Tsumayogi

Shameless plug for my new Redline Goods Shift Boot.

My stock vinyl shift boot was cracking in the folds so it was time for a replacement. They have tons of different customization options (material, pattern, stitching style & colours, shifter length...) and very quick turn around (paid on the 9th, shipped on the 13th, arrived on the 23rd; they ship from Poland). Anyway, I went with a black leather, dark red stripes and dark stitching and I think it turned out great. Installation is a breeze and I can actually smell the leather in my car now (it's faint but there).

Since I was going to take apart the console anyway, I took the liberty of fixing my temperature control **** (not too bad if you take your time and don't force anything) and installing the XCarLink iPod Adaptor. I got the adaptor for an iPod Video (5th Gen, but it works with my iPhone 4s as well) and couldn't be happier with it. The cables are long enough to allow you to put your iDevice in the flip-up compartment behind the drink cups. It chargers your device all the time and also has a generic 3.5mm audio in jack for your non-iWh0re devices. Audio quality is pretty good, although at high volumes in between tracks I'm pretty sure I can hear the hard drive spin up noise from the iPod on the speakers. Minor gripe though.

Finally, I'm in the process of integrating a ScanGauge II in to the panel below the Volume/Power **** on the radio. The stock housing is far too large to fit in this panel so you need to disassemble it and separate the display from the PCBA. I machined the panel to create the "window" for the display and filled in the gap (between the curved surface and the flat display) with some black RTV/Silione. Then you need to get some small Tactile Switches (I used Omron B3F-1002) and Epoxy them and the panel in place (I reused the stock ScanGauge Silicone molded "buttons"; unfortunately they're white and a little long but on the plus side you get some minor illumination from the red LED's that are behind that panel on the head-unit). Finally, you need to patch in some wires from the switches to the pads on the back of the PCBA and to connect the backlight for the display. Unfortunately the data lines for the display are on a ribbon cable and it's not too long so you can't increase the length of that run. I haven't mounted the unit in the radio yet but I envision making use of zap straps and suspending the PCBA to the sheetmetal on the top/bottom of the radio unit (it has to be recessed about an inch in order for the PCBA to fit in). I'll post a pic of the completed install but it will basically look like the attached photo but in the stock radio

Next up: changing all the red illumination LEDs in the radio/steering wheel/doors to blue. They're just standard 3mm LEDs but unfortunately blue LEDs run at around 3.3V and the red 1.8V. This means that you also need to change the current limiting resistors (lights are too faint otherwise). This also means that your dimmer for the dash lights won't have as much range (i.e. when you turn it down low the LEDs will just turn off sooner for the blue than they would for the Red). But who really uses the dim function anyway? I'll post pics for that too when I get to it (might be a few months though!)