Nabbs,
Yes, I purchased the CD changer harness (COR-HAR) from the place that I purchased the NEO iON adapter. They were the cheapest at $40.00.
And just an FYI, that photo that you posted showing a person disconnecting a connector in the passenger footwell, that is NOT the connection that you will be messing with. I think you know that but just in case you didn't!!
For me, that was the most difficult and time consuming task: finding the two CD changer 'port' connectors, and then making the physical connection between these two plugs and the CD changer harness. It was hard, for me, for two reasons:
1. I had my Z backed into my garage and being the lazy mofo that I am, had to lay on my stomach over the center console and reach down into the passenger footwell to do everything (real stupid!) coming in from the driver side. Because of the size of my garage, I'm not able to open the passenger side door all the way; should have just pulled the Z out and then did everything from the passenger side. Oh well, I still managed!
2. One of the CD changer port plugs is taped against a wiring harness and somewhat hidden from view (the harness is visable but the plug may not be). I had to use my finger tips and 'feel' for the connector plug and then undo the tape using one hand. Mine was tucked up behind the plastic panel on the far right-hand side of the passenger footwell. The second CD changer port plug is visable in the lower right-hand side of the passenger footwell (once you have that panel that is velcro'ed to the floorboard removed you should see it).
The CD changer harness came with very decent instructions and photos of where everything is located. I don't have time right now but I take a couple of digicam snaps for you later on and post them if you want. Just don't have time right now.
The port connector that you untape will be real easy to connect because you will have plenty of cable slack and room to make the physical connection. However, the port connector that is visable was a PITA for me. The connector, although visable, is attached to the frame of the fusebox. It feels very brittle and I was afraid to break the plastic tab or even worse: the connector itself
. Whatever you do, take your sweet ass time, don't want to make things worse by busting up plastic plugs and connectors!!! So what I ended up doing to make the connection to the CD changer harness was to physically bend the wires of the CD changer harness so that the plug was at a 180 degree angle and I fed it into the plug on the CD changer port side (hope this makes sense!). Since it was bent 180 degress, it almost looked like a U-shaped 'hook'. It took numerous tries but I was able to get it to seat against the plug and then using my other hand I was able to snap the two connectors together. Then I got out of my Z, stretched out, high-fived myself, and pounded an ice cold HEINEKEN
Once you have the CD changer harness physically connected in the passenger side footwell, it's downhill from there. The other end of the CD changer harness will connect into a small adapter box, this adapter box has some DIP switches on it (instructions will tell you which switches to set), and then you connect another cable from this adapter box to the iPod.
You probably can cut the cables to reduce the length, but I don't want to do that. I think I'll be able to tuck everything under the carpeting in the passenger side footwell. Just haven't gotten around to doing that yet!!
And yes, you can raise and lower the volume of the iPod through the factory head unit. You can fast forward, and revert to the previous track, etc.
I plan to keep my iPod in the cup holder so I can still control the iPod from the driver's seat.
The setup really sounds good, very crisp, clean, no static (CD quality assuming your mp3's are good quality!). I even shook the iPod constantly to see if I could mimick the Z driving down the road, no skipping
The volume level remains constant between the iPod, the CD player, and the AM/FM tuner, whether you go from AM/FM to the iPod, or from the iPod to the CD player, the volume seems to remain constant. What I love is that if you switch from the iPod to the CD player or radio, the iPod powers off (real nice feature). And the iPod battery will automatically charge from this connection (another must-have feature for me).
I almost went with the other solution that someone else posted, using a P.I.E. adapter (RCA connections) but I don't believe that it provides everything that I needed to have in my solution. It's cheaper but was not the solution for me.
Hope this answers your question(s)...and good luck!
Larry
