Pictures up on riocar.org here

I bought the Outback 2 years ago with only a tape deck because at that time I fully intended to create my own mp3 player much like the Empeg. I got as far as buying an LCD screen that would fit my dash perfectly, creating a power supply for it, writing a driver for the LCD, then _frying_ the LCD with crossed wires, a $100 mistake. Then came moving, marrige, buying a house, moving again, EMPEG PRICE DROP!!

When the Empeg arrived I frantically measured it and compared it to my dash. Durn it. The dash is too small (it's never a problem with the Empeg, only the car). This means I am going to have to cut my nice plastic faux woodgrain trim. I put the install on my to do list. 2 months later, it's finally in!

I reviewed the notes that Michael Butkus Jr. had made on installing an aftermarket stereo into the Outback here and went about taking apart the dash. His instructions are very good and come with good pictures. I have a manual transmission, so I could unscrew the shifter knob and get the bottom trim out of the way.

Important note: make sure you take out the screws that are above the ashtray, the trim is not coming off with those in! You'll need a snub nose screwdriver to get at them.

After I removed the trim, I took out the assembly that holds the stereo, the climate controls and the two spacers in the dash. These all unplug from the dash except for the temprature setting on the climate controls. I needed to remove the climate conrols from the dash also, so I undid the wire that ran to the temprature adjustment by notching the clip that holds it onto the module. I notched it just enough so that it would squeeze out and then fit tightly back in.

With the dash out, I removed everything from the dash assembly except for the factory stereo. I then placed the Empeg sled against the stereo, and bent the assembly sides down around the sled, and secured them to the bottom spacer. The bottom spacer had to have 2-3mm trimmed off the top in order for the screw holes to line up correctly. I bought some T-nuts at Sears to secure the sled to the assembly sides, since I could see no way to bend the tabs to secure the sled. The sled had to be drilled, and on the inside the flat nut is used. This makes sliding the Empeg into the sled very snug.

With the empeg slid into place below the radio, I needed to cut 4-5mm extra on either side of the trim to allow for the Empeg to slide into place. This was done very carefully with a Dremel and the straight cutting bit. I cleaned up the edges of the trim with a razorblade and sanded them smooth. This trim piece is 100$ at the dealership, so if I ever sell the car, I will need to buy one to replace the one I cut.

Electrically, I spliced the power, illumination, and memory wires from the factory stereo harness. Everything in the installation was soldered and heat shrink tubed, then taped. I got the ground from an auxillary plug for something or other that was floating around in the back of the dash. All the connections have 1/4" solderless quick disconnects for easy removal. These can be found at Radio Shack (part no. 64-3049a). The wiring diagram for the Outback stereo is below:

        /------------------------\

        | 1  2  3  .  .  4  5  6 |

        |                        |     <==  pins on socket (header) that plugs

        | 7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 |             into factory radio

        |------------------------|





                  Harness               EIA

Function   Pin     Color               Color

--------   ---    -------              -----

  12V       10     YEL                  RED

  MEM        6    BLU/RED               YEL

  GND       11     BLK                  BLK

  ANT       14    GRN/ORN               BLU

  ILLUM      1    WH/GRN                ORN



  RF+        2    RED/YEL               GRAY

  RF-        8    WH/BLK                GRAY/BLK

  LF+        3    BRN/WH                WHITE

  LF-        9     GRN                  WHITE/BLK

  RR+        4    BLU/RED               VIOLET

  RR-       12    RED/WH                VIOLET/BLK

  LR+        5    WH/RED                GREEN

  LR-       13    RED/BLK               GREEN/BLK 

(diagram taken from this Usenet post)

The colors are for a 1998 Outback, but mine matched somewhat. The positions are what is most important anyway. Again, I spliced wires 1, 6 and 10.

To make the Empeg play through the factory stereo, I used an Audiovox FMM100 FM modulator. I wanted to keep the factory stereo for the tape deck and the weather band option (useful when on a skiing or climbing trip). The Audiovox is placed inline with the antenna plug, and switches the antenna off when it is in use. Therefore it must be switched, and I did not want to put a visible switch in my car. I solved this problem with a SPST relay from Radio Shack (part no. 275-226). Radio Shack calls this a 30 Amp Auto Relay. I used a diode across the coil to ensure the Empeg would not be damaged by the negative voltage spike when the relay disengages. This is explained on this page linked to from the FAQ. The relay is wired to the amp turn on wire (blue) of the Empeg sled harness, and it switches the power line for the FM modulator. This ensures whenever the Empeg is powered up, the modulator will be, too.

After testing the whole setup in the car, I finally fitted it all into the dash! I added an RCA cable that runs out by the passenger's feet (stuffed under the carpet for now) that is connected to the AUX in of the Empeg. I can hook up my laptop to this input and watch DVD movies on trips.

I almost had a heart attack when I started up the car for the first time because the Empeg cut out when I put my foot on the brake. What I realized about 5 seconds later was the battery had been drained while I was testing the install in the garage, and there wasn't enough power to drive everything. After the car was started, all was fine. Now all that is left to do is fine-tune the equalizer to sound good in the car! IMHO, the FM Modulator sounds fine, and with the factory speakers, I would not expect super high SQ from any setup. Eventually I might upgrade the system in the car, but then I will add a head unit with AUX in and get rid of the modulator.

Grrr.. over 100k in the picture. Resized attachment.

Nice.

