DB9 Bluetooth under £100!!
Discussion
Ive always fancied “Bluetooth” audio and telephone in my 2005 DB9 but its never been a massive priority.
Came across a youtube video where a lad had fitted a Bluetooth adapter to his vantage, it had the same infotainment system ( which is a Volvo unit with an AM face!)) as my 9 and it worked perfectly, even the display showed the track info, it tricks the car into thinking its playing CD1 so all the controls work to change “track” etc.
Its a nice compact unit with optical piggyback cable , Sd card slot , usb, aux in , and a telephone mic, a quick trip to ebay and there it was , search for Volvo Bluetooth adapter,
Ebay item number 223506468749, £98.00.,
It took a couple of hours to fit, i mounted the unit inside the glove box on the upper side with some double sided tape, it s out of the way up there, before you mount it make sure the 4 little dip switches on the back are set correctly , that is 1 on 2,3,4 off.
The hardest bit is the optical cable, you have to remove the upper part of the ski slope /nav screen cover which is a bit horrible to do, i used masking tape to protect the leather and a plastic trim pry tool to pop it up ( youtube vid search aston martin db9 radio removal), you don’t have to remove anything else just the upper ski slope/nav cover, once its unclipped remove the multiplugs from the P,R,N,D ,start buttons , there all different so you cant mix them up.
When thats off theres a small box marked PRND module mounted to a flat metal plate secured by two screws, undo the screws and tape this up out the way , you can now see the orange optical cable in the back of the radio display, unplug it , the new optical cable has a male and female plug at one end to piggyback into the OE one , youll see how it works, now route the cable down the left hand side and over the back of the glove box to the unit, remember this is a fibre optic cable and cannot be kinked.
It requires a permanent 12v supply , i took mine from the cabin fusebox in the passenger footwell , remove the carpet and the 6 or so torx bolts holding the cover on, theres a hole at the bottom right of the footwell alloy plate so you can run the live red wire into the fuse panel, i used fuse 55 which the handbook describes as spare and seems to be a permanent 12v, to connect to this i used a Halfords mini fuse HFS317 adaptor, i crimped a ring terminal onto the black earth wire and used one of the fuse box cover bolts to earth it,
Test time!!, turn key to position 1 , eject cd1, you can still use 2,3,4,5,6 , open your phone settings select Bluetooth search , it will come up as “ car kit” pair to that and your away, the car will now play audio from phone, the telephone mic cable is next, remove the rear view mirror (torx), mine has an OE car phone so theres already a mic in the overhead interior light box, pop out the small black plastic grill above that there a phiilps screw undo that and pull the box down a bit , i just popped the OE mic out of the holder and put the new one back in its place. Route the cable along the top of the screen, i pried the A post trim down to get the cable to the outside edge then down behind the trim to the point wher i could get it under the outside edge of the dash and up into the glove box and ito the “mic” socket , its a bit of a fiddle but nothing broke when i was prying the trims about to get the cable through.
The phone works fine, one thing that struck me immediately was the sound quality , the AM system has always been criticised for been very average at best, BT audio seems miles better than CD!!.
Theres nothing visible with this install and it can be removed at any time and for under a hundred quid and a few hours seems good value.
Came across a youtube video where a lad had fitted a Bluetooth adapter to his vantage, it had the same infotainment system ( which is a Volvo unit with an AM face!)) as my 9 and it worked perfectly, even the display showed the track info, it tricks the car into thinking its playing CD1 so all the controls work to change “track” etc.
Its a nice compact unit with optical piggyback cable , Sd card slot , usb, aux in , and a telephone mic, a quick trip to ebay and there it was , search for Volvo Bluetooth adapter,
Ebay item number 223506468749, £98.00.,
It took a couple of hours to fit, i mounted the unit inside the glove box on the upper side with some double sided tape, it s out of the way up there, before you mount it make sure the 4 little dip switches on the back are set correctly , that is 1 on 2,3,4 off.
The hardest bit is the optical cable, you have to remove the upper part of the ski slope /nav screen cover which is a bit horrible to do, i used masking tape to protect the leather and a plastic trim pry tool to pop it up ( youtube vid search aston martin db9 radio removal), you don’t have to remove anything else just the upper ski slope/nav cover, once its unclipped remove the multiplugs from the P,R,N,D ,start buttons , there all different so you cant mix them up.
When thats off theres a small box marked PRND module mounted to a flat metal plate secured by two screws, undo the screws and tape this up out the way , you can now see the orange optical cable in the back of the radio display, unplug it , the new optical cable has a male and female plug at one end to piggyback into the OE one , youll see how it works, now route the cable down the left hand side and over the back of the glove box to the unit, remember this is a fibre optic cable and cannot be kinked.
