Hello everyone. I just purchased a used vehicle and it has a 3.5mm jack and an ipod connection cables attached to the dash. There is also a red toggle switch to turn it off and on. My question is how do I find out what station it is set to for listening? I started to go thru all the fm stations but was taking way too long. Does anyone know of a faster or easier way to do this or am I stuck tuning all the stations? Thanks in advance for any help given.
What you stated makes no sense. FM modulators do not use a jack or a switch. I think you are confused. How do you know the switch is an aux switch? That would be extremely unusual unless there is another connection in the glove. There must be an aux switch on your player. How else will it know where to get its input?
Thanks Mez for the response. I might not be calling it what its called but the explanation is correct. The only reason I know what it is and how it works is because my wife's car has a similar setup. My wife has a toggle switch with a aux jack in it. In order for it to work, you have to toggle it on, then switch to a certain channel to be able to hear the mp3 player. The one in my van I assumed was the same, it has a 3.5 aux cable, a cable to plug into an ipod, and a red toggle switch that was definitely installed after market. I am not certain the toggle switch goes to the ipod cables but I cannot find another reason for it. I have also tuned every station to try to find the correct one, and none of them worked. I even tried all the am stations.
Well then I guess I haven't seen enough different set ups. The Aux to a modulator is pretty insane since I would think by now most players would have an Aux input. It is a very cheap thing to do. The most expensive thing would be the mode switch. FM modulators pick up static and all sorts of interference plus kills the fidelity. FM has terrible fidelity compared with an mp3 player. What kind of car is it? I will make sure I never think of buying on of those.
You are absolutely right, it is a very cheap thing to do, a lot cheaper than buying and installing a new stereo. Like I said, it might not be called a modulator, that is just the closest thing to it that i could find. They are definitely aftermarket in both vehicles but my van is a 2005 and the wifes car is a 2008 and they didnt come with the aux jacks in the factory installed stereos. I have used a cheap modulator in the past and it was horrible, tons of static and interference and didnt work worth a crap. The one in my wifes car however works great and sounds great. No static or interference, so i believe it is plugged into the back of the stereo somewhere but it does have to be tuned into a specific channel and the toggle has to be on for it to work. Since neither stereos had a aux setting on the stereo, i think they are hooked up in a way to basically make the toggle switch the aux switch. Like i said, it sounds great and have not had an issue with the wifes at all. And just to answer the obvious question, I work for a used car dealership and replace cars very quickly, so it is not worth adding a new stereo to a car I am not gonna keep for long, especially when it will not add any value to the car at auction.
If it is plugged in to the back it in not a modulator. That is the better system. I have never seen what you mention. I understand where you are coming from. It might not be worth even taking off the dash and seeing what the device is or is not. They could have removed something moderatly expensive if they were selling the car cheap. You can always get a modulator.
Keep in mind I am assuming that if there is an ipod cable, a 3.5mm jack, and a red toggle switch mounted in the center console that definitely didnt come installed from the factory, they they would all have to be connected somehow. I figured it would be worth asking if anyone had run across something like this, rather than taking things apart. Thanks again mez for taking the time to respond, especially to a post that was several days old.
Why risk breaking the dash if you don't have to? Makes sense to me. It is probably a custom job which may or may not work now. The problem with a custom job is you have no way to know what they did or even if it is still connected. FM modulators cost 50 to over 100 bucks. If the guy did the work himself he would have taken the modulator. I have a fancy connector for my player it costs 60. I would take that if I was selling the car cheap.
