This is what I followed in upgrading my HU, https://www.reddit.com/r/SubaruForester/comments/8p6skv/2018_forester_headunit_install/
And a couple of others the telemetrics in my 2018 Premium is still hooked in and the harness I used from IDatalink had a connector to the STARLINK cable. This kept the SOS and Info button green.
Warranty I am not sure others may have better insight. If you paid for STARLINK plus you have remote access. The SOS feature will know if the air bags are deployed.
Yes by not having the telemetric unit not active you will get emails from the mother ship.
By not using the telemetric you loose the front speakers and the sos and/or info tries to talk to it supposed to mute the front so you can have a two way conversation with them in an emergency.
The STARLINK cable needs a certain amount of voltage to think everything is working. Not sure what they did the might need a small cable from Brian at Auto Harness Warehouse that could correct the problem.
Lou Cioccio

 

Hi Lou and thanks for replying.

Yes by not having the telemetric unit not active you will get emails from the mother ship.

I'm a bit unclear here - not sure if you're suggesting that I'm getting the errors and email because the telemetric unit is inactive?

I tested both the SOS and Info call buttons and I spoke with someone so I know the Starlink communications work.

Do you think the amp/voltage issue is the cause of my problem?

 

Yes you are correct that part works what is not working is the STARLINK wire is not connected to let them know about the air bags etc that needs to have some voltage to let them (Subaru STARLINK) that the system is working. If you would just scan the link you’ll see where it shows the STARLINK wire I thinks it brown or pink.
Lou Cioccio

 

Hi Lou,
This is all pretty new to me so please bear with my questions if you can!

I read through the links you sent, thank you for that. I'd just like to confirm when you say the Starlink Wire - I'm not 100% sure which wire you mean. Is it one of the wires in the two large gray multi-wire connectors? As opposed to the three smaller colored connectors (brown, green, gray). Here's what is that link tells me:
This module has 2 gray connectors and 3 radio connectors. The radio connectors are the cellular and GPS modules. The gray connectors house front speaker wires (for starlink communication), stock microphone, and various starlink buttons.

And what's confusing to me, is the error codes I have refer to the left and right speaker/audio circuit. Does this mean the issue is specific to audio wiring?

Thanks!

 

Had to find the right link https://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2873882 Its the next picture after the movie its pink This all depends on the installer and what they used for connection and the images are from a 2017 and did match my 2018. What we don't know is the 2019 different. The connector I think was a 5 or 6 pin but had only one wire which was Starlink and the idadtalink SU2 cable had a mating cable to the Starlink. All the cables should be plugged in the telemetric unit. Also how did they hook up the speakers? These are questions that you may have to ask. Now Brian at AutoHarness Warehouse does make a custom cable to hook to Starlink that takes 12 vdc from the radio and probably has some sort of resistor to bring it to the voltage to let Starlink know its working. That cable from Brian may be all you need. If you did the install look for a connector you did not use on the car side may be the one.
I was reading from an iPhone previously and did not realize what you did in your first question. Easier using the computer at least I have a 27 ice screen.

Lou Cioccio

 

OK cool I see that pink cable. Odd that it's the only cable in that connector. So I'm assuming that connector goes into the head unit - not the telemetrics unit, right? But this is the WRX, not Forester. Do you think it's the same cable on the Forester?

FWIW I'm attaching photos of both the 2018 HU (from your first link) and my 2019 HU. Similar but not the same. 2019 has an additional telemetrics port (brown). The 2019 HU has 3 small ports.

As for my hookup - My installer spliced into the stock speaker wires, adding speaker wire extensions to my new amp. The output of the amp has speaker wires that re-connect to the stock wires that feed the speakers. So no new connectors were added to the head unit. Because of my new amp, if these wires are now getting a different voltage than expected, could this be causing the errors? (that's what my service guy told me). But like you're suggesting, maybe the Starlink wire did not get reconnected properly. I will likely need my installer to pull the head unit and check all the connections - but I just want to be sure to know what to look for - to be able to identify this Starlink wire.

 

Hey @citysoundman, Did you ever find out more about the issue? My wife just bought a 2019 Forester Premium and I'm looking at adding an amp and subwoofer like you've done (redirect speaker signals from head unit to Amp, then send amp's output back to the factory speaker wires). Pretty sure my wife would murder me if I added stuff to her car that caused a bunch of annoying error messages!

 

What I found out is not good news - another member here who added an outboard amplifier is having the same Starlink console red light error. This tells me that the error is likely not due to a problem with my audio install, but is happening because the Subaru doesn't like seeing a change in it's voltage/resistance on the speaker outs of the head unit. Other than having the red light on and getting annoying emails (if you're signed up for Starlink service) I'm really not sure if there is any actual malfunction going on. I'd say if audio quality is important (as it is to me) than I don't mind the trade off of having to deal with the problem.

Maybe you should go with the Harmon Kardon upgrade if you want a sub-woofer system and want to stay away from any issues. Not great audio quality but much better than stock. From what I hear you will need to EQ out some bass, because it sounds too bass-heavy. Or you can opt for the Rockford Fosgate upgrade which improves the amp and the 2 front door speakers, but no sub.

