With this axle project going on, the last thing I had planned on doing was spending money on something that wasn’t part of it. But sometimes when a deal is too good….
When I bought the Jeep, it only had the standard radio in it. No touch screen, no nav. We’ve had navigation in the last two vehicles my wife has driven, and I’ve wanted to add it to the Jeep. The plan was to pick up an aftermarket radio, like a Kenwood or a Pioneer AVIC (I want Apple CarPlay).
As has happened more and more recently, my plans and their timing changed once again. I found, on Detroit’s Craig’s List, a listing for a Jeep JK Wrangler OEM 730N RHR radio. It’s the one with the TomTom navigation in it. Although I like my wife 430N (Garmin) better, for $400, I had to try and get it. These things sell for twice that.
I arranged with the seller to ship it to me, rather than meet up. As soon as I opened up the box, I knew something was wrong. There is no way this was out of a JK. The mounting tabs were on the top and bottom, not the sides, and it appears the seller had cut the bottom tabs off in order to fit it in his JK. Ugh! I was pissed. I later found out this was likely out of a Challenger SRT. Included in the box was the microphone and the plug for it.
I tried installing it anyway, just to see if it would even work in my Jeep. It mostly did. The mic in my JK wouldn’t work, but the included one did. The USB in the center console does not work. And I was having problems getting my iPhone 6 to pair with it. I eventually found a forum where a member is hosting DVD images of the updated software for the radio (not the NAV). I downloaded it and was able to upgrade the radio, bluetooth problem solved.
For those interested in updating their MyGig:
http://www.mydrive.ch
u: mygig@soxag
p: gasolio
I still decided to return it, but the seller was being a jerk. I tried to work with him, but he wasn’t going to budge. I opened up a claim with PayPal. I originally had the seller send me a PayPal invoice, hoping it would help protect me. But the only thing he put on it was the part number and that it was a 730N. Not that it was out of a JK. I still had a decent claim, I think I had a chance of winning it, even though he deleted the CL ad. But I knew I wouldn’t find another radio like this for that price. So I spent New Years Day fabricating some brackets to mount the radio in the JK and to get it to look reasonably OK. It’s not perfect, but it’s close. I did convince the seller to refund the shipping, PayPal fees as well as the $10 I had to spend to get a security code (he didn’t have the original VIN).
I still need to fix the center console USB – that shouldn’t be hard, outside of pulling the center console to get to the port and running a cable from the USB port on the back of the radio.
When a deal seems to good to be true, it probably is. Had I known this was not out of a JK, I would have passed. Knowing what I know now, I’m glad I didn’t.