Neogeek

Hey I just talked to the guy over at Jo-Di's in Hartford, and made an apointment to get a hardwired FM modulator installed in my TL. Well he said that it shouldn't be a problem when i described to him where i wanted all the plugs and such.

Well he said he would charge me 50 for the modulator, which is an audiovox (seems a little high for the audiovox) and 75 for the installation. so 125 seemed like a pretty good deal, and my family have gone to this place for 30+ years and they trust them...


Anywho where i want the RCA plugs to come in, would be near the bottom of the lower center armrest compartment, maybe a little higher then where the power plug is in. Well when I had some time while my mom was driving (we went cross country), I played with all the little things, writing down a couple rattles (when the car is loaded a crap load of rattles disapeared), and one thing I had noticed was that at the hinge in the center console, the AC air is comming out... Well I knew that the vents were right there, but thought that they were completely sealed, and that the reason for the cup holders and the aluminum strips i thought were just because the duct was right along it... well so is that whole center thing one duct, meaning if they sliced a hole and found that they found wire it, would i have myself a brand new air duct in the bottom compartment (heh convert it into a cooler now)?


I would be putting my power switch in the top center compartment right under the stereo, but im not sure about putting the pluggs for the audio in the center armrest...

hmm i saw it done on a TSX, but then again i dont think the TSX has rear vents and thus was able to do it.


Any insight would greatly be appreciated!

Thanks!

GaleForce

I just have a wire coming out from under the center console and the switch is in the passenger leg-well. Looks fine.

Neogeek

well I would like to have it completely comcealed and not have to see any wires...

what fm modulator did you get installed? If it is the Audiovox, how good is it? I was thinking about buying a clarion fm modulator and having them install it instead of the audiovox because i like the quality of the clarion better then the audiovox.

And is it me or can i not find these fm modulators except on buying sites? I went to Audiovox and they are saying that the model number FMM100A i am giving it is invalid... werid huh?

Neogeek

ok well i found all the product pages (online stores tell you more information then the manufacture's website does.

Im going back to jo-di's tommorrow and reschedual the appointment, and have one of the installers come out and see what I would need to get him if i wanted to get my own parts.

im having nightmares of them opening up and finding that they cant do it the way i want.. err frustrating...

Neogeek

well im not going to do it at Jo-Di's... talked to the guy at tweeters and he has all the parts i want... a little more expensive, but knows what i am talking about. when i make the appointment tommorrow then i will ask the installer about the vents and see if he can work around that or something.


btw for all of you peeps with fm modulators, did you have to install a noise filter on the car, so when you rev the engine, you wont hear the engine rev through the audio?

Thanks

Sherlock

I had an audiovox fm modulator in my Accord with my XM install.. one word, spend more and get something else. piece of noisy crap. Picked up tons of spark noise and had awful fidelity. Granted you can't expect much from fmmods, but there are better ones out there.

I ended up having Surecant Sh!tty remove the entire XM installation and refund my $600 cuz they couldn't get the noise problems out. Then found in the box that they never installed the ferrite filters on the wires. They tried to offer to put them on but I was fed up by then.

vtechbrain

WTF is an FM modulator??? FM means frequency modulation, so what does a modulator do Sounds like another useless electronic doodad

car_lost

an FM modulator will sound like shit. get the blitzsafe adapter. do a search for it and im sure you will come up with something... jsut DONT get the fm modulator.

Neogeek

do you have the blitzsafe adapter on your TL? well im gunna get it installed... its only 55 bucks for a clarion fm modulator, and another 150 to have all the monster wireing done, so if something comes out thats better and works with the TL, then i will have only lossed 55 bucks, and use the prexisting wires for the new setup.

Neogeek

well brought my baby in today for surgery and boy what a nerve racking 4 hours it was.

Let me start from the top at 10:30PM as a drive into Tweeters. since my appointment wasnt until noon, i thought i would just wait for Tom Z. to arrive and then i would give him the final heads up on as to what I wanted.

12 on the dot-
He came we talked a bit and then he said he wanted to go everything again with me (price and all that) so it was 50 an hour for labor, 70 for all the monster wires and acc., and 55 for the clarion FM mod. He said that 2 hours would be plenty of time to get the job done right. Since i didnt have anything to do today I wasnt worried about time, I had my summer school reading with me and got a chair and watched discovery HD on a 60 LCD sony screen, so I was comfy.