 

Thanks for the response. I don't hold a lot of hope for this... but I emailed Subaru directly to see if they would comment on this topic. Somehow the theory of voltage/resistance fluctuations on the audio output signal lines causing StarLink errors doesn't make sense to me. I have no earthly idea how Subaru (or more likely Clarion) designed the signal path for the audio, but voltage and impedance on those lines will absolutely fluctuate as use the system. Voltage increases/decreases as we adjust the volume on the system, and impedance changes as the audio frequency being reproduced changes (impedance is simply a frequency dependent level of resistance in an AC circuit).

Heck... maybe this is actually a software/firmware error in the head unit? That would be a convenient way for an error message to show up, yet the features remain functional.

If Subaru actually responds to me, I'll do my best to post their response.

 

Hey @citysoundman, I think you may actually be right. I have nothing direct from Subaru yet... but I did stumble across something interesting from the NASIOC forums on this topic (link below).

Assuming nothing has changed in the 2019 Forester wiring setup, it's said that the head unit routes the wires for the Front Left and Right speakers through the StarLink telematics module before sending it to the speakers. This way the StarLink unit can use just the front speakers to connect the phone call for SOS and any of that concierge stuff. Supposedly there's also a feature to mute all head-unit output while the StarLink features are in use.

So... if we're re-routing the head unit signals to an amplifier before the StarLink system, then we're either reconnecting to the same spot and sending an amplified voltage signal to the telematics module (probably not rated to handle higher voltage), or we're connecting back to the speaker harness after the Starlink module, which would make it think our front left/right speakers are disconnected, and thus it throws a fault code for it.

I don't exactly like the "solution" proposed... tuck two other speakers into the dash somewhere for StarLink to use... but maybe there's a way to make that work.

Thought you'd like to know.

I can't post a link yet, but it's this without the spaces https :// forums.nasioc.com / forums/showthread.php?t=2848059

 

Email Brian at https://www.autoharnesshouse.com/
He may give you some guidance and/or make up a cable that will give the impression that the radio is okay. In my 2018 I kept the telemetric so that all the speakers work and STARLINK will override if necessary. I don’t have an HK amp but the sound is much better and the STARLINK is green.

 

This is probably unrelated to your problem, but I also had a problem with the STARLINK system showing a red light and saying it could not connect with home base. My problem turned out to be an "Automatic" OBD-II dongle plugged into the OBD-II port. When that was removed, everything worked fine. If you happen to have anything plugged into the OBD-II port, try removing it and see if that remedies the issue.

 

I got curious and paid the $35 for 72 hours of access to Subaru's technical info system subscription. Now I feel confident the fault codes that @citysoundman showed earlier are due to inserting the aftermarket amplifer between the telematics / data control module and the front speaker harness, just like he thought all along.

Turns out those DTC (Diagnostic Trouble Codes in Subaru-speak) show up when the data control module sees an impedance >10 Kohms for more than 100 ms (It thinks there's no speaker connected). By design, the input impedance of most mobile amplifiers is >10 Kohms to encourage full voltage transfer to the amplifier device... so I can see where the fault codes "think" there's a problem.

The system clearly still passes audio through the data control module because citysoundman reported his StarLink calling systems still worked despite the error message/light. Also, I didn't see him write anything about his front speakers not working after the error light showed up.

I haven't thought of an elegant solution to bypass this impedance check yet... so at least I understand what's going on.

Detailed service info attached

 

My radar detector runs power from the OBDII slot. I unplugged it and the red light stayed on. I agree with Bob and ketheredge. I think it is related to the telematics module. It would be cool if a harness could resolve this problem.

 

Not the best way...or even a good way to install anything that requires 12V. I suggest you rid yourself of the OBD adapter and just get a fuse tap and go right into your fuse panel which is right near the OBD port...super easy...low cost and a far better solution than using the OBD port for power. Just my 2 cents:wink2:

 

I'm working on a solution. I found the problem, but not sure I can fix it. Trying a few things.

 

Green Light Bit_ches!!! :woohoo::Banane14:

I will post some details tomorrow. Need sleep.

 

So, Bob is right about the Starlink error.

I looked at the wiring schematics for both the HK amp and non HK amp systems and both systems send a signal from the HK amp (HU in non-HK) to the DCM (data control module) then it goes out to the speakers.

In my car, the shop cut the output wires from the 30pin connector (amp Output) and soldered these speaker outputs to the Fosgate 3.sixty processor line level input wires. This means that the original wire is dead and does not send a signal to the DCM or speaker. This results in an open circuit and Red Light error.

Bob, I suspect that your audio shop cut the output wires on your HU and did not splice into them. This is the typical method, but it just dosen't work like that on modern cars anymore.

