Hi all - my first post here. I've scoured these threads & many others trying to find an answer so hoping somebody has gone through this before me.

I have a 2004 Disco with factory nav (pic below) and the 6-disc CD changer under passenger front seat. I'm trying to keep the classic look the same (not changing head unit, etc..I know that is an option). I also know that GROM makes the BT3 dongle unit which I currently have in my possession & tried to install, unfortunately that is NOT compatible with the factory radio with NAV included and won't work.

Has anybody found a solution (other than a cheap FM-Bluetooth transmitter) to add bluetooth functionality to these radio / NAV units? I'm aware I'll be potentially sacrificing the CD functionality, but that's fine with me.

Please let me know how you guys have solved this without swapping the radio headunit and without GROM (or how have you had success with GROM on the radio w/ NAV). Thank you all!

 

Welcome to the forum. I wanted to keep the factory look so I spliced a bluetooth module into the CD changer audio out under the seat. I actually cut a bit of harness from a junkyard truck to use so I didn't have to hack up my truck, and it's removable to go back to completely stock if I ever wanted to. It's about as elegant as you can get without going Grom (let me know if you want to sell yours). The downsides are A) you have to have a CD in the player, otherwise the headunit will not allow you to select CD as the input. I burned a 60 minute single track disc, and B) every 60 minutes there's a 1 second pause as the player starts the track over again. I am a bit surprised that I've driven the truck for 30k miles with a CD playing the entire time the ignition is on but otherwise it works just fine and I'm not put out by those two caveats because I prefer the stock appearance. It's not for everyone but beyond that I don't really know what to suggest.

 

Great idea...definitely interested in this method. Any pictures or know-how / instructions would be greatly appreciated. I'm decent on the mechanical side, but don't trust my instinct when it comes to electrical wiring!

 

What happened when you tried to install the GROM that led you to conclude it is not compatible with the OEM NAV head unit?

Since you say your truck has the 6-disc CD changer, I presume you tried plugging the GROM into the jack otherwise used by the CD changer. What happened when you did that?

 

Correct; I plugged the GROM into the back of the OEM NAV head unit (top right / light blue in the pic) jack. The GROM would not power up. I spent an hour on the phone with GROM trying to troubleshoot...it makes no logical sense why the NAV-specific model wouldn't allow the GROM to power up, but that's what they told me was happening. Radio worked fine otherwise, but the GROM Bluetooth would never show up on my iPhone as an option to be connected. Inside the GROM unit, there's supposed to be a small LED light that indicates it's powered on - that didn't happen for me. I was told that wouldn't (couldn't) happen with the NAV radio for some reason. Very frustrating and illogical

 

I'll take some pics tomorrow. It's a pretty simple conversion.

 

If it's a power issue, I would think you would be able to jump power over to the hot pin to power the GROM unit. Never had a D2 with factory NAV, that's pretty neat. Still work?

 

I can understand the desire to keep the OEM look, but I came as close as I could in just doing a simple head unit to replace the OEM Nav unit (mine wasn’t working particularly well anyway).

This is the 3rd Disco I’ve put a Pioneer DEH 8800BHS into. I can make the colors of the screen match the OEM lighting and I think they are close enough. Plus, the BT connectivity is the best I’ve ever seen- including it being as good or better than any of our other cars with OEM BT- and using it for the phone is really nice. I will say that the steering wheel controls were lost this time with the Nav unit, as there is a module just under the HU in the dash that gets pulled. I’ve programmed them in the past with iffy results anyway, and the unit comes with a remote, so meh.

Also, I have to believe the sound quality is a bit better as well. Aside from the silver ****, it’s looks like it fits in there.







I left a little red in the latest install and I really like it.



My OEM Nav unit had an FM modulator when I bought it, but I nuked all the spaghetti when I did the new HU.

 

Thanks that would be hugely helpful!

 

It DOES still work...but as you can imagine by todays standards its archaic. You have to upload different CDs for different parts of the country / world. It's wild but fun to show friends who only drive new cars

As I mentioned - I'm SUBPAR (to say the least) when it comes to electrical work. If you've got a more detailed description of how to 'jump power over to the hot pin to power the GROM unit' I'm all ears! If it's too much to describe, don't sweat it!

Bought one of those cheap FM / Bluetooth cigarette lighter deals from Best Buy today - thing sucks. I live in Downtown Austin and static every channel I tried. Waste of $30 bucks!