After having the Empeg installed for a week or so, I realized that my dash dimmer control on my turn signal was not working. The dash lights would stay at a constant brightness, and one of the bulbs that light up the temprature/AC controls was flaking out on me.

I took my dash apart again, and traced the problem down to the ground that I used. As noted above, I had found a plug in the dash that seemed to have a ground and the headlight sense wires connected to it. I used that for my ground because I did not want to splice into my radio harness any more than nessecary. This was causing my problem with the dash dimmer.

I spliced the ground for the Empeg into the radio harness' ground, (with a 1/4" plug) and that solved my problem. Now all I am waiting for is for my new bulbs for the AC controls to come in from the dealership. They had been burnt out (I think) by my incorrect grounding of the Empeg.

Note that this setup worked wonderfully except for the bulbs burning out (slowly) and the dash dimmer not working correctly. Just a note for any Subaru owners who may be following my install.

Sounds like you mistook a headlight-dimmer wire for a standard ground wire.

Hey nice going. See my link at the bottom. Basically, I did the same thing with dremeling the dash piece (the Impreza and Outback are based on the same platform). I'm curious as to why you spliced into the factory harness instead of getting a cheap adaptor and splicing into that... Jim Hogan here also did a Subie instal (very nice!)

I'm getting alternator whine and think it may be coming from my head unit... are you experienceing that? I guess I could tap into the RCA's and take the empeg out of the equation, but how would I trigger the amp on?

I spliced into the factory harness because I was still going to use the factory stereo. Crutchfield sells the adapter harness to plug into the factory harness for an aftermarket stereo, but not the plug to plug back into the factory stereo. I could not find a plug that would fit the Outback's stereo, and to buy another wiring harness for the Outback would have been $200. So I spliced.

I made sure that my splices would not affect the car, though. I soldered every splice, and used 1/4" insulated plug adapters to hook into the Empeg's harness. I wanted to make sure that I can still sell the car later

I don't have the alternator whine like you guys do because I am using an FM Modulator and the factory head unit. As for the amp trigger, I am using the blue Empeg wire (amp turn-on) to trigger a relay that switches on the FM Modulator. Isn't the blue wire to trigger the amp and use the RCA outputs?

I'm thinking about installing the empeg in my 2000 Outback now that the lease is up and I paid it off. I'm thinking about making it a permanent in-dash mount instead, by removing and/or reshaping the fascia. The goal would be for the empeg to fit behind the dash assembly, kind of like the stock radio. I'd run an Ethernet cable out to the pocket underneath the radio slots so that I can connect it to my home network (or to a wireless bridge) when I want.

Given that you've already disassembled your car, do you see any holes in this idea? (Besides of course the increased potential for theft.)

Hi Michael,

You _could_ install the Empeg behind the facia part of the dash, but from what I have experianced, you would have to make some permanant modifications to either the sled, the Empeg itself, or both.

The path of least resistance is to modify the sled to slide back further in the radio cage assembly, and make the empeg facia sit flush with the other componants. You actually cannot make the empeg sit flush with everything else, because the lip will prevent the dash facia from fully seating down around the stock stereo. This means that your Empeg will be in a "hole" about 1 inch deep between your stereo and storage compartments. In order to do this, you would have to remove the little "lip" around the edge of your sled in order to make it fit. You can see from my photo here that the lip of my sled protrudes over the stereo and the storage compartment. You'd have to cut this off in order to slide it back further. Also, I think you'd have to do some fancy modifications to the car stereo sled (as it is, you'll have to bend it a bit) to make the empeg fit between the stereos because it will be a bit too tall.

The second thing you could do is modify the Empeg to act like a standard DIN stereo. I considered this at first, but decided the modifications are too permanant. I figured if you could remove the handle, and shape the Empeg facia to match, you could get a DIN-shaped Empeg that would be a little shorter and thinner. The only problem with this is you have to cut your facia, and also you would have to remove the handle support bars that are on the Empeg frame itself (cut the metal off).

Here you would still have to modify your sled lip, too.

After considering these options and making a call to my dealership, which looked up the price of the facia with the cup holder and everything (it's only $100) I decided to cut my facia instead. I have not regretted my decision, and I have to tell you that I am a pretty big stickler for neatness and elegance. It was by far the most elegant solution to my problem and it provides me the full functionality of a pull-out stereo.

Good luck! Post installation pictures after you are finished!

Mcgrant, I highly recommend against permanently installing your player. You are asking for trouble if you do that, because things like software upgrades would become a nightmare.

Better yet, look at this thread which is just a few entries down in this forum.

Thanks for the reference, Tony. I'm not yet convinced that I can't make this work. But at the very least, if I do go with a permanent install, you've reminded me that I need to bring feed for the serial port around to the front, not just the Ethernet port... Since I have a laptop (and I will for the indefinite future, that's the way I prefer to work) I'm not as concerned that I'll have to bring my computer to the car to do a kernel upgrade or anything like that.

Okay, that's cool.

And remember that full software upgrades require the player to think that it's on AC power, so you have to fake out the sensing switch before upgrading from the sled.

OK, I didn't know that either. I'm glad I asked first :-) Then again I haven't even pulled my MkII out of the box in over a year so there's a lot I have to remember.

In reply to:

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so you have to fake out the sensing switch before upgrading from the sled.

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is that hardware coded? or can you fake it out by forcing ac power mode in hijack?

is that hardware coded? or can you fake it out by forcing ac power mode in hijack?

The situation I'm describing is in the protected power-on-first-boot flash that even Hijack can't touch, so force-AC won't help. It's described in the FAQ here.