<<<Sorry for the lack of pictures!!!>>> My wife was going to take them but she came home from teaching with one of the little buggers strep!
I ordered the RPM Audiolink last Thursday, received the unit today in the mail...that was with the free shipping!
I decided to tackle the install today, even though I am a manager @ BBY and I have the world's best installers who were prepared to take this on tomorrow...I am super impatient!
Step by step (2006 6s GT AUTO w/auto-climate and Bose (no highs, no lows...)
1) Removing the cupholders/shift cover. This was the worst part. I kept thinking I was going to break them but I was persistant. Have the shifter in DRIVE when you do this. Just grab the cupholders to the right of the P-Brake and pull up. Make sure your center console is open when you do this. Eventually the clips will release and the cupholder will come up bringing the first part of the shifter-cover with it. Separate the cupholder from the shifter-cover now. Push down on where the ashtray should be while pulling up on the back part of the shifter-cover where the cupholder linked to it. Be careful, there is a cable connected to the shifter cover (attaches under where "Drive" is) and the cig.lighter power cable. Once all the clips release, slide it over the shift-stick, unplug the power from the cig.lighter and place it to the side. It cannot go far with the other cable attached.
2) Release the glove box by pushing in on the sides, then pop the elastic cord off the right side by pushing the tab down from inside the glove box. The glove box can be removed now.
3) Take out the "security bolt" from the head unit. Best accomplished with a ratchet w a 6' extension. The security bolt can be seen by looking at the back of the headunit from where the golve box used to be. It looked gold-colored to me. Be careful not to drop the screw into the car.
4) take out the 4 bolts at the bottom of the center console. Use the ratchet. don't lose the bolts.
5) slide the center console out. YES! Plug in your Audiolink's cable into the only free port on the back of the headunit. This port is on the left side of the unit. Run the cable to where you want (I ran mine to the glovebox, you can also run it to the center-storage-deal and punch out a few pieces of the grid at the bottom.
6) test the Audiolink now before you put all your stuff back together. Hit "mode" on the steering wheel or hit CD twice on the headunit.
7) put everything back and enjoy a CD free life.
8) make 9 playlists in iTunes. I named mine 1 Mazda, 2 Mazda, etc. so they are at the top of my list. You can copy playlists and rename them as one of your "Mazda" playlists so everything is nice an organized. Yes, I am super-anal. I line up my shirts in my closet by color so it looks like the color spectrum. whoops, too much info!
Once again, sorry for the lack of photos. When I get my XM, I am going to reroute the cable and I'll take pics then if someone else hasn't posted pics on an '06 by then.
(bowdown)Thanks for the FAQs on the site, I wouldn't have attempted this install without them!(bowdown)
I ordered the RPM Audiolink last Thursday, received the unit today in the mail...that was with the free shipping!
I decided to tackle the install today, even though I am a manager @ BBY and I have the world's best installers who were prepared to take this on tomorrow...I am super impatient!
Step by step (2006 6s GT AUTO w/auto-climate and Bose (no highs, no lows...)
1) Removing the cupholders/shift cover. This was the worst part. I kept thinking I was going to break them but I was persistant. Have the shifter in DRIVE when you do this. Just grab the cupholders to the right of the P-Brake and pull up. Make sure your center console is open when you do this. Eventually the clips will release and the cupholder will come up bringing the first part of the shifter-cover with it. Separate the cupholder from the shifter-cover now. Push down on where the ashtray should be while pulling up on the back part of the shifter-cover where the cupholder linked to it. Be careful, there is a cable connected to the shifter cover (attaches under where "Drive" is) and the cig.lighter power cable. Once all the clips release, slide it over the shift-stick, unplug the power from the cig.lighter and place it to the side. It cannot go far with the other cable attached.
2) Release the glove box by pushing in on the sides, then pop the elastic cord off the right side by pushing the tab down from inside the glove box. The glove box can be removed now.
3) Take out the "security bolt" from the head unit. Best accomplished with a ratchet w a 6' extension. The security bolt can be seen by looking at the back of the headunit from where the golve box used to be. It looked gold-colored to me. Be careful not to drop the screw into the car.
4) take out the 4 bolts at the bottom of the center console. Use the ratchet. don't lose the bolts.
5) slide the center console out. YES! Plug in your Audiolink's cable into the only free port on the back of the headunit. This port is on the left side of the unit. Run the cable to where you want (I ran mine to the glovebox, you can also run it to the center-storage-deal and punch out a few pieces of the grid at the bottom.
6) test the Audiolink now before you put all your stuff back together. Hit "mode" on the steering wheel or hit CD twice on the headunit.
7) put everything back and enjoy a CD free life.
8) make 9 playlists in iTunes. I named mine 1 Mazda, 2 Mazda, etc. so they are at the top of my list. You can copy playlists and rename them as one of your "Mazda" playlists so everything is nice an organized. Yes, I am super-anal. I line up my shirts in my closet by color so it looks like the color spectrum. whoops, too much info!
Once again, sorry for the lack of photos. When I get my XM, I am going to reroute the cable and I'll take pics then if someone else hasn't posted pics on an '06 by then.
(bowdown)Thanks for the FAQs on the site, I wouldn't have attempted this install without them!(bowdown)
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