jbeech

Have you got a rat's nest of wires running to the Aux port in the glove box plus another wire for keeping your iPhone charged? While this report won't do anything for the latter, if your car, like our 2005 E320 doesn't have Bluetooth, you can do something to help reduce the rat's nest of wires by 50% by eliminating the wire to the Aux port with an add-on BT adapter which plugs into the Aux port and pairs to your device. Here's how.

As background . . . Lynn's been using an Aux cable between the glove box and her iPhone to listen to audiobooks during her commute. Earlier this week while getting the brakes flushed I asked my MB service adviser about adding Bluetooth and his answer was no, can't be done. Turns out you can, it's easy, rather inexpensive, and works great! We bought this Aluratek iStream DockFeed Bluetooth Audio Receiver

http://tinyurl.com/p7rrseu

. . . for less than 30 bucks at Best Buy because WalMart (link above) didn't have it in their store (it may be an online only purchase, I don't really know). Unfortunately, if you're in Best Buy, it';s not near car stereo department, it's not near the phones but instead was near the check out aisle on an end cap. You store is likely different so don't take no for an answer and persist.

Bottom line? This works! FYI, it has a tiny lithium battery, which will run it for 12-hours (their claim). It comes with a cord, which is USB on one end and some tiny plug on the other for charging. Claims to do this is about 3-hours (I didn't time it but this seems reasonable). At present the plan is to charge it when it dies but otherwise just run it off the internal battery. FWIW, it has a tiny power button so you 'can' turn it off (push and hold type) but if you forget, then break out the charge cable so there's some recourse if you forget to turn it off. Oh, and before I forget, it will pair to six individual devices. Anyway, I may get ambitious and wire it in (12V) permanently but for now we'll see how much trouble it is just recharging it occasionally.

Finally, I tried using the the sticky-back hook-part of Velcro on the device thinking it would attach to the fuzzy stuff lining the inside of the glove box for a sanitary installation. Nope, that didn't work so for now it's just dangling inside the glove box. I'll think of something more elegant . . . or maybe one of you will have a brighter idea, e.g. one, which actually works!

Anyway, if you've wonder about an inexpensive way to add Bluetooth to your pre-Buetooth automobile audio system, as long as you have the Aux jack, this is a great solution. Recommended.

Finally, while this device isn't mentioned, here's a decent article about doing this very thing (adding BT to your audio system) using other devices.

http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/bes...ry-car-stereo/

Last thing, why is it worth reading this article? It's because this device does not work for FaceTime, or for phone calls; it only uses the automobile's speakers for audiobooks or music stored on your device and defaults to the iPhone's speaker for calls and FaceTime (this was disclosed on the packaging).

I hope this report is useful for those of you interested in adding BT to achieve greater functionality while and reduce the mess of wires when connecting you iPhone to your car's audio system. Cheers!

ss.dna02

Im gonna do this. I am tired of having my AUX cable sticking out the glove box.

And adding bluetooth to my 05 seems hard and really expensive

zubin.p

What kind of connection do you guys have in your glove box? Is it a 30 pin iphone cable?

burgca

The device works as advertised and is easy to connect. I wish the power/aux cable was longer, and it is pretty flimsy so I don't think that it will last long but for $30 you can't have everything. The Aux connection is a plain ohm jack.