avgeek

You can't replace the head unit without breaking the savnav, so just replace the satnav.

Great to hear! I have to second your comments on Rosco's as well, those guys rock! That's where I got my plugs and dash parts. Jason in particular is really onto it. Did you tell them what you were up to? I'd be curious to hear their response if you did.

Sorry folks, the EA1271 is not compatible with Subaru head units. You need the EA1251 or EA1251B. I know because have I just bought both and found out the hard way! They are discontinued but sometimes show up cheap on TradeMe and Ebay. Don't pay any more than NZ$100 or you are being ripped off.

Yep, refer to the OP. Now having said that I believe the display triggers from the Acc signal via CeNet. I played with my unit on the bench but have just sold it last week so can't confirm this any more. When I get home I'll find out which pin it is; tying it to 12v might just get the thing to fire up.

No I didn't get around to it and ironically I sold the satnav unit just last week with the CD in it. I did have a backup copy, if I find it I'll sort something out.

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Whilst I think think the McIntosh OEM sound system in my BH5 Legacy sounds pretty nice for a factory setup, I always thought the sub lacked a bit of punch. To compensate I find myself turning up the bass control but unfortunately this just ruins the sound. The sub actually seems to be quite effective when turned up and I like the fact it takes up no space in the boot. If you also find your sub a bit quiet but don't want to replace it, this mod will sort it out. You won't believe your ears! ;D The McIntosh EF-1080I amp sits under the drivers seat. Remove it and take it apart. Make a note of where each screw goes as they are not interchangeable; you can permanently damage the amp by shorting things out of you replace the screws incorrectly. Find R519 on the underside of the PCB. It's a 10k SMD resistor near the power and speaker connector with 103 written on it. Replace this resistor with a higher value to increase the gain. Don't leave it out of the circuit or it may overdrive the sub and do damage. If you short it you will mute the sub entirely. After some experimenting I personally recommend 33k to get s good balance in sound. This should boost the sub by about 5.2dB. Feel free to choose any value you want between 10-100k. You might want to use a potentiometer instead so you can adjust the sub gain as you please. If you do this, I suggest a 50k linear (type B) pot in series with a 10k resistor. Make sure you use shielded cable and keep the cable very short to help prevent any instability in the amp. Connect the cable shield to a suitable ground point in the amp and (ideally) a 100nF or similar capacitor between the cable shield and the pot casing to prevent ground loops. Enjoy!

FWIW I made a copy of mine using Brasero and Nero and both worked fine. The CD doesn't contain a standard file system (e.g. ISO 9660) so you if you want to store it on a computer or email it you will need to save it as a .bin/.cue file. If I get a moment tonight I'll try post a copy online somewhere so anyone can download it.

Curious to know how much these cost and where ya got it. My homebrew adaptor doesn't do charging and my Belkin charger has died so it might be time to upgrade...

Usually 6.5". Make sure they are not too deep. If the factory ones are Clarion you will need to make mounting brackets out of MDF or cut the basket and motor assembly out of the old drivers and reuse the frame to mount your new speakers. The key is to ensure there is a tight seal between the new speakers and the door (no air gaps). If you have McIntosh speakers, simply reuse the plastic frames. Note with McIntosh you are best to use 8 ohm speakers if you retain the existing amp otherwise they will be much louder than the old ones and tend to drown out the sub.

Damn, and that was just five minutes!

Bit of a late post but just to clarify some points for future reference as I have noticed a few errors in the above posts. The top post shows a factory stereo made by Clarion (as is the satnav); these are actually pretty good units. Clarion also make the McIntosh units and the two are quite similar internally. The Kenwood head units used in the BH are silver and are not at all compatible with the Clarion/AddZest accessories. That Clarion model is also compatible with my aux input hack. The Clarion stereo uses 4 ohm paper dual-cone speakers with moulded baskets that are a pain to properly replace. I usually hack the guts out of the speakers and carefully mount new ones into whats left of the frame with a foam gasket to seal it all nicely. The McIntosh setup uses 8 ohm mica-filled polypropylene coaxial speakers that feature separate door mouldings so are much easier to replace (you can fit new speakers into the mouldings very easily). In both cases I think the front speakers are 6.5" and the rears are 6". The McIntosh ones are actually half decent speakers IMHO. Most of the bass comes from the front speakers though this appears to be more to do with the acoustics of the interior than the speakers themselves. The door sail tweeters have a high-pass capacitor built-in so you do not need to play with the wiring or add crossovers if you swap out the head unit and want to keep using them. Only the McIntosh setup has a factory sub; it's a 4 ohm 6x9" driver in the boot. It shares the same power amp as all of the door speakers. The amp has five identical chips inside; using 8 ohm door speakers with a 4 ohm sub helps to balance the levels of each speaker while keeping the amp design consistent, therefore saving money during manufacture. I spent the good part of a weekend swapping out the same Clarion unit you show with the complete McIntosh system. Fortunately Subaru still provide the wiring point and fuse for the power amp even if it's not fitted which really helps!

AFAIK the square one requires a bit more hackery as you need to communicate via CeNet; looking at the guts of the unit it doesn't seem to have the aux input on that port. It might be possible to fudge something up using a PIC but it would require quite a bit of electronics knowledge, plus lots of time and coffee. At this stage I'd be buying the commercial one or replacing the head unit with a tape one; they go quite cheap on TradeMe and such.

There is a kit available for doing that; it consists of a replacement surround with a single-DIN cutout and a different climate panel. There were some going on Trade Me earlier this year, try looking there.

Engine idle control, plus I believe the A/C gets disengaged during heavy acceleration or very high vehicle speed but don't quote me on that last bit.