Tom said for insurance reasons he had to drive it into the shop, so without a second thought, i handed him the keys and started walking back into the store. well i stopped half way because the dude kept on stalling the car... he finally got the hang of it and whirled around the corner. I just chuckled and went inside.

1 o'clock-
AFter watching a very interesting program on designing this mom's back yard in HD, Tom comes out and says that the installer is running along smoothly and everything had been taken out except for the stereo itself. I thought to myself that an hour just to get the devider out was pretty long, but this is my first time so i dont know.

He then remarked at how many screws the installer was taking out, and i was just saying to myself that every screw better be put back in or else ill have to face some major rattle issues.

He also apologized for stalling the car, which i thought was a good deed.

2 o'clock-
Tom comes out (watching shrek now) and is saying that the clarion isnt repsonding so they will try the audiovox. The reason why I went with tweeters was because they had the parts i wanted, so now i will have to live with some audiovox with a switch that belongs in an airplane.

anywho whatever, they are both fm mods, i wont see the switch so as long as it works thats fine. by this time its been 2 hours and thats 100 bucks in labor so im starting to get a little worried, but i still keep my cool.

2:30-
Tom comes out with a frown on his face and tells me that they have gone through 3 different FM mods and is telling me that when playing it at full 40 you can just barely hear the music that the ipod is playing. Now this whole time i was thinking well since they sell the ipod, they must have had some training in it.

I asked tom if he had changed the volume on the ipod at all, and his jaw dropped prb 4 inches. He took me out back where they were working on my car and there i saw the mess...

the glove comparment was taken out the clock bord was taken out... everything that was touching the stereo was taken out. thank god i had gone to the bathroom before i went to this place or else i would have shit in my pants. though I kept my cool prb from being so numb in shock.

I took a picture and once i get my card reader back from my uncle ill post it as well as the after pics.

Anywho I thought to myself, first i get keyed on the outside, and now im going to get ripped off in labor charges and end up with a half ass put back together interior.

I turned up the volume and viola we have sound, so i asked them to try the clarion again and went back to my corner and cried (well i wanted to, but kept saying to myself it will get better)

He said it shouldnt be more then 10 min to get the wiring done, and then 50 to get the mess put back together.

3:30-
tom came out and said that he will ring me up for the install and told me that it should be another 30 minutes till the car is ready.

well he rung up all the items (got the clarion to work thank god) and then apologized for the long wait and said that the labor will only be 70 bucks!!! so thats 2 good things in a row (clarion, and then the 70 bucks instead of 200 bucks for labor) So it all came to like 165 bucks with all the wiring and i was thrilled, but i still had to wait to see how the install actualy went

4 o'clock-
car comes around and tells me to come out. DAMN THEY HIT THE TAIL ON THE DONKEY PERFECTLY. I was so shocked/relieved. Not a single scratch and everything was concealed just the way i wanted it. Thanked the dude and then went to my street and floored it (Hartford has the crappiest roads so it was nice and bumpy... Well there it was the most anoying rattle that i had not heard before, and my heart sunk. i went more slowly and listened to where it was comming from... yep the center console. I opened up the door and then saw my fast lane transponder for the tolls. thats what was causing the rattle

so i went back up to the top and tried it again... silent

I went on a huge emotional rollar coaster today, but ended up top with a shit eating grin on my face.


As for quality. OK i am a really big audiophile and my family is too, so I am really picky when it comes to sound quality. Let me tell you this is not like anything a cassette deck can do nor is it anywhere near what an AUX input can do. there is a noticable hiss when playing soft music loud, but will fix that once my line out port for my ipod comes in, i wont have to worry about keeping the volume low to prevent distortion and the volume high on the dash.

Also I was expecting this so it wasnt really a disapointment was something called ground loop interference. the installer didnt have a filter but said that i can get it and he will install it when i replace the stock sub in the back. well for now i will just run on batteries and that will do fine.


This was the best 165 bucks i could spend on my car for audio... I would have liked to wait for something like an Aux input that worked without a problem with the TL's deck, but this will suffice.


Also when i was talking to the installer about the sub i wanted, he said he would have to take it from the sub output on the OEM amp because there were no preamp outputs that he could tap into

just wanted to let you know about how everything went and will post pics asap!!


BTW sorry for the long post