Installing a MG Rover Bluetooth Handsfree Kit.

StevenWilliams · 6th May 2009, 19:36

Just thought I'd gibe you a brief description of what I did when installing a MG Rover Bluetooth handsfree kit as sourced by SMC here for £29.99 + p&p.

What you get in the kit.

A control unit, microphone, control and privacy cable. A ISO harness and a power cable.

You'll need to splice into a permanent live, switched live and neutral cable.
I just spliced into the main radio wiring as it has all three. The draw of this unit is very low and unless you have a very high power consuming stereo this will be fine.

Then you connect the male and female connectors into the speaker side of the ISO harness

I put my microphone on the center light just above the rear mirror. I put it there just in case the passengers want to talk as well. I know my kids do. I know most installers put this by the drivers A pillar.

In the future I may replace the sunblind switch blank with this.

I put the control cable under the stereo and through the same channel as the climate control unit. This seems to look the best from the many places I tried it.

I put the headphone unit in the glovebox. there is a hole already in the glove box for the CD changer lead and as I don;t have a cD changer it was perfect. I didn't take a photo of this.

I will rarely use the privacy headphone so it's fine hidden away in there and if I need it I can just drop the glovebox and pull it out. The lead is long enough (Just).

As you can see in the pic above I put the control unit near the fusebox and it fitted perfectly with all the other bits.

The install was about 10 mins of figuring the italian instructions out and then just plugging everything in. It's very simple. Routing the cables takes longer especially if you want it not to vibrate whilst driving.

If you are wondering what the blue cable is under the glovebox it's the permanent live feed I put into the boot.

All in all a great kit that sounds superb.

Lovel · 6th May 2009, 19:50

Interesting bit of kit and very unobtrusive. Comparing it against the Parrot kit, how would you scroll through the phone numbers on your mobile, does the display appear on the Iovox HU?

kevin · 6th May 2009, 20:10

steven, would you like to fit mine and I can being the tow bar over for you.

StevenWilliams · 6th May 2009, 20:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by kevin

steven, would you like to fit mine and I can being the tow bar over for you.

Yeah no probs.

chunkybray · 8th May 2009, 15:19

Steven

Where did you fit the cpu?.As my Italian is not very good any advice would be useful.

Thanks Nick

StevenWilliams · 8th May 2009, 18:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by chunkybray

Steven

Where did you fit the cpu?.As my Italian is not very good any advice would be useful.

Thanks Nick

under the fuse panel.

chrissyboy · 15th May 2010, 19:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by StevenWilliams

Just thought I'd gibe you a brief description of what I did when installing a MG Rover Bluetooth handsfree kit as sourced by SMC here for £29.99 + p&p.

What you get in the kit.

A control unit, microphone, control and privacy cable. A ISO harness and a power cable.

You'll need to splice into a permanent live, switched live and neutral cable.
I just spliced into the main radio wiring as it has all three. The draw of this unit is very low and unless you have a very high power consuming stereo this will be fine.

Then you connect the male and female connectors into the speaker side of the ISO harness

I put my microphone on the center light just above the rear mirror. I put it there just in case the passengers want to talk as well. I know my kids do. I know most installers put this by the drivers A pillar.

In the future I may replace the sunblind switch blank with this.

I put the control cable under the stereo and through the same channel as the climate control unit. This seems to look the best from the many places I tried it.

I put the headphone unit in the glovebox. there is a hole already in the glove box for the CD changer lead and as I don;t have a cD changer it was perfect. I didn't take a photo of this.

I will rarely use the privacy headphone so it's fine hidden away in there and if I need it I can just drop the glovebox and pull it out. The lead is long enough (Just).

As you can see in the pic above I put the control unit near the fusebox and it fitted perfectly with all the other bits.

The install was about 10 mins of figuring the italian instructions out and then just plugging everything in. It's very simple. Routing the cables takes longer especially if you want it not to vibrate whilst driving.

If you are wondering what the blue cable is under the glovebox it's the permanent live feed I put into the boot.

All in all a great kit that sounds superb.

yet another nice neat job steven . i got the parrot hands free suits me just fine .i dont leave my phone in the car anymore and get in trouble with the other half since i had the parrot .i just get in car leave phone in pocket and they pair up and i got the sound all round the car to boot

strange though stopping at the lights and the car next to you looks at you as if your mad ,if im taking a call ,they always creep forward lol

markbloke · 20th May 2010, 17:28

Thought I'd include a pic of my installation. As suggested I've mounted the mic on the centre light but as I've got a symphony unit I've mounted the remote on the blanking plate upside-down. Advantages of this are that the cable is mostly hidden by the "brow" and the volume up/down is configured right/left which is a bit more intuitive to my mind.
Down side was the word "Lingua" was upside down and the button couldn't be inverted thanks to a triangular arrangement of clips. I rubbed it off (Didn't like the font anyway...) using printer-ink solvent which did make the button a little matt. If I could find a bluetooth logo decal I'd probably put that on instead.
Photo below:

sikelsh · 20th May 2010, 21:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by markbloke

I've added a "How to" explaining how to get the sound out of the driver's side without mucking up the stereo.
http://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/foru...264#post524264

Mark, if I wanted to use a tweeter is that possible? and do you know which wire would be the one to swap over?

