I have a 2013 Chevrolet Impala which only has bluetooth for phone calls. My second installed CD player broke and I am trying to improvise a solution to listen to music until I buy a new car.
The radio still works but the CD player doesn’t want to cough out the discs. The same thing happened with the original one about 6/7 years ago and I had a new unit installed back then.
My tentative research indicates that one can get a male to male audio cable with 3.5 jacks to sync the phone with the radio through the Aux port. I will need a 3.5 jack/USB C adapter to hook up from the port to the phone. I checked to see that the audio cable and the adapter I am exploring on Amazon are compatible with my phone.
I am not sure if there are any settings that need adjusted on my Android Pixel 7 phone.
Does anyone have any experience with this?
It is only a $15.00 expense and I am willing to give it a try.
There is another option of setting up a universal bluetooth adapter via the cigarette lighter but that seems a bit more clumsy.
Otherwise I can just listen to whatever radio stations come through as I have done for many years in the past. Planning on buying a new car within the year so I don’t want to go to any great lengths to set anything up.
I don’t have many long drives so it’s not a huge deal. I just like to fill my life with a bit of enjoyment and music is one of the things that keeps me connected/sane these days.
I used the wrong words for sure but I am still suffering from long covid brain fog. Sync is not the correct term. Just want it to play some music lol.
I don’t have the physical/mental bandwidth and strength to go looking for a used Chevy radio and then someone to install it in my condition.
Just trying to see if something small will work.
I am fine with the status quo.
Is this the kind that broadcasts on an FM station? If so, I have one, and I do not recommend it. I used it in a car without an aux jack on a long road trip. Out in the country it worked fine, but in any urban area there were too many radio stations that interfered with all possible FM channels the device could use.
If you have an aux port just use that. Older pixels came with a usb-c to headphone adapter, so I’m sure the phone supports it.
In my previous car I used a lightning to aux adapter. It is the closest to plug and play you’ll get without “audio” usb.
If you want to use both a charger and the aux input it gets a bit messy with 2 wires to your phone.
Thank you. I didn’t like the looks of the universal bluetooth adapter for reasons I could not explain to myself.
Appreciate the detailed description of your experience.
Are you saying the radio doesn’t have a USB port, or the vehicle doesn’t have a USB port? I would expect a 2013 vehicle to have a USB port somewhere. Mine is down by the cigarette lighter. My wife’s car has it hidden inside the center console. Check your manual if you don’t see one in an obvious spot.
I’m pretty sure I looked everywhere for a USB port some years ago when I was trying t connect something else. It’s a 2013 Chevy Impala and it only has bluetooth for hands free calling - not audio. I’ll look again but I remember buying some bits and pieces years ago that I could not connect in the car.
I have to charge through the cigarette lighters (there are 2 of those). So I still keep a couple cigarette lighter adapters handy. One of the cigarette lighters is in the center console.
I just checked the Impala forums and a USB port was not available in Impala models until 2014.
That’s super finicky anyway, because then it becomes an actual software connection instead of a dumb analog connection that the Aux port uses. Truly, anything digital (Bluetooth, USB, Carplay/Android Auto, etc.) is to going to be a pain in the ass compared to an Aux port, especially for older cars with older software.
The only reason to have a software connection is if you want more integrated controls (like being able to skip tracks on the touchscreen or steering wheel). If you don’t care about that, or if your car doesn’t have those features, a dumb analog aux connection will be infinitely more reliable, simpler, and sound just as good if not better (especially compared to Bluetooth).
The software integrations work well enough on a newer car, especially with a recent iPhone (Apple’s integration is much better than Google’s on many cars). But a Pixel on an old car? I wouldn’t even bother trying it.
Yeah, it also lets you more safely mount the phone (to use for navigation, or just to go through your playlist on while driving).