Hi All! Brand new to the forum and excited to be able to talk to people who know all about their scions!! I bought at 2010 Scion XD in June and was super excited to use my USB port to connect to my iPhone 4. When I first tried it, nothing happened, the iPod/USB button did nothing, I plugged my cord in, nothing happened. I thought it might have been the whole system, until I used the aux hookup and that worked.

With still no answers, I went to get it looked at because I am still under the factory warranty. They said I needed a new USB connection so they "fixed" it and I got my car back yesterday. As soon as I got home I plugged in my iPhone and again nothing happened!

Am I an idiot and I'm just not doing something right? I am using my usually iPod/iPhone USB cord that I would use to connect to my Mac or charger. Do I need a special cord? The manuals do not give you any information on how to actually use it. Please help, i am dying to use my phone or ipod to listen to music and I am getting very frustrated. Thanks in advance!

 

Okay. You are confusing me when you say USB and iPhone in the same sentence. There is no USB plug on your iPhone. There is a USB plug in the car, but that is not the one you should be using. There should be three plugs in there, an aux, an USB, and another one. The other one is the one you should be using when using Mac items and that requires a special Scion cord. The USB is not compatible and does not read the device whatsoever. Now, if you have only two plug-in, an aux and a USB, then yes, you need a special cord that comes out of the USB of your car to your Mac item. There aren't any cords that you can use yourself that aren't Scion and have them work with your Mac device. Tell the dealer that you are trying to use your iPhone with the car and you need the special cord for it, they will then hand you one.

 

my iPhone cord has a USB connection- one side goes into the iPhone and the USB side goes into a different device- just like all mac cords in order to plug into the computer, charger, etc....this is the cord I am trying to use. In my 2010 xD, I have two plugs, a USB and an AUX. I did mention wanting to use for my iphone or ipod when I purchased the car and they said nothing about needing a cord. I have since moved a distance from the dealership...is this something I can buy?

 

Yeah, I don't care about all that. I'm just saying our cars use "Scion-specific" cords when using Mac devices. And I think your phone should reach the dealer, so being "x" amount of miles shouldn't matter when you can just call them. Call them and tell them your problem and what you are using and ask for the Scion-specific cord for your Mac device. Talk to the parts department. Whenever they sell cars, new or used, literally, even new, they never have the right cords with it, you always have to ask for them. This isn't out of the ordinary. I just highly doubt there is anything wrong with your USB connection.

 

I appreciate your advice, but I don't need you to undermine me by saying that my phone should still reach the dealership. I was just asking for advice since I have never had a car with this capability...next time be a little kinder with your responses, we're not all "experts".

 

Wasn't trying to undermine you, it just sounded like your second post a bit of attitude because you weren't satisfied with my first response. I'm just saying call the dealer, why have to go in? Anyways let's get past that because you still need to figure out what the problem is. I'm thinking you need the right cord that is from Scion, not one that comes with your iPhone or whatever you are using. They don't read the device correctly. Call the dealership and if they sound unsure and sound like idiots, that's because they are and you need to talk to someone else. Or, if that dealership has all morons, call another one in another state, doesn't matter, just call someone to get your answer and what cord to use, but no, it won't be anything you can buy, it's supplied only by Scion. You might be able to buy it from the parts department, but there's no need to spend money when this $20 cord was factored into your loan.

 

I also have a 2010, with just the USB and the AUX (and a place holder next to that). I don't have an iphone but I've had people get in my car and plug in their phone via USB and it works fine. You can control it with the steering wheel and everything.
With that being said, when you plug in the iphone does it literally do nothing or will it charge from that USB? Have you tried playing music from the phone and then plugging it in(or any variation of that)?

 

I thought once Scion changed the iPod port (after 2008 I think) that it became a standard USB plug. That should work with whatever cable was provided by Apple. Mine xD has the old proprietary plug so I could be wrong.

 

That sounds right, I was saying that just so Ekeats could rule out needing some kind of special order cable. If they took the car somewhere and got the USB fixed then there might be some compatibility problem either with their stereo or possibly the software on the phone. I would try having a few friends hook up their iphones/ipod touches and see if they work.

 

Yea, still having trouble with it. I have used just the normal white ipod cable to plug into the USB port and still nothing happens. I have tried to play the music, press the "Ipod" button that is on the right hand side of the unit...nothing, sort of at a loss at this point. I brought it to the dealer and they said they fixed it but still nothing. I have purchased a special ipod "syncing" cable, nothing. CloneAlone, I'm jealous I think I need to go back to the dealer and figure this out, it was such a selling point for me and dissappointed that I haven't been able to use it for 7 months.

 

Take it back and have them show you how it works. Then you can either see what you are doing wrong, they show you how they are getting it to work, you see they didn't really fix it, or some other possibility I am not thinking of right now.

There should be nothing more than simply plugging in the normal cable that came with the phone (or ipod) to both the phone and the USB port and selecting the ipod button on the radio. There is no reason to buy any special cable for this to work.

Now, all that being said...When I had my stock radio in (my connection is not the USB connection, but the older proprietary connection) I did have to purchase a device that connected between the Scion supplied cable and the port on the bottom of my phone to get my phone to work all the time. Without that device, sometimes it took several tries to get my radio to acknowledge my iPhone was connected. I don't know if this is an issue with Scions that use a standard USB port. This was never an issue with any iPods I owned, just my iPhones.