Im really close to taking this kit out, I thought that the sticky tape over the circuit board had softened the echo, but Im getting more and more complaints. even when on absolute minimum volume.

markbloke · 21st May 2010, 07:14

Sorry to hear about the echo problem, as I posted here it seems a lot of people are out of luck thanks to an incompatible phone.
I'm afraid I can't help with tweeter wiring as on mine I only have one set of speaker outputs. To be honest I'd be surprised if there were separate wires available near the head unit as the crossover is usually what's called passive and wired in at the actual speaker unit.

The original Nokia unit this is based on was supplied with a separate speaker. It might be possible to fit a small separate speaker in place of the relay block controlling the muting but I suspect they've stuck a DC voltage on it as well to power the relays. Unfortunately I've lashed mine in now so can't check!

Sorry to say the message coming from people with the straight Nokia version linked to in my other post seems to be that if you haven't got a compatible phone you might as well rip it out. What a shame.

6th May 2009, 19:36	#1
StevenWilliams This is my second home Rover 75 Saloon 2.5 V6 British Racing Green. 81,000 miles and counting Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Crawley, West Sussex Posts: 6,183 Thanks: 0 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts	Installing a MG Rover Bluetooth Handsfree Kit. Just thought I'd gibe you a brief description of what I did when installing a MG Rover Bluetooth handsfree kit as sourced by SMC here for £29.99 + p&p. What you get in the kit. A control unit, microphone, control and privacy cable. A ISO harness and a power cable. You'll need to splice into a permanent live, switched live and neutral cable. I just spliced into the main radio wiring as it has all three. The draw of this unit is very low and unless you have a very high power consuming stereo this will be fine. Then you connect the male and female connectors into the speaker side of the ISO harness I put my microphone on the center light just above the rear mirror. I put it there just in case the passengers want to talk as well. I know my kids do. I know most installers put this by the drivers A pillar. In the future I may replace the sunblind switch blank with this. I put the control cable under the stereo and through the same channel as the climate control unit. This seems to look the best from the many places I tried it. I put the headphone unit in the glovebox. there is a hole already in the glove box for the CD changer lead and as I don;t have a cD changer it was perfect. I didn't take a photo of this. I will rarely use the privacy headphone so it's fine hidden away in there and if I need it I can just drop the glovebox and pull it out. The lead is long enough (Just). As you can see in the pic above I put the control unit near the fusebox and it fitted perfectly with all the other bits. The install was about 10 mins of figuring the italian instructions out and then just plugging everything in. It's very simple. Routing the cables takes longer especially if you want it not to vibrate whilst driving. If you are wondering what the blue cable is under the glovebox it's the permanent live feed I put into the boot. All in all a great kit that sounds superb. __________________ [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] Rover 75 2.5 2000 Club SE. British Racing Green. MEMBER NUMBER: MMMDCCXXVI Looking for: 7 seater

6th May 2009, 19:50	#2
Lovel I really should get out more....... P6B, L550, Imp, F56, Commando Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Aberdeenshire Posts: 2,886 Thanks: 352 Thanked 677 Times in 440 Posts	Interested Interesting bit of kit and very unobtrusive. Comparing it against the Parrot kit, how would you scroll through the phone numbers on your mobile, does the display appear on the Iovox HU?

6th May 2009, 20:10	#3
kevin I really should get out more....... ford focus ghia Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: herts Posts: 2,553 Thanks: 0 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts	steven, would you like to fit mine and I can being the tow bar over for you.

8th May 2009, 15:19	#5
chunkybray Avid contributor mg zt-t Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Staines Posts: 192 Thanks: 1 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	Steven Where did you fit the cpu?.As my Italian is not very good any advice would be useful. Thanks Nick

20th May 2010, 17:28	#8
markbloke Avid contributor None Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: None Posts: 119 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Thought I'd include a pic of my installation. As suggested I've mounted the mic on the centre light but as I've got a symphony unit I've mounted the remote on the blanking plate upside-down. Advantages of this are that the cable is mostly hidden by the "brow" and the volume up/down is configured right/left which is a bit more intuitive to my mind. Down side was the word "Lingua" was upside down and the button couldn't be inverted thanks to a triangular arrangement of clips. I rubbed it off (Didn't like the font anyway...) using printer-ink solvent which did make the button a little matt. If I could find a bluetooth logo decal I'd probably put that on instead. Photo below:

21st May 2010, 07:14	#10
markbloke Avid contributor None Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: None Posts: 119 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Sorry to hear about the echo problem, as I posted here it seems a lot of people are out of luck thanks to an incompatible phone. I'm afraid I can't help with tweeter wiring as on mine I only have one set of speaker outputs. To be honest I'd be surprised if there were separate wires available near the head unit as the crossover is usually what's called passive and wired in at the actual speaker unit. The original Nokia unit this is based on was supplied with a separate speaker. It might be possible to fit a small separate speaker in place of the relay block controlling the muting but I suspect they've stuck a DC voltage on it as well to power the relays. Unfortunately I've lashed mine in now so can't check! Sorry to say the message coming from people with the straight Nokia version linked to in my other post seems to be that if you haven't got a compatible phone you might as well rip it out. What a shame.