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OOH boy it has been a WHILE since I updated this page. Not much happening until of late but I did some stuff other than just rinse off the pollen.
Around mid-January I swapped the carbon-flake-vinyl-wrapped stereo faceplate for a hydrodipped one. Apparently from a slightly different year so the CD slot is in the wrong place... I more or less deleted it internally. I don't think I've ever used a CD in this car in 8 years of ownership. I... uh... I remember *owning* CDs, at one point, but that was decades ago...
Added the CARSMO ***** I've had on the shelf forever (who knew the top and bottom ***** were different lengths? I did not). Then installed that along with the VLINE2 to get Carplay. Great success!
You'll note the clock is missing. That is, at least for now, on purpose.
Carsmo was OOB by the time I got around to this mod, so I bought some "knurled" ***** off eBay and they worked great. Checked today, and that outfit is OOB now as well.
Today's car related activities include washing it for the first time since 2024 (last time I drove it semi-regularly), tucking the VLINE2 and wiring into the glove box, and putting my tag sticker on LOL. Also had to clear the SRS light from having the car on with faceplate off (the passenger airbag light being missing will set the SRS light on).
Question about the VLINE - do y'all know if it's 100% necessary for the separate microphone to be installed? That looks like wire routing will be a PITA. I need to use carplay voice recognition tho - thought it was through the phone mic but apparently not. Doesn't the navitainment have a mic built in for bluetooth?
