GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Hey all, new here. I've had an '06 Vibe for a few years now and its treated me well. Really excited to find this forum.

I'm finally getting around to ordering a head unit off crutchfield. The display light has been dark on the OEM stereo for a while now, and I'm getting tired of the two CD's that I don't have in storage,

The units I'm looking at (Sony XAV line) would have both usb and microphone to use CARPLAY and I'm trying to find the best place to install both of them in the cleanest way possible. I'm not against drilling a hole or two in a panel, just want to keep wires hidden as possible and not look too much like the DIY velcro and hot glue solutions I did to my Astro minivan back in the late 90's.

My first thought is the little one-inch knock out panels left of the steering wheel where the coin holder is? And if anyone could point me toward a place to buy extras of those panels I'd certainly appreciate it.

Also thought about possibly routing usb/aux to the space where the AC two prong outlet is. Has anyone ever done this? I'd be curious to see what would be involved.

If anyone has photos of different options they've done, please share - I'd love to see what you've done. Thanks!

I recently found this in my search to add a USB port to my desk. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SR13TJR/ or https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078LMBQM6/
The blank spot next to the AC outlet would be a good place, as would the spot between the cup holders under the arm rest. It's a simple matter to drill a round hole and plop these in. Using a blank switch would work too, but you would have to be more careful when making a square hole for a bear USB port.

In my car I put the Microphone above the rear view mirror. It came with a clip and a long cable. I ran the cable in the headliner to the driver side A pillar. The A pillar plastic is easy to pull off and squeezing the cable in to the dash is easy enough.

My Eonon headunit cam with HDMI and USB ports... I simply ran those over to the glove box so they can be accessed there if I were to use them.

My microphone is just temporarily dangle out from the faceplate of the radio. I really haven't found anywhere I want to mount it. I've considered running it up to the ceiling by the sunroof control.

Streeter wrote: ↑Thu May 14, 2020 10:33 am If anyone has photos of different options they've done, please share - I'd love to see what you've done. Thanks!

Welcome to GenVibe "streeter".

Several of us have made this modification. Since the regular cig lighter socket is going by the wayside, replace it with a classy USB port(s). This turned out very nice and looks factory

My setup. Just scroll down to the pic.

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=43818&p=500620&hil ... ne#p500620

Finally got around to getting this installed and thought I’d share how it went.

Got the head unit in and then decided the little blank panel on the left next to the coin holder was my best bet. Drilled a hole (off center since the center of the panel wasn’t flat) then cleaned the hole out to a half inch- the diameter of the mic. Thought it might just fit snug enough to stay put, but I couldn’t get that accurate with it. Didn’t want it to fall into the void when bumped, so I originally thought of trying to hot glue it in place, but then noticed the mic had these grooves around it and found some rubber o-rings in the plumbing depo at Ace Hardware. Perfectly snug. If you end up doing something like this with this mic (it seems like a common one) the o-ring size is 1/2 with a slightly less inner diameter.


https://imgur.com/gallery/JRt17xS