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.

keltik is correct. You must have the vehicle stationary (the handbrake trick won't work) to enable the TV. Press the button under the Off button to toggle between map, A/C and TV. The video input must be NTSC of course. You can use the TV mode to provide aux audio too (as opposed to hooking into the headunit). You need to unsolder the ext video input on the TV tuner (under the drivers seat) and you can connect an audio source here. To get that side of things to work, when in TV mode press the top right button on the satnav unit, scroll to the bottom option and click the joystick in. This should cause it to display VTR on the display and the audio should work. The stereo should display ACCS. I'd suggest having the video input connected to the tuner while setting this up. This is all completely from memory; I had this all set up as described until I gutted the lot and put in the standard climate panel and McIntosh setup. Admittedly I really liked it at the time but the lack of English put me off. Top of tuner after my mod: Inside showing the solder work:

I guess the reverse of this procedure might help. There's a few extra wires required that are not included in the standard harness that I haven't been able to easily trace so it certainly won't be entirely straightforward. I have to ask though, why do you want the satnav? It only comes in Japanese (even the buttons on the front panel are in Japanese) and the only useful things it can ever do in NZ are display the A/C details and feed an auxiliary video and audio signal to your dash. The latter only works if you have the TV tuner to go with it (it looks cool though!). There is no NZ firmware available and I've had a quick look at the CD that came with mine; it doesn't even use a regular file system so would take some insane amount of reverse engineering. BTW I still have all of that stuff, except the GPS antenna as I couldn't be bothered getting to it, left over from my car if you are still interested...

I believe it may be possible (isn't anything?) but would be much more work. Ages back I saw some posts in an American forum where people had imported JDM parts and shoe-horned them into their US-spec Legacy's, including the automatic climate system. It's worth nothing the automatic climate system is much more than just the pretty controller; it features various sensors around the car, interfaces with the engine management (ECU) and has additional servo actuators in the heater assembly itself (the manual HVAC panel uses a cable linkage to control the heater). What this means is that you will probably have to gut the entire front interior of the car (dash, front seats, carpet) to get at all the bits you will need to install/replace. You would also have to install the ambient air sensor in front of the radiator and run additional wiring through the engine bay. The satnav job worked because all of that stuff was already in place; I simply replaced the brains behind the operation. It would be seriously cool if someone has the guts to try such a project but I think you would have to love your car very, very much to justify all that work!

Any wreckers should be able to help, I got mine from Rosco's in Ashburton for about $10 + postage. Just ask for the plugs (quote your climate part number) and a small part of the loom. Sometimes you see whole cars go for parts on TradeMe, ask a question on the auction and the seller may be able to help you.

No, I'm just an electronics hobbyist and spent way too much time studying the wiring and service manuals for my car.

Yes, you can connect any headunit with line level (aka RCA) outputs to the McIntosh amp using those connections. I had a McIntosh doing the same thing (and error 03 as well). Carefully wiping the lens with a cotton bud soaked in isopropyl alcohol fixed that.

Blenheim, why do you ask?

That lead is exactly the same as the diagram I posted. It comes with a toggle switch in a little plastic box with some double sided tape so you can stick it on the dash or whatever. Just depends whether you can be bothered making the lead or want to pay someone else to do it.

EDIT: Moved pictures to Picasa This mod gives you a proper aux input on any Clarion or McIntosh head unit factory installed in a BE or BH Legacy. This is perfect for connecting your iPod, iPhone, laptop, other MP3 player, etc. Do not buy an FM transmitter or modulator until you have tried this first! I've successfully tested this with several models of Clarion and McIntosh stereo. If you stereo has both a square and round DIN connector on the back and is made by Clarion (including the McIntosh units) this should work. If you have an older stereo such as one from a BD or BG Legacy that only has the round CD stacker connector this mod will not work! Stuff you will need: 13 pin DIN plug 3.5mm stereo plug or similar Small toggle switch or latching push button 1k resistor Screened audio cable Soldering iron and solder The easiest way to get the 13 pin DIN plug is to cut up an old CD stacker cable. Alternatively, try TradeTech part PLG58 or Elekon part K31651. You could use any connector you like in place of the 3.5mm plug, for example RCA jacks. Procedure Simply wire it up as per the diagram below. I've drawn this assuming you are facing the solder side of the plug. If using a 3.5mm plug remember that the tip is usually the left channel. Once done, plug it into the appropriate port on the back of your head unit (yes you will need to remove it first; see this page for details). Plug in your MP3 player or whatever and flick the aux switch on. The head unit should display ACCS and you should hear the sound from the player. Note that you will not be able to change to the radio or CD player, or switch the head unit off while it is in accessory mode so you might want to mount the aux switch on the dash for easy access. I ran the input cable out beside the ash tray as there is a gap big enough for the cable to pass through without snagging or me needing to drill holes. The iPod sits in the nice rubberised tray while driving.

The subwoofer is on that connector; its the white and purple wires on the end. You will need an amp for it though; you can tap power (up to 20A/240W) for this directly off the red and black pairs on that connector unless the previous owner has butchered the wiring. All of the other speakers are on that connector too and need to be manually wired back to the stereo bay if you install an after market headunit. The fat black cable is the original link from the headunit to the amp. The McIntosh system has no amp in the headunit at all; all the work is done by the amp under the seat and the speakers are only wired to there. The audio input to the amp is balanced (aka differential) and about 4V RMS from memory. You can hack the amp to run off the preamp outputs from most after market head units but that won't work in your case as it has been ripped out. I'd recommend this post for more details.