According to the SwedeSpeed forum, installing the USA-SPEC Volvo Ipod adaptor should take about 45 minutes. Figuring this was my first attempt, I allowed 2 hours. I was done in three and a half. (I spent a half hour looking for the battery!)
Here’s a picture of the adaptor in all it’s glory:
Here is what it took:
1. Supplies:
a. Five feet of 18 gauge wire
b. Rosen core solder
c. Heat and Shrink tubing
d. Electrical Tape
e. USA-SPEC Adaptor
f. ProClip Mount and Holder
2. Tools:
a. Soldering Pencil
b. Torx head screwdriver
c. Bone Tool (soft plastic pry bar – I used a $0.98 spatula)
d. Metric socket set
e. Dremel tool (cut a small hole in the back of the storage compartment)
f. Flexible hands and fingers
The steps:
1. Before beginning, extend the ground cable on the USA-SPEC device. I added 5 feet of 18 gauge copper wire, soldered together and then sealed with “heat & shrink” plastic tubing. You can get this stuff at any good hardware store or (more expensive) at the local Radio Snack.
2. Set the dip switches on the USA-SPEC unit for “direct” mode. The alternative (“playlist”) disables the Ipod controls when connected. You don’t want that.
3. Move the passenger seat all the way back. You’ll need access to under the seat later in the installation.
4. Disconnect the negative post of the battery. This is supposedly crucial. If you don’t then I think the antitheft systems have a fit and you get error messages from your SRS system and/or the radio/CD head unit. All the instructions also say to NOT disconnect anything like the radio or the climate control system. Easy enough. I left all plugs connected during the whole process. But, I still disconnected the battery.
This took a while as I first had to find the battery. A quick look under the hood – Nope. No battery. My last car had it under the back seat. Nope, not there either. (About this time I should have read the owners manual…) Opened the trunk – nope, no battery. Wait. Where’s the spare? Ah Ha! The battery is in the hidden compartment with the spare tire. Sneaky Swedes.
a. Remove Spare Tire
b. Remove Battery Cover (need metric socket set to loosen the bolts)
c. Disconnect the negative connection.
5. Set the parking break. Insert the key in the ignition, and move it to the first position, put foot on break, and move the gear shift lever as far back as possible. You need this out of the way. Leave the key in (as you can’t remove it right now anyway) but turn everything off.
6. Use the spatula (or bone tool) to pry off the pen-holder cover located at the bottom of the center console. It just pops off. Set aside.
7. Push the two clips holding the gear-shift cover and remove it gently. Set aside.
8. Use the Torx screwdriver to remove the two screws holding the bottom of the climate control panel. Carefully set aside (I put them in the cup holder).
9. Yank the climate control panel out – this takes some oomph. It is held in place by two metal clips on the bottom of the radio head unit. They slide into slots on the top of the Climate unit. The right side slides out easier than the left. Kind of pull forward to slide it off the clips. Move it to the side – leaving all wires connected.
10. Now remove the two screws holding the bottom of the radio unit. Put those screws carefully aside. Once removed, the whole unit, including the storage compartment on the left, kind of slides down and forward. Leave everything plugged in.
11. Now you have access to the rear of the radio — the USA-SPEC plugs in the back of the radio. My unit had two sockets available. I think one is for the CD changer and one is for the NAV unit, but they were unmarked. I worried for a minute, but the cable that came with the USA-SPEC only fit one socket – whew.
12. I then detached the storage unit and used a dremel tool to cut a small hole in the back of the storage compartment. Then I fed the small end of the Ipod connection cable thru the hole, leaving enough slack to connect to the Ipod mount. Finally, with cable in place, I reattached the storage compartment to the radio unit.
13. I then fed both cables — the one from the radio and the one from the Ipod connector — down the right side of the console, out the bottom of the console near the passenger seat, and down under the passenger seat Be careful to run the cables under the seat rail. Once you get the cables down the side of the console, it’s easy to slide them back towards the seat. Leave them loose for now.
14. Run the ground cable along the top of the glove box area, and down the front side of the door. There is a grounding point right under where the trim starts. See picture. Running the wire is not that easy. Finding the grounding points is easy. Just loosen a bolt and wrap a loop of the grounding wire around it. Tighten again.
15. Set the radio unit/storage compartment back into place. It kind of clips into a lip on the top, and then sets back until the screw holes match up. Be sure to feed the USA-SPEC power cable (and fuse assembly) under the radio, leaving it accessible. You’ll be just tucking it behind the climate control system after we splice it into the lighter for power.
16. Check the slack on your cables under the passenger seat. With the radio snug, pull up any needed slack in the cables. Then put the screws back into the radio unit.
17. Connect up the USA-SPEC adaptor, and slide it into the depression under the seat rail. It should fit there nicely. You’re done with it for now. If you need access later, it’s easy to get to.
18. Carefully strip off some insulation on the positive wire that runs to the lighter and attach the positive feed to the Ipod adaptor. On mine, either of the purple wires that ran to the center of the lighter would work. I stripped off about ½ inch of insulation, wrapped the wire and soldered the connection, finishing with a couple of inches of electrical tape.
19. Tuck the fuse assembly and wires back in the crevice below the radio, and slip the climate control unit back on to the clips, and replace all the screws.
20. Replace the gear shift cover and then snap the pen holder back into place.
21. Attach the Pro-Clip mount to the car, and attach the Ipod cable to the Ipod holder. It fits in nicely, holding the universal docking connector snugly. Attach the holder to the mount and adjust the cable slack.
22. Put the car back into park, and remove the key.
23. Reattach the battery, and replace the spare tire, etc. Clean things up, Pet dog, and put away soldering iron, tools, and the like.
24. Start car — crossing fingers that nothing starts to spark or the like — and insert the Ipod in the ProClip holder.
25. Set the Volvo radio source to “CD–Changer and… voila it works! Crank up Buddha Bar and take the dog for a ride.
Thanks for this article; I’m contemplating to start on this endeavor myself
I’m curious about the following choices:
Why did you choose to have the device under the passenger seat and not hidden somewhere under the dash?
Why not connecting the power to the plus on the radio instead to the lighter?
Hi Theo,
Why under the seat:
I wanted to be able to get to the device easily for a number of reason, including: 1) In case I had the dip switches set wrong, 2) to use the audio-in jack, and 3) in case the device went “snap, crackle, pop” and I had to replace it.
And.. frankly, I tried a couple of locations in the dash, and none of them were easy to get to and none had an easy mounting service. I didn’t want to use velcro or some such. So, after looking at the options, it just seemed to tuck nicely under the seat rail.
Why the lighter instead of a positive wire on the radio:
Just laziness I suppose. I didn’t want to wait to order an OEM wiring harness, and I didn’t want to ruin everything by accidently severing the wrong wire on the radio’s connections. The lighter was easy to reach, the wire was easy to strip and solder, and it was easy to tell the positive wire from the ground. And.. perhaps more importantly, I could do the solder work AFTER I had reattached the radio, and stuffed most of the stuff back into the dash — it made it a lot easier to work on without burning my fingers and/or dripping solder on the center console.
Theo, There are after-market kits available which will give way to easy installation and a cleaner
cosmetic look!
Hey Theo,
Just got a 02 S60 a month ago, and i like it alot. Not too fond of no ipod support as my last car had an aftermarket HU with ipod connectivity.
This is exactly what i plan on doing for the car, mor so the location of the ipod. I was thinkinking more so of putting the holder in the cubby hole. Something that folds out our pulls out. Didn’t know if you tried something like that or not.
Anyways Kudos on the install and tutorial.. I will probably be using it very soon.