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FCP Euro Service Kits

FCP Euro Kits

Adding an auxiliary input to a car designed in the 1990s is one of the best ways to increase overall enjoyment of the vehicle. Cassette adapters work, but often look sloppy and offer only marginal audio quality. The BlitzSafe VOL / M-Link V.1 is one of the best bang for your buck upgrades for everyday enjoyment. It has been a great way to boost the usability of the already excellent stereo fitted to my cars specifically my Volvo V70. The adapter works by tricking the radio into thinking there is a six disc CD changer in the car, allowing for direct Apple 30-Pin connection, or RCA/3.5mm input depending on the device.

What you'll need

 

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Key in position II lets you move it without starting the car, or if your shift interlock is working properly you can depress that and move the shift lever.
 

Installation

Begin by moving everything back, the seat should go back as far as possible and the shifter should be put into the bottom most setting for the greatest access. Take the knee bolster cover off with the single front facing Torx screw. It's important to be careful when removing this, they are fragile and it is annoying to replace broken mounts. The cover pulls down and then out, make sure to unclip the drivers side footwell lamp as you do this. Using all your flexibility, poke your head up into the guts of the dash and locate the yellow accessory connector. (pictured below & gratuitously highlighted) There are a lot of wires running to this, and for now we are only concerned with the big red one, our auxiliary power connector. The assembly should pull away with some twisting, as shown here the white connector came with it.

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The connector AUX power is switched on with the key so it's a great point to tap into the cars power without running a new line from the battery.

 

Radio Removal

DSC00041Remove the radio from its housing by depressing the two pull tabs at the sides of the unit. They pop out and then can be pulled to slide the whole thing out with ease. The radio has several connectors in the back and for this I only needed to remove the largest rectangular one in the middle of the unit. Here is where your radio will be disconnected from the power and will lose its activation, requiring a re-input of the code. The adapter has a yellow power cable and yellow multi-pin cable that should match up perfectly with the changer port on the rear of your radio. Taking your length of wire, run it up the left side of the center console area into the region behind the radio. With the knee cover off there should even be light visible through this gap. After checking the length of the wire I spliced it into the adapters power wire as shown below. When I performed previous installs, the adapter was just sitting loose behind the radio, for this time around I wanted to keep it from shaking about, so I 3M taped it down to the rear of the radio. This spot seemed to work well enough and didn't interfere with anything behind the radio. I routed the Ipod cord down through the center into the passenger footwell, the cord is rather long so this allows the extra to be shoved up behind the radio if needed. Connect the Ipod adapter to the Blitzsafe box and refit the connectors, then slide the radio back into place.  Take care here to make sure the radio is not obstructed and no wires are being pinched in the process. You may also want to secure the Ipod connection with suitable tape, over time the connection can wiggle loose.

Electricity

Next comes the issue of power. This part is sort of a botch job, while not the best way to do this it has worked on a few cars for years with no issue. Before connecting the wire to the yellow accessory plug, route it through the steering column area the best way you see fit. I normally zip tie or twist the wire around and through some existing conduits.  The power connector we pulled earlier uses slots that would normally require a specific wire connector to properly insert a new connection. While some one can probably comment to what the right part number is, I still haven't found a suitable match and instead just strip away the shielding from our power cord (shown above in black) and then insert it into the accessory connector. Leave about 1/3 of an inch exposed at the end for insertion. My 12 gauge wire was just too thick so, I only used about two thirds of the exposed wire and trimmed the rest away. Twisting the wire at the end helps keep it together when pushing it into the connector. After inserting the wire as far as possible into the #1 slot, I left a little bit of slack to accommodate any slight tugs during refitting.  Taking my gaff tape again I secured the newly added wire to the yellow accessory connector and tucked back where it came from.

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Gaff tape is commonly used in Audio / Video / Stage production. At about $18 a roll it's not cheap, but for sticking to clean plastics and metals its a really great material.
 

Test everything out before buttoning the car back up. Hitting the CHGR button on the radio should bring up a 1-99 reading on the display meaning you're good to go.

There are a few options on Blitzsafe's website and I keep choosing this one because while I do switch between my phone and an ipod in the car this provides another means of charging both with the right adapter. Note depending on the quality and setup of the adapter you may experience some electrical noise through the radio if charging the phone at the same time.

Those of you familiar with the tape deck adapters may enjoy this upgrade as you are less prone too the static clicks and pops produced by the cell data sending and receiving.

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Written by :
Anthony Peacock

Anthony Peacock is a small business owner and Volvo DIY enthusiast. He is an experienced videographer and editor with a long running reputation for owning and promoting Volvo cars and their many excellent qualities.


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