Identify this cable

[adambomb 10+ year member]

Hello. I'm a complete beginner, so I may be showing my incompetence here. But I need a little help identifying the cable pictured below.

Right now, I have a CD changer in my car that is located under the passenger seat. I've done some experimentation, and I'm about 99% sure that the cable pictured below is the audio cable.

Rather than taking off my head unit and doing all the wiring back there, I'd really just like to use the cable that currently goes to the CD changer and plug something into it that will hook up to my iPod instead. If that can be done with only one cable, great. If I need to buy a couple of cables to accomplish the task, that's okay, too.

I'm probably not as much of an audiophile as many people here. I know that the FM transmitters sound crappy, and I don't have a tape deck in my car, or I would probably just use one of those. So if using another cable will degrade my sound quality a bit, versus going straight from the back of the head unit, I'm probably not all that concerned. As long as it sounds at least as good as one of those tape deck converters, I'm fine.

Anyone know what this is? The CD changer is manufactured by Pioneer, if that helps.

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[ashunte23 10+ year member]

an cable from your cd changer! sorry couldn't help it! good luck! might help if you list year/model/ of car and if the changer is oem?

 

[adambomb 10+ year member]

an cable from your cd changer! sorry couldn't help it! good luck! might help if you list year/model/ of car and if the changer is oem?

I drive a 2003 Toyota Matrix XRS. The CD changer IS OEM, but I don't think it's the same one that comes in most 2003 Matrixes, because I've got the version with the nav system. Most of the Matrixes with a CD changer have it built into the dash, but because I have a nav system where the CD changer usually goes, mine is under the seat.

Is this posted in the correct forum? Should I move this over to general discussion for more luck?

 

[Scoobydoo 5,000+ posts]

looks lik the power harness for the cd changer to me

 

[SRim23 5,000+ posts]

i know that when i had my aftermarket pioneer changer that the plug like that was the power/ground cable. what colors are the wires coming from the harness itself.

 

[adambomb 10+ year member]

so that cable is from the cd player?
what does it say it does in the owners manual....

Yes, I unplugged that cable from the CD changer under the seat.

Owner's manual doesn't address the CD changer in much detail. There's the regular owner's manual, which doesn't address it at all, and then there's the "nav system" owner's manual. The CD changer came as part of the nav system, but that manual only really tells me about how to take the magazine out and put CDs in. It's not detailed at all.

 

[adambomb 10+ year member]

looks lik the power harness for the cd changer to me

It's not. At least I don't think so. There's a larger cable next to it. When I unplug the larger cable, the whole CD changer stops functioning. When I unplug the cable that is pictured, the car still acts like it's playing audio just fine... shows me what track number, what time it's at, etc... But the audio stops playing. So I'm pretty sure what I'm holding is the audio cable.

 

[adambomb 10+ year member]

so its a wire from the cd changer...?
and u want to.... do what, put music through that?

Yes. I'd like to plug that into another cord that I can plug directly into my iPod.

 

[adambomb 10+ year member]

that i do not believe would be possible with that wire.
about 95% positive.

I would just not use an ipod.

But then again i hate ipod's for multiple reasons. All i can do is give this thread a bump and hope someone who uses them can come help ya find something.

Is that not the audio wire then? It isn't the power cable, as the CD player continues to function when it is unplugged, minus the audio.

As long as it's the audio wire, it seems to me that it should be able to play audio just fine, no matter what I plug it into.

 

[adambomb 10+ year member]

If it helps anyone to identify this, the CD changer itself says "Pioneer 86270 01010" on the front. However, I've Googled this without success. So I doubt many people have these.

 

[SRim23 5,000+ posts]

with mine the big black cord was plugged into the HU which sent the signal from the changer to the HU, and that harness is for power.

 

[adambomb 10+ year member]

yea not saying it isnt the audio wire, but your not going to find anything to plug into that for an ipod. I think.
Now if ur trying to cut the wire up and splice it and all that, i personally wouldnt.

I'd just suffer with an FM transmitter cus your not losing that much quality compared to having to deal with crap wires and etc.

Surely I can find a cable that will convert from that to SOMETHING more common, though. Even if it plugs into the headphone jack, rather than the iPod base, that's fine. And I can buy a couple of cables to complete the conversion if I need to. But FM transmitters work like crap for me. I live in a big enough city that I can't get a good signal anywhere.

 

[adambomb 10+ year member]

with mine the big black cord was plugged into the HU which sent the signal from the changer to the HU, and that harness is for power.

HU = head unit? (sorry, I'm not that familiar with the lingo.)

If that's what this cord were, though, wouldn't the CD changer cease to function at all when I unplugged it, rather than just cutting out the audio?

There's a larger, but similar-looking cable that plugs in right next to this one on the CD changer that I think is for power and/or for sending the track information to the head unit.

 

[SRim23 5,000+ posts]

Surely I can find a cable that will convert from that to SOMETHING more common, though. Even if it plugs into the headphone jack, rather than the iPod base, that's fine. And I can buy a couple of cables to complete the conversion if I need to. But FM transmitters work like crap for me. I live in a big enough city that I can't get a good signal anywhere.

doesnt ur changer play mp3's? do you know how many mp3's you can fit on a cd. i figure itd be almost worth it to leave it alone and take a couple cd's and burn your mp3's on it.

i just dont know that id be hacking into wires that i didnt know what they were. but thats just me.

 

[adambomb 10+ year member]

you dont need a big signal, your transmitter is in your car with you.

I'm aware of this, but you still can't get a very good signal if a more powerful station is overtaking you.