I have a 2006 Honda Odyssey. Yeah, it’s 10 years old, but it’s still a really good car. There was just one thing I didn’t like about it. I couldn’t listen to music from my phone through the speakers. I drive about 15 minutes to take my son to school so it’s fun to listen to our Kids Pandora station on the way to school to get him in a good mood for the day, and that was difficult, until my husband installed an AUX chord into my car. Now I can listen to Pandora and my digital books while I drive. Yay!
“Now I can listen to Pandora and my Digital Books in the car while driving the kids around!”
We are going to teach you how to do it too. You don’t need to take your car into a shop to do this quick fix. We have a step by step tutorial to show you how to do it yourself for only about $30.
Disclaimer* This is only possible if your Honda radio comes with the aux button and works only if you don’t have the satellite radio and a rear DVD Player connected to the radio at the same time. This is only for Honda, but there are aux cables available for almost any vehicle.
Here is what you’ll need: (affiliate links)
Car Radio Audio MP3 Player AUX IN Adapter Cable (click to purchase)
9/32 inch Rubber Grommit
Drill and Drill Bits
Flathead Screw Driver
Box Cutter or Sharp Knife
Start by opening your glove box and using a flat head screwdriver, carefully pop off the decorative surround around the heater controls. *HINT: Open your glove box and there is a slot where you can insert the screw driver. The slot is right under my husbands left index finger. It’s plainly visible when you open your glove box.
There will be two green plugs that you will need to pull out to remove this cover. One plug is for the climate control and one is for the emergency flashers.
This is what it will look like with that piece is removed. Then you’ll start unscrewing all the screws holding on the storage tray.
Now unscrew the screws holding the radio in. One is way up inside so make sure to get that one.
Pull out the storage tray after removing the screws. You may have to give it a little help with a screw driver.
Now carefully pull out your radio.
You will remove the white plug that is already on the radio and replace it with your aux cable plug. (the AUX cable is the black cable in the picture)
In the picture above the foam wrapped chord is a channel that your AUX chord will come through. While holding the radio with one hand, take the entire AUX chord, put it into the radio cavity and fish it through that channel where the foam covered cord is coming out. This is a channel between the air vents, so it’s wide open and it won’t get in the way of anything. In the picture below you can see it coming out. Slide the radio back into place.
Now drill a hole the size of your aux cable head in the left hand top corner of the back of the storage box. The head of the chord is the biggest part that will need to fit through the hole. You might have to try a few different sizes to get the right size hole for the cable to fit through. HINT* Only drill the hole barely big enough for the head to fit through.
Shave the sharp pieces created from drilling with a sharp knife or box cutter.
Use the rubber grommet to keep the cable from getting rubbed raw by the sharp edges of the hole and to keep the cable from slipping back through the hole.
Put the grommet on the chord. HINT* Dip the grommet in rubbing alcohol to get it to slide over the cable head easier.Â
MAKE SURE THE CHORD IS FED THROUGH BELOW THE BAR PICTURED.
Thread the chord through the hole and shove the rubber grommet into it’s place. RUBBING ALCOHOL WILL HELP YOU GET THE GROMMET INTO PLACE.
Put the storage container back into place and screw it tight. Make sure the radio is screwed back into place also.
Snap the face back into place MAKING SURE TO PLUG THE GREEN PLUGS BACK INTO PLACEÂ Â SO YOU CAN USE YOUR CLIMATE CONTROL! One plug is for the climate control and one is for the emergency flashers.
Now you can switch to the AUX input on the radio and play Pandora, Digital Books and your own music. Yay!
You forgot to mention that this is only possible if your Honda radio comes with the aux button and works only if you don’t have the rear DVD and satellite radio at the same time, This is only for Honda, but they are available for almost any vehicle.
By the way very good pictures and steps to do this job, Installation looks clean
Great points Andy, I’ll add that to the tutorial. Thanks!
Great step-by-step. Now bring on the tunes. 🙂
Thanks Becky~!!
Hi! I am the lucky daughter that gets to drive our old 2007 honda odyssey throughout college *hah* and I just bought the adapter on amazon and am waiting for this piece to add it to the car– this is a very helpful visual to guide me but I am a little confused as to where I should put the small white “box” after feeding the chord through the channel? It sort of disappears in the following pictures and I cannot figure out where you put it– within the radio complex? Let me know as I am about to do this so I can have my own music/audio books for a long solo trip across the country! (I also hope it lasts the 2500 mile trip with 230k + miles already driven on it by my mom 🙂
Thanks for posting this! We have a 2006 Odyssey, and I’m planning to do this for my wife. Do you have a link to the actual adapter that you purchased?
