My sound's not distorted at all, using the Belkin Auto Charger. I don't have it cranked all the way up. On a scale of 1 to 5, it's at about a 2.5 to 3, because it is powerful. My Aux level on the HU is on 5. I'm having no probs whatsoever. Use your judgement of what works for you, as always.

 

I have an August 2005 build MCSC.

First, the radio does NOT display mp3 tags or file names. I burned an MP3 disk, which plays fine. But the desplay just numbers the folders and the files. It doesn't tell you what they are. If anyone knows how to get tags or file names to display, let me know. I also burned an MP3 cd-rw disk, which played for a while, then started skipping. Now, it won't even recognize the disk. Strange. CD-Rs seem to work fine. It may have been a crappy CD-RW disk?

Second, I removed the knee bolster by pulling down hard, and then wiggling it out of the hinge. There were no clips that I could see, and removing the knee bolster did not require a torx screwdriver or any special tools. Was not hard - just takes a bit of faith to yank. Similarly, reaching behind the radio to plug in the aux cable was a piece of cake. I did it without a mirror. Very easy.

Third, I bought the euro shelf, drilled a hole for the Aux connector, and installed the shelf. However, I have not been able to get the screws for the euro shelf in. I don't have the required torx screwdriver. The shelf seems to be fine without the screws, but at some point I'd like to get the screws put in.

Lining up the screws with the clip screw nuts does not look easy.

I also had problems getting the aux connector installed on the back of the euroshelf. The shelf is a bit thick for the length of the aux jack. Also, I did not have metric drill bits. I managed to ream out a hole about the right size for the main connector and put the nut on. I did not use the aux plate, as the connector did not sit out far enough to use the plate. It was not a pretty install, but it is not really visible. Works fine.

It would really be nice if they made an in-dash player that you could plug an ipod into directly, and control it with the radio through the usb port with full tag support. I'm not clear why designing a USB host connection would be so difficult.

 

On my August build '05, the left side screw went in no problem. But the right side did not line up. The parcel shelf is wedged up in there hard enough that I'm not worried about it, but I would like to get it in there one of these days. The problem is that you can't move or adjust the plastic sleeve very easily once you install the shelf and there is enough play in the hole so that it doesn't line up easily. Other have suggested using an awl to line up the hole, but haven't tried that yet.

 

For the parcel shelf, my trick for getting the right side screw in is to pull the edge of the shelf down towards the head of the screw - this will give you enough angle and a view of the plastic (semi)captive nut. Once it's started, you can snug it up easily.

(back to topic...)

 

what size torx head should be used?