive on this issue. I currently unplug it until after they're buckled in and use high quality gold ones to hopefully not break off the poles inside. This is annoying though.
For the passive amplifier, it's a device called Sound Shocker Pro, ($59). It does not need power or batteries. I tested this beforehand to confirm it works on our cars. It works good. Volume is boosted 2-3x. If you're wondering how it works, you can read more about it online. There is a non Pro model for $29 that I also have and will test in the TL. You can purchase both together for $80 shipped.
For the relocation I am adding in an OEM Aux input. I used this one: https://www.amazon.com/Replacement-Honda-Auxiliary-Assembly-39112-sna-a01/dp/B077CZB6N5/
It's this style. I used that above to replace my TL input and am actually using an OEM Honda input but they're the same as far as I can tell/hear. I think the dealer version is ~$30. There's other OEM styles and other styles in general that you may find work better or look better. I had this laying around already new in box so this is the right one for me.
I'm combining that with an OEM style 5pin aux connector. Scosche part number HXAAB: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B002LT4I5Q
i chose this because I already had the Honda Aux laying around and wanted to use it, the connector matches so it made sense for me.
I'm combining that with a decent quality RCA female to 3.5mm adapter. I understand this setup is redundant with connectors but I'm going for OEM style and loudness boosting. Plus, this is a project. Make adjustments at your discretion. The one I've chosen to go with is: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B077DNG83N
These pieces combine together and go into the input of the Sound Shocker Pro. The output will go to the car's existing Aux wires. I am still looking for the pinout of the rear RCA harness. If you have one that's not deadlink'd, please share it as it will save me time for part 2 of this thread.
I will be tapping (or depinning and using, I'm undecided at this point) the existing Red and White RCA input wires and putting into a screw terminal 3.5mm connector. The one I'm using is: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B016W9P4N0
I have no first hand experience with these connectors or their quality yet. I chose this style because it looks more manageable for my goal. I thought about using 3.5mm->bare and that seems like it would work just fine.
I cut the hole out of the console using a Dremel tool. Since my hands free link was disconnected/broken, I removed it and mounted the Sound Shocker there with the included velcro stickies. I zip tied the excess wire together and tucked it on the side. I considered the heat coming through the rear vents and routed my wires where existing wires are or away from the vents as best as possible.
Complete parts list:
1x - OEM Honda Aux jack input
-- Honda Part No: 39112-SNA-A01
-- $20 on Amazon, $26 at OEMPartSource.com
1x - Scosche 5pin (3pin use) connector
-- Scosche Part No: HXAAB
-- $11 on Amazon
1x - PHPAudio Sound Shocker Pro passive amplifier
-- $29 for standard version (still good from what I read)
-- $59 for Pro (more db and wider frequency range)
-- for existing Red and White wires to Shocker output
2-4x short wires, solder or electrical tape
-- $0-5
-- for tapping into existing Red and White RCA wires*
* Part two. I will post the rest in the next post after I find a pinout or locate the necessary wires for red and white RCA and tap into those or de-pin them. After Dremel cut in console. Showing fitment A bit rusty with the drenel but it worked ok. Showing rear fitment Wire bundle ziptied and tucked aside. Showing Scosche HXAAB and aux together. Rear view Gold plated&copper shielded RCA female to 3.5mm Male Sound Shocker Pro velcro mounting where HFL used to be Overview of PHPAudio Sound Shocker Pro mounted in HFL module location Another view from inside the console after install (ignore wife's Mickey purse)
Ok, that worked out worse than expected.
The 3.5mm->terminal adapters are shit. Left terminal pole doesn't work. Maybe it's the combination with the sound Shocker and different pole lengths but I don't really care at the moment. I'll switch to standard 3.5mm to bare wire adapter later.
After hours of scolling, I was able to find the pinout for the rear audio RCA/headphone jacks/panel. The manual has them listed wrong and uses different colors but it still helps.
