Latest news on Tanko...
First, however, to rewind a bit... I completed the suspension work and clutch R&R on the wife's car (Tanka) and it's AWESOME. The clutch is extremely light and the ride is very smooth. The car is pretty much dialed in for her now.
Tanko had a lot of creature comfort enhancements done on it. A new stereo HU (Head Unit) and set of lower front speakers. Heated seat install.
Had been wanting to put heated seats in this car for years now (since I've owned it- 3 years). Took me forever to track down a suitable set of seats. VERY hard to find beige cloth seats that were in excellent condition (Tanko's interior is near mint). It took the purchase of an entire car (2000 Jetta) to finally land those seats. Had to repair the driver's seat heating, the wire to the thermistor was broken (common ailment). Since Tanko came from the factory w/o heated seats that meant wiring for them had to be installed. I'd already become familiar with this job, having not too long ago installed heated seats in Tanku (blue Golf). While one can make up their own harnesses I find that the cost and convenience of the Kufatec harnesses to be WELL worth it: I bought two for about $120 - everything except the switches). I was going to route the harness down the console but decided to run them like stock wire is run (which I did with Tanku's): along the driver's door sill. I was really excited to have heated seats in time for winter!
Drove to work to find that the driver's seat wasn't heating up.
Oh well... next day I figured I'd try the OTHER seat's switch, and, lo and behold, the driver's seat heated up!
Yup, got the connectors reversed: had thought that I'd kept them in order, but apparently with all my wire shuffling they got influenced by Mr. Murphy. Next available moment I'll swap these around. Oh yeah, another HUGE relief is that I no longer have this stupid cacophony of creaking noises emanating from my driver's seat (car is now smooth and quiet)!
In concert (kind of a PUN here) with the seat work, as I was going to have to tear things open, I aimed to replace the stock sound system. But, I knew there would be smart phone integration things to consider here. The issue/concern for me was of physical management. Where would I stow my phone? Where would I plug it in? I'd been exposed to my wife's adventures here and I knew I wanted an actual SOLUTION. Sticking things on the dash isn't for me (my wife has a ton of stuff on her dash and it makes it tough to clean the inside of the windshield). Other options that folks have utilized are: 1) Glove box; 2) Center console (perhaps even IN the armrest). Always opening something up and plugging and unplugging a phone/device wasn't something that I wanted to tolerate (I don't want my "smart phone" to be an inconvenience!). So, here's my solution (I half-arse documented my thought process and doings
here):
My phone slides into the right-hand side of that converted in-dash cup holder and automatically (physically as well as electronically) connects up via Android Auto to the HU. No messing with cables. No fumbling around with where to put the phone- access is easy. The phone sticks out at most an inch and a half (or so), enough to grab on to but not enough to obscure the HU's display.
Can't say that I was always intending to ditch the in-dash cup holder, but I had been wanting to install a new style rear console section that has cup holders. So, I purchased one of those and installed it during this project.
The stereo upgrade took the longest to decide on, to pull the trigger. I planned only on replacing the front lower speakers just as I'd done in the wife's car. Those were Infinity speakers and I was quite impressed with them. I got a pair of their successors, Infinity Kappa 62.11i. Not until I'd started in on this did I realize how much work it is to do those speakers! Buttoned up the door panel on the driver's side and was feeling proud to be DONE with this work, only to find that a pull on the door release lever wasn't working. Yup, pull off the door panel and hook the cable back up!
Selection of the HU took me the longest. I still like to be able to listen to FM when I can: don't subscribe to any of the satellite services), so FM sensitivity was high on the requirements list. This one thing pared things down quite a bit: I'm surprised to see such a wide variation here- you'd think that this would be fundamentally, across the board aced by now. $500 was also my rough budget. Since I now have a smart phone I figured that it needs to act smarter, do more. The HU should support Android Auto. The "winner" was the JVC KW-V830BT. I'm not a die-hard brand supporter but JVC has seemed to be pretty good on a couple of other units that I have: tractor (cheap unit, single DIN but with BT- works really well); blue Golf came with a JVC single DIN, though no BT it works well too. In general this JVC doesn't disappoint me. There are a couple of things that I like more with my wife's cheaper Jensen (VX7220). FM reception, once I put back the stock antenna mast, seems to actually be good now: we're stuffed back in the foothills where FM reception just isn't all that stellar.
Lastly, and you may have given it a double-take, the "two" hazard switches in the dash!
For "UhOh" moments?
The additional one I'm using as a switch to activate the backup camera. Those switches aren't a perfect match in shape as they're rounded on both sides, whereas the other slots/holes are for switches that have a straight edge on one of their sides (butting up to another switch). I tentatively am planning on swapping that switch out for an "ESP" switch (still have to figure if it's electrically up to the task). The camera is just laying in the trunk right now waiting for me to mount it off the license plate: requires pulling the rear bumper. Ran out of time for this.