It requires a permanent 12v supply , i took mine from the cabin fusebox in the passenger footwell , remove the carpet and the 6 or so torx bolts holding the cover on, theres a hole at the bottom right of the footwell alloy plate so you can run the live red wire into the fuse panel, i used fuse 55 which the handbook describes as spare and seems to be a permanent 12v, to connect to this i used a Halfords mini fuse HFS317 adaptor, i crimped a ring terminal onto the black earth wire and used one of the fuse box cover bolts to earth it,
Test time!!, turn key to position 1 , eject cd1, you can still use 2,3,4,5,6 , open your phone settings select Bluetooth search , it will come up as “ car kit” pair to that and your away, the car will now play audio from phone, the telephone mic cable is next, remove the rear view mirror (torx), mine has an OE car phone so theres already a mic in the overhead interior light box, pop out the small black plastic grill above that there a phiilps screw undo that and pull the box down a bit , i just popped the OE mic out of the holder and put the new one back in its place. Route the cable along the top of the screen, i pried the A post trim down to get the cable to the outside edge then down behind the trim to the point wher i could get it under the outside edge of the dash and up into the glove box and ito the “mic” socket , its a bit of a fiddle but nothing broke when i was prying the trims about to get the cable through.
The phone works fine, one thing that struck me immediately was the sound quality , the AM system has always been criticised for been very average at best, BT audio seems miles better than CD!!.
Theres nothing visible with this install and it can be removed at any time and for under a hundred quid and a few hours seems good value.
This is a great idea, I've been looking at installing bluetooth to my 2004 DB9, it's already got the Dension DAB kit installed but thats not connected to the fibre optic cables as it broadcasts over to an FM frequency.
I think I'll install this as my dash is currently in pieces as the CD unit is away for repair as it's got the dreaded "deck error"
Just a quick question, on the ebay listing it says it disables the CD unit but in your post you've put you can still use CD 2,3,4,5,6??
Has anyone got any experiance with this unit??
I think I'll install this as my dash is currently in pieces as the CD unit is away for repair as it's got the dreaded "deck error"
Just a quick question, on the ebay listing it says it disables the CD unit but in your post you've put you can still use CD 2,3,4,5,6??
Has anyone got any experiance with this unit??
Just had a play, the cd player seems to get confused if you try and change to disc,plays disc then wont play bt audio, watched youtube video again titled aston martin bluetooth upgrade, he says he can still play cd, will experiment further but if thats how it is i would much prefer bt audio , we update when i make progress , for now im enjoying better sound qaulity and unlimited content from amazon , youtube etc
Craig elam1 said:
Just had a play, the cd player seems to get confused if you try and change to disc,plays disc then wont play bt audio, watched youtube video again titled aston martin bluetooth upgrade, he says he can still play cd, will experiment further but if thats how it is i would much prefer bt audio , we update when i make progress , for now im enjoying better sound qaulity and unlimited content from amazon , youtube etc
Thanks for that, so when your listening to music using the bluetooth on your phone, do you see the track title on the car display? Plus can you skip forward and back using the CD track buttons?? Plus any other user info you have would be great
Thanks for answering my questions.
got this from the guy on youtube that did the original video , very helpful guy, will try this tonight,
Repair Refinish TV
2 hours ago
Hi Craig, try plugging a USB into the unit or putting a Auxiliary cable into the unit and leaving it in. It can sometimes get confused on start up. When you've plugged it in press reset and then press number 6 to toggle between aux, usb and BT. This should solve the problem. Also make sure that there is no discs in the cd when you first setup the unit. When the unit is setup it should stay on disc one then you can use the other free discs. Thanksst
The main thing for me is that the BT connection to my phone is stable and it sounds great. Ideal the tracks forward and back are controlled by the car and the track info is displayed.
I wouldnt really use the USB (other than charging the phone) and the audio jack.
I've ordered it from ebay this morning and I'll install it later next week.
Great find and i can't wait to see whats its like.
Edited by paulrog1 on Saturday 28th September 12:24
i still cant get the cd to work alongside this bt adapter, i have revisited the youtube video and theres a link to buy the unit , he has the v70 v80 version, i bought the c30 s40 v50 c70 version , ive emailed the supplier to find out if ive got the best, the bluetooth audio / telphone works perfectly , but it would be nice to have cd as well, will post when i get further info
craig
craig
If you put the discount code 'PLEASED' into eBay you get 10% off at the minute. Just ordered one for £88.20 
Just hope it works with an early v8 Vantage. From what I've found they are the same head units so should be OK. Will report back when I get it and try to fit it!
Just hope it works with an early v8 Vantage. From what I've found they are the same head units so should be OK. Will report back when I get it and try to fit it!
Edited by LPH on Saturday 28th September 22:29
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