Right now I have it rigged up as follows:
3.5mm terminal taking left and right to the R pole. Ground to ground. On the harness side, you'll use pins 10, 11 and 12.
Because I'm not keeping this setup and had issues with activating the signal, I have it wired in directly to the harness and it is not plugged into the RCA panel at all. The car detects this and won't allow you into AUX mode so you'll need to jump pin 6 to trick it into thinking it is plugged in.
Pin 1: Red (Dash Lights brightness controller)
Pin 2: Light Blue (Lights on signal)
Pin 3: Gray (Rear controller and screen)*
Pin 4: Light Blue (VIDEO ground)
Pin 5: Gray (AUDIO L+R shielded ground)*
Pin 6: White (COMMUNICATION CHECK)
Pin 7: Pink (Headphones R+L ground)
Pin 8: Gray (VIDEO IN SHIELDED)
Pin 9: Purple (VIDEO IN)
Pin 10: Green (AUDIO Left)
Pin 11: Pink (AUDIO ground)
Pin 12: Blue (AUDIO Right)
Pin 13: Green (Headphone Left)
Pin 14: Blue (Headphone Right)
* The manual says Gray is Brown. It may be brown in your car. They were all Gray in my car. It is possible that my rear controls for the screen don't work right now. I don't know if that Pin #3 controls as much as it says or not. My panel is temporarily disconnected and I didn't check it out. I have it temporarily rigged just for aux boosted sound to work. I will probably do it proper after I get another 3.5mm->bare adapter type. The manual also says pin 10 is VIDEO LEFT. Video doesn't have left and right so I assumed that was an error. It was a correct assumption.
I jumped Pin 6 to pin 3 but it seemed to work with anything for signal. That jump allows the aux to be available at the head unit with the panel unplugged. It may not be safe or recommended. I'm just sharing my experience so far.
The initial problem I ran into was plugging in the pins and getting very very weak sound. Until I plugged in an rca. I initially thought this was a grounding problem and so I added the shield ground. That did nothing. It seems that it was either a problem with my wires (unlikely) or that the panel recognizes the RCA being plugged in/completes that circuit (my preferred hypothesis). I didn't experience that issue when the harness is unplugged but I did not try jumping pin 6 with the harness plugged in yet. I only jumped it outside of the panel to fool it. I believe outside of the panel, pins 10-12 worked properly without the jumper. (It stays in aux until you restart the car/change radio mode unless you have pin 6 jumped). I'm actually hoping that jumping pin 6 WILL work while inside the harness to fool it into thinking rcas are plugged in. If not, I'm not positive which way I'll go but I may disassemble the whole panel and go deeper.
I'll post the image I found for the pinout. Remember that Brown (BRN) may be Gray or another color in your car.
I can't say enough good things about the Sound Shocker Pro tho. It makes a good Christmas present for someone. I'd recommend getting them a quality aux cord to go with it. The included one is pretty flimsy and won't last long. I usually look for shielded and gold plated Acura MDX (2007, 2008, 2009) Rear Entertainment System (RES) Tech rear RCA/Headphones input jack pinout schematic harness plug diagram Brown may be Gray or something else. Pin 10 is NOT video, it is AUDIO
Thanks for all the research that you did into solving this annoying issue… It is unfortunate you didn’t get any replies because I am currently trying to figure this out now. Did everything end up working out for you? Need a solution because I am not happy with what I have going on music wise.
Thanks for all the research that you did into solving this annoying issue… It is unfortunate you didn’t get any replies because I am currently trying to figure this out now. Did everything end up working out for you? Need a solution because I am not happy with what I have going on music wise.
Yes, everything worked out well for me. What is your issue currently?
