I have been pretty much in sync with the time as far as personal technology goes, so I think. I use CFL powered lights throughout the house, I abandoned paper news a while ago, I use smart-phone to keep me online on the go, and my music is all in MP3’s for a few years at least.
There is one big thing though that is terribly out of date. It is my car. There are a couple reasons really. It doesn’t break and I can’t convince myself to replace a perfectly working car. Any after market work usually requires special instruments and expertise and costs a lot, and as many of you know I am “cheap”. ;-)
So my Honda Accord ‘98 still has a cassette player instead of a CD, a rare thing these days. In my quest to turn it into a more comfortable place I have retrofitted it with a Blutooth enabled speaker (purchased at Sharper Image for all the Discover cash back I received) and a portable MP3 player which I connected to the car speakers via a cassette tape adapter.
Last week the cassette player died and I had to look for alternatives. The first thought that came in my mind was to buy one of those cheap FM modulators but I recalled that I already tried them twice and the sound quality in both cases was just terrible.
My second option was to install a more expensive FM modulator unit that connects directly to the car stereo antenna and has a manual switch to bypass the signal when not in use. I didn’t like the idea of having to switch off the thing every time I don’t want to use it. Besides, I would have to take off the stereo to install it which by itself is not a simple thing to do.
I then figured that since I have gone as far as consider removing my old stereo from the dashboard, maybe I should look into possibility of replacing it with something more up to date? I went to look at car stereo vendors. The thing I was looking for the first was support. Eventually I settled on Crutchfield and am I happy I did.
With all car stereos priced $129.99 an up Crutchfield will ship a vehicle specific receiver chassis, wiring, and instructions, everything free of charge. The thing that helped me the most was the helpline that is open every day till midnight (eastern time). I got to use it twice!
As it turned out installing a new car stereo is not a nightmare I feared it would be. My friend convinced me to pay $30 extra and buy a receiver with built in Blutooth and I am happy I did. I no longer need my old Blutooth speaker which I had a problem with since I was always forgetting to turn it off after leaving my car in the garage (my cell phone would then stop ringing when I am in the house). Another nice surprise is that the Blutooth will now stop the music or radio when I receive a call!
As I previously stated the folks at the support hotline were very helpful which really put me at ease with all the questions I had - and I had a lot. This was my first ever work on a car stereo. If you plan to do it yourself, buy from a vendor with a name in car electronics, unless of course you have somebody who has done it before and can offer you help.
A couple handy tips. Be careful with the screws to make sure you don’t drop them inside the dashboard. Use a magnet to keep them at the tip of the screwdriver. Another thing, you will need to connect wires. I had a soldering iron at home but you could also use a crimp tool and caps.
What was the most challenging work you have done on your car? Please share your story in the comments!
Photo credit to garrettmurray at Flickr
This happened about a month ago. I went to Jiffy Lube for an oil change and the guy at the station convinced me to do tire rotation. I agreed since I usually try to rotate my tires every other oil change or so. Went home not suspecting any trouble. Last week I decided to check tire pressure and realized I can’t reach the stems on any of the tires!
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