Hi Phillip, yes, if you click on the text of the adapter in the list of things you need it will take you to it on amazon.
Maybe this is a silly question, but we just bought a 2006 odyssey and it had the adapter already installed and I couldn’t figure out how to get it to work. I tried plugging in my phone and turning the system to AUX, but nothing happened. Am I missing a step? Could you explain how you get it to work? Thanks!
It sounds like you are doing everything right. It works on the AUX port. You might have to open it up and see if something got disconnected.
Good explanation sir,and can this work for honda stream with internavi radio?
The link to buy the adaptor doesnt seem to work for me. What is the adaptor you recommend using? I see there are a bunch of different options out there.
Here is the one we used : http://amzn.to/2e8qtg8
Can I still play my cds once this is installed?
Yes, the CD player still works. Everything works just like it used to.
This is great! Thank you so much. I am a little bit confused about the discalimer- our 2007 Odyssey has xm radio and rear dvd. We don’t care about the xm radio but do want the dvd player to work. Will we be able to do this?
We have a rear DVD player too and it still works. But it works through a radio station with the radio or headphones for the kids. As long as you make sure you hook everything back up as it was when you took it apart, everything should still work properly.
I have a 2007 Honda Odyssey…did anyone get any engine noise or electrical noise coming through?
If so, did you do anything to stop it?
I only hear engine noise if I’m on that input and nothing is plugged into it. I just change the input when I’m not using it.
My husband and I used your tutorial to install this in our ’05 Odyssey and it worked great. Thanks for the detailed pictures. I have to turn the volume all the way up to use it with my phone, but it sounds great with the kids DVD player.
That’s great Sarah! When you plug in your phone make sure you turn the volume up all the way on your phone. Your phone will automatically turn down because it thinks you plugged in headphones. So you have to turn it up and X out of the warning about listening to music too loudly. Then it should work better.
This was awesome! Just finished the install with all recommended products. Took about an hour. You might note that the van cannot be in “park” while removing the radio, as it catches on the gear shift. Also, when I push the AUX button (I do not have the entertainment system or XM installed) the display reads as if you are using a cd changer. No big deal, but confused me at first as a I thought the install didn’t work.
I’m so glad that it worked for you. I’ll add your notes to the post. Thank you!
The plug where you add the aux adapter, what is that plug goes to? I have an 2005 honda odyssey touring and my radio has a security system attached to it. Want to make sure my blinkers and/or will still work.
You really need to update this article and remove the link to the adapter you used. Despite having a raft of 1-star reviews on Amazon, I purchased the adapter on your say-so. It was a dud, just like the 50% or so of people who are buying it now. Maybe it was better manufactured when you installed it, but now it’s junk and it’s giving your blog a bad name.
Here’s a better option:
https://amzn.to/2I63foK
I’m sorry it did not work for you. It worked like a charm for us.
I really appreciate you taking time in providing super detailed instructions with pictures as it took me only 20 minutes to complete this. It works great. I wanted this for a long time however your detailed instructions motivated me to install this. Thank you very very much!!!!
Hey!! My husband and I were trying to figure out that auxiliary button in our 2005 Honda Odessey for the longest time now… and finally came across your very well detailed and thorough instructional guide on exactly what we were looking for!!
We ordered the part right away and read your instructions a few times over and within 20 minutes we have a working auxiliary cable in the van!! Which sounds pretty good. No feedback nothing!!
Thank you so much for taking your time to take pictures and write out an instruction guide for this process.. I’m absolutely in love with it!
Hi.
They forgot memtion
the part of the 3rd row seat has 2 a compartment on each side and on the left side there are some entrances.
Yellow (Video)
Red and White (audio)
They sell a aux cord
a cable that is 3.5mm aux cord To RC.
A mp3 is sold worth 2 dlls depending on the length . Have a good day.
Hola.
Se les olvido que el la parte del 3rd row seat hay 2 un compartimento en cada lado y en el lado izquierdo de atras hay unas entradas .
Amarillo (Video)
Rojo y Blanco (kinda audio) y se vende un cable que es 3.5mm aux cable cord To RCA mp3 vale como 2 dlls dependiendo el largo que ocupen para poder usar el cable con el celular.