I was running a splitter on that annoying external RCA adapter for the last year (super hassle that often gets disconnected by a passenger's feet) and now it has a short....was thinking of hard wiring the 1/8 inch aux cable to the wiring in the console but couldn't find the wiring diagram to know which wires are for what. Seeing you use terminology like "jump" I am not sure I have the technical know how. Would jumping the wire be connecting them to each other (e.g. pin 6 to pin 3)??? I've installed car stereos and done basic electrical work before but the terminology is foreign to me. If I connected the aux cable wires directly to the correct left and right audio wiring could I bypass the external adapter and still get good sound via bluetooth? What about grounding...what wires would I put where? Thanks for the reply....Don't want to waste money or time on something that won't work well.
I was running a splitter on that annoying external RCA adapter for the last year (super hassle that often gets disconnected by a passenger's feet) and now it has a short....was thinking of hard wiring the 1/8 inch aux cable to the wiring in the console but couldn't find the wiring diagram to know which wires are for what. Seeing you use terminology like "jump" I am not sure I have the technical know how. Would jumping the wire be connecting them to each other (e.g. pin 6 to pin 3)??? I've installed car stereos and done basic electrical work before but the terminology is foreign to me. If I connected the aux cable wires directly to the correct left and right audio wiring could I bypass the external adapter and still get good sound via bluetooth? What about grounding...what wires would I put where? Thanks for the reply....Don't want to waste money or time on something that won't work well.
Yes sir, jump means an unofficial wire mate/link. I connected pin 6 to pin 3 and it worked. It may work or be intended to work with another pin. This was some months ago but that's what I settled on.
As mentioned, I don't even have my harness plugged into the rca panel anymore so yes, you'd be able to bypass the external adapter. That's essentially what I've done but I just located mine into an aux port and drilled out the console to hold it in.
I think the big problem is that the wiring diagram is partially wrong from Acura and also that weird circuit check. The one that required me to jump Pin 3&6. I wasn't expecting that. There is another way to do it without jumping those. You will wire it in to left and right as outlined above, and then buy rca caps (metal) and insert them into the RCAs on the panel. That would require you to plug the harness back into the rca panel as normal. But what that essentially does is allows that circuit check to be ok. The same functionality as jumping pin 6 to 3 in my experience. I first thought about doing it that way but I feel like my kids would pull them out and lose them. Maybe I'll go that route in the future and plug it back into the panel but it's not a big concern for me.
Similar to you, I've done a lot of car audio/stereo installs but this was new to me and it was difficult to find any info that wasn't deadlink'd. That's why I made this thread. Mdxers.org has a similar thread where people are asking why it didn't work when they hardwired it directly in. It's because of that RCA check. Without that, sound doesn't come (it's VERY faint) and when you turn the car off, the aux button won't even do anything anymore. The option is gone. That scared me at first but I plugged RCAs into the panel and turned the car off/on again and it was normal again. All is well.
I think you'll do just fine, I've posted info above that should definitely help you out with it but I'm still here to reply and help you out if you get stuck. I still have my MDX and can take pictures if you needed something specific also. It's really not complicated, they just made it more difficult than it should have been.
Edit:
Pin 10: Green (AUDIO Left) Pin 11: Pink (AUDIO ground) Pin 12: Blue (AUDIO Right)
are the pins I used for audio and jumping 3&6 for the "rca signal check".
as for the sound quality for Bluetooth, I can't say. I didn't like the low aux volume and found that passive device that amplifies it. It does a great job.
HOWEVER, since your goal is Bluetooth, they make a plug and play Bluetooth device for the MDX. It plugs in and uses XM2. I have the part number for it, I hear it works great but I myself have not used one. "BT45ACU" or "BT45HON". There are likely tutorials for plugging this in as well, it's simple plug and play and definitely something to consider if you're most interested in Bluetooth. No aux short to worry about there either
Nice DIY, I have done a DIY with Navtool and right now I am running the aux cable from front to the center console over the cup holders as I couldn't find a way to open that whole gear + cupholder console. Could you please help with the steps?
I want to reroute the wires from behind the stereo to the center console for aux cable. actually whatwould be even better if I can somehow do it near the stereo itself if there is a way.
