Hey there guys, I thought I would post a little information I have come across regarding the Phatbox in the newer cars that have satellite radio installed from the factory.

I originally had a 2000 A4 with the CD changer harness pre-wired to the trunk. Recently swapped it out for an '04 A4 with Bose/Sirius and ran into the whole issue about how to install the Phatbox.

Mike Woo from Phatnoise was kind enough to set me up with a whole new changer cable and some instructions on how to get this to work without having to cut any cables. I had to send the phatbox in to phatnoise for a minor repair and seeing as I was the beta tester for the native Audi solution the Phatnoise folks are very nice to me!

The Phatnoise installation manual that is available from their website has detailed info about which wires you have to connect the changer harness to in order to get the Phatbox to work. As you know the problem is with pins 18-20 which are in use by the satellite radio tuner. Mike included some 3M locktite wire connectors which can be used to tap the existing wires to the wires on the new harness... this connector harpoons the wires but does not strip them out or cut them in any way, so effectively you can stay stock. It looks like to get enough slack in the stock cable to install these I will have to cut some of the insulation on the cable in order to have enough slack to get all three of these put in. I will try to get some pics posted... also Mr. Woo checked with the Phatnoise gurus and they indicated that no resistors or other connections were necessary, you will simply end up with a mixed signal from the sat tuner and the Phatbox, the signal level will be a little lower, but you should only hear what is on whichever one you are using.

The question that I am having is how you guys are mounting your Phatbox in the newer cars? I would prefer to install it in the glove box or under the dash on the passenger side. I have taken the chassis cover off and the Phatbox itself is pretty compact, I am wondering if I can maybe buy a project box and stuff the guts in that. It might be possible to cut the back out of the glovebox rear panel and slide the phatbox a few inches into that space and get it in that way. It won't look pretty but I think it's a better option than taking half of the car apart and having the thing bolted to the back trunk space where things can smack it or the cable.

Any ideas on this would be appreciated, I will try to get some pics up soon... I also need to figure out where to put the mountain of cable I am going to wind up with if I install it in the front as I am planning on doing.