Volkswagen Tiguan Forum : “With standard (non-nav) stereo, it is possible to run the 6-disc in-dash, SAT ra...”

With standard (non-nav) stereo, it is possible to run the 6-disc in-dash, SAT radio, AND a Phatbox - I've done it!

I had a Phatbox in my 01 Jetta Wolfsburg that I loved, and I pulled it out "just in case" when I traded it in. For a bit, folks were saying that they simply don't work in the MKV cars, but I recently found out about the cable that allows you to plug the Phatbox/a MKIV CD changer in. Cool!

However, the Changer/Phatbox cable goes in the same receptacle as the SAT radio cable, so it's one or the other. I plugged in the cable to the Phatbox and got immediate success, but I want my SAT radio too! Another DIY for a slightly different VW stereo indicates that the pins used by one are empty in the other (and vice-versa) so you can simply pop the pins out and use one plug...

...but in my Tiguan that wasn't exactly true. Three of the wires/pins were using the same pin locations on the plug.

Luckily, in another FAQ, I found the pinouts and discovered that the three "shared" pins are for Audio Left, Audio Right and Audio Ground(common).

So... I simply spliced in the phatbox cable's audio L to the Sat Radio's audio L, and so on... and I have joy! The Phatbox works (I just hit CD twice for "EXT CD"), the SAT radio still works great, and the internal 6-disc still works too.

I'm stoked!