Why not use Isimple and their AUX module? I got tired of messing with RCA's and just opted for a better method with USB input. It's about $125 on amazon and works with my iphone X for music. I ended up installing it in the passenger cubby in the center console and ran the wires up so it's easy to hook up.
Why not use Isimple and their AUX module? I got tired of messing with RCA's and just opted for a better method with USB input. It's about $125 on amazon and works with my iphone X for music. I ended up installing it in the passenger cubby in the center console and ran the wires up so it's easy to hook up.
has a USB plus 2 aux inputs, retains XM and plugs into the XM port behind the radio (at least on my mdx with rear entertainment) and some MDX's have it connect at the rear of the car at the XM tuner.
has a USB plus 2 aux inputs, retains XM and plugs into the XM port behind the radio (at least on my mdx with rear entertainment) and some MDX's have it connect at the rear of the car at the XM tuner.
Thanks, like i said will have to check if that port is not already used by Navtool then will do it.
Yes sir, jump means an unofficial wire mate/link. I connected pin 6 to pin 3 and it worked. It may work or be intended to work with another pin. This was some months ago but that's what I settled on.
As mentioned, I don't even have my harness plugged into the rca panel anymore so yes, you'd be able to bypass the external adapter. That's essentially what I've done but I just located mine into an aux port and drilled out the console to hold it in.
I think the big problem is that the wiring diagram is partially wrong from Acura and also that weird circuit check. The one that required me to jump Pin 3&6. I wasn't expecting that. There is another way to do it without jumping those. You will wire it in to left and right as outlined above, and then buy rca caps (metal) and insert them into the RCAs on the panel. That would require you to plug the harness back into the rca panel as normal. But what that essentially does is allows that circuit check to be ok. The same functionality as jumping pin 6 to 3 in my experience. I first thought about doing it that way but I feel like my kids would pull them out and lose them. Maybe I'll go that route in the future and plug it back into the panel but it's not a big concern for me.
Similar to you, I've done a lot of car audio/stereo installs but this was new to me and it was difficult to find any info that wasn't deadlink'd. That's why I made this thread. Mdxers.org has a similar thread where people are asking why it didn't work when they hardwired it directly in. It's because of that RCA check. Without that, sound doesn't come (it's VERY faint) and when you turn the car off, the aux button won't even do anything anymore. The option is gone. That scared me at first but I plugged RCAs into the panel and turned the car off/on again and it was normal again. All is well.
I think you'll do just fine, I've posted info above that should definitely help you out with it but I'm still here to reply and help you out if you get stuck. I still have my MDX and can take pictures if you needed something specific also. It's really not complicated, they just made it more difficult than it should have been.
Edit:
Pin 10: Green (AUDIO Left) Pin 11: Pink (AUDIO ground) Pin 12: Blue (AUDIO Right)
are the pins I used for audio and jumping 3&6 for the "rca signal check".
as for the sound quality for Bluetooth, I can't say. I didn't like the low aux volume and found that passive device that amplifies it. It does a great job.
HOWEVER, since your goal is Bluetooth, they make a plug and play Bluetooth device for the MDX. It plugs in and uses XM2. I have the part number for it, I hear it works great but I myself have not used one. "BT45ACU" or "BT45HON". There are likely tutorials for plugging this in as well, it's simple plug and play and definitely something to consider if you're most interested in Bluetooth. No aux short to worry about there either
I am not really a technical person. Wondering what can be the possible power source?
There are a bunch of realistic options for grabbing 12v in the console area. I would use the existing bluetooth module power. Since those notoriously go bad and drain the battery, most of them are, or should be, disconnected. It sits right behind the rear climate control panel. It'll have a plug going to it. You can grab that and find 12v power. For a good clean ground, there is a metal bracket behind the climate control panel where the existing bluetooth module is, you should be able to ground it to that. You could hide the whole thing behind the climate control panel plastic cover and just feed the RCAs out of the bottom and plug them in. Be careful to not let your kids or any back seat riders kick them and break them off.
Since you're not very technical, the safe and easy way to find 12v power from that connector, get a voltmeter. Turn theSthe ignition to ON and set it to DC voltage. Touch the black prong to the metal bracket or any ground. Poke the red prong into the harness you just pulled off of the existing bluetooth module. One (or more) wires should show 11-13 volts. That's what you'll be looking for.
(I got a new phone without Aux so I may be adding a standalone bluetooth solution into my car but I'm also considering wiring in a usbc->aux too. I'm not sure yet. If I go bluetooth, I'll add it into the write up here)
There are a bunch of realistic options for grabbing 12v in the console area. I would use the existing bluetooth module power. Since those notoriously go bad and drain the battery, most of them are, or should be, disconnected. It sits right behind the rear climate control panel. It'll have a plug going to it. You can grab that and find 12v power. For a good clean ground, there is a metal bracket behind the climate control panel where the existing bluetooth module is, you should be able to ground it to that. You could hide the whole thing behind the climate control panel plastic cover and just feed the RCAs out of the bottom and plug them in. Be careful to not let your kids or any back seat riders kick them and break them off.
Since you're not very technical, the safe and easy way to find 12v power from that connector, get a voltmeter. Turn theSthe ignition to ON and set it to DC voltage. Touch the black prong to the metal bracket or any ground. Poke the red prong into the harness you just pulled off of the existing bluetooth module. One (or more) wires should show 11-13 volts. That's what you'll be looking for.
(I got a new phone without Aux so I may be adding a standalone bluetooth solution into my car but I'm also considering wiring in a usbc->aux too. I'm not sure yet. If I go bluetooth, I'll add it into the write up here)
Thanks a lot for very prompt response. Very helpful indeed. My kids broke one of the RCA connectors. Have been driving without music. Fixing this is getting on my nerves. I took the following photo of harness that goes into the harness. When you say wire number 10, how does that sequence works. Like I said, I am not technical person. Just don't want to blow anything else lolzzzz
Thanks a lot for very prompt response. Very helpful indeed. My kids broke one of the RCA connectors. Have been driving without music. Fixing this is getting on my nerves. I took the following photo of harness that goes into the harness. When you say wire number 10, how does that sequence works. Like I said, I am not technical person. Just don't want to blow anything else lolzzzz
See the above picture. Even tho I found an error, the overall is accurate. Red being #1 and light Blue being #2. #10 would be the Green between Purple (#9) and Pink (#11)
Harnesses count across the "top" first. In this case, 1-6.
#7 starts the second row and should be Pink. Some variations do occur across years and manufacturing places. I think I read somewhere else when I did mine that they had Gray wires instead of Pink but the overall schematic still matched
See the above picture. Even tho I found an error, the overall is accurate. Red being #1 and light Blue being #2. #10 would be the Green between Purple (#9) and Pink (#11)
Harnesses count across the "top" first. In this case, 1-6.
#7 starts the second row and should be Pink. Some variations do occur across years and manufacturing places. I think I read somewhere else when I did mine that they had Gray wires instead of Pink but the overall schematic still matched
today was the happiest day. i was able to finally install this bluetooth device (https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Universal-Bl...72.m2749.l2649) in my 2008 acura mdx entertainment/elite package. everything worked out pretty well as VTECin5th explained earlier. Last two pics show how i tested the power, and right pins for audio. the device has rca connectors and upon cutting them off i got two wires in each. I ended up using pin 10 green for audio L, Pin 12 blue for audio R and Pin 11 to hook the audio ground and finally jumped pin 6&3. I tried to hook the harness back to console but i lost the sound. So i ended up leaving the harness unhooked as my kids use the wireless headphones anyways. entire solution cost me approx 36S CAD (16$ for bluetooth device and 20$ for volt meter).
11-17-2018, 10:57 PM