What I did was reconnect the original wire to the spliced wiring (so 3 wires soldered together) and put the speakers (must connect both Dash Left and Dash right for HK) back in and the green light appeared. So, now I need to come up with a resistor that mimics the speaker so I can tuck it away. I tried a few small ones, but did not work. I have some 4 ohm resistors on order. This will fool the Starlink DCM into thinking a speaker is connected. However, I do not know if the Starlink will actually work without a speaker. So, I need to test this. I will likely go to the dealer for help on that. Not sure if I can just activate Starlink and talk to someone. I never used it before.

I will say that the Handsfree phone calling and map directions work on the aftermarket sound system, so I think Starlink may be working too, just not verified.

I will do a full report with photos and details on my modz page. So, those that wish to see more specific details on how this mod worked, please view my modz page here: https://www.subaruforester.org/vbul...vbulletin/f115/my-2019-subaru-forester-sport-let-modz-begin-792005/index15.html

It is worth pointing out that the Premium 6 speaker system is different from the HK and after teh DCM, the signal goes to the dash and front door speakers. So, you may have to install resistors in 4 locations instead of the 2 on the HK system. Details and schematics on my mods page.

 

:thumbsup:

 

I installed the 4 ohm resistors and these worked! I have the green Starlink light. What I do not know is if the Starlink operator will be heard on the regular speakers when activating the Starlink system. I will test this out in the future.

 

Does anyone know if the base Forester has a telematics box installed?
The Starlink Safety and Security Features are listed as not available on the base model, nor is the 4g hotspot.
So I'm wondering if it would be simpler to upgrade the audio on a base model Forester, if there is no telematics box installed.

 

so I think the 4 ohm resistors is what I need for my 2020 Outback XT. I have carefully and very cleanly installed an audio control LC2i to feed a 4 channel amp and a subwoofer amp. Everything works as intended but i have the red starlink light unless the factory speakers are connected to their respective plugs. I didn't cut anything and have wires running from the connector to send signal to the LC2i so in theory the light should be gone and ive tried resetting the battery but that doesn't work. Adding in the 4 ohm resistors is the only idea I have that seems to make sense.

 

Badgerwrx,

I don't think it will work based on what you are describing. I am not sure if your system is the HK amp system or somthing else. However, in the HK system I tapped the wire leaving the amp. It aounds like you did the same thing. The problem is that this wire goes to the telematics unit and then to the dash speakers. So, if you tap before the telematics, then the telematics will see no load on the output wires. This is why you need the resistors.

As an option you can try to tap the wire after the telematics unit to feed the input of your LC2i, but I have not tested this and it may not work at all, or it may add some distortion to the signal. Not sure, but if you give it a go, do report back on the results.

I chose not to try this because all the amps and taps are done at the HK amp under the passenger seat. If I was going to tap the telematics output signal, it would require a longer wire run and I just never thought to do it.

Very curious though. Please share more details about your Subaru equipped sound system.

 

Mine is the non HK system. Apparently they didn't make Onyx edition with HK? Idk for sure but alas I'm still in my pickle. I have no idea where the telematics unit is. Genuinely hope someone can make sense of this and help me make that little light turn green again. Going to be wiring in the sub and back door speakers on Friday.

 

I broke my starlink when I was replacing the speakers. It went back to normal when I finished installing them all... I think the head unit needs to know the speakers are there.

 

The unit does need to know and unfortunately and yet also fortunately I went with amplified door speakers. Im 99% sure the LC2i provides little or no resistance and had I went with no aftermarket amplifier and just replace the speakers with better 4 ohm speakers I feel as though this wouldn't be an issue.

 

correct. the best simple upgrade is the rockfords fosgate kit with add on dash speakers.

The telematics unit sits right on top of the head unit. Remember, if you use the resistor you may get the green light, but you wont have an operating speaker past this point. Therefore when you use the starlink system in an emergency you may not be able to hear the operator. i never had the chance to test that theory.

I now have a speaker connected to the left dash wires for this reason, but i relocated the speaker to the center channel position under the plastic plate. it actually enhances sound quality center imaging, while retaining operation of starlink light and voice if i do have to talk with an operator.

So it really does make sense to try and tap the wire after the telematics unit to see if that works without too much distortion. you can always run a long jumper wire from the dash speaker terminal just to test it before trying to tap that wire for the lc2 input signal.

 

correct. the best simple upgrade is the rockfords fosgate kit with add on dash speakers.

The telematics unit sits right on top of the head unit. Remember, if you use the resistor you may get the green light, but you wont have an operating speaker past this point. Therefore when you use the starlink system in an emergency you may not be able to hear the operator. i never had the chance to test that theory.

I now have a speaker connected to the left dash wires for this reason, but i relocated the speaker to the center channel position under the plastic plate. it actually enhances sound quality center imaging, while retaining operation of starlink light and voice if i do have to talk with an operator.

So it really does make sense to try and tap the wire after the telematics unit to see if that works without too much distortion. you can always run a long jumper wire from the dash speaker terminal just to test it before trying to tap that wire for the lc2 input signal.

I'm going to move at least 1, if not both of my tweeters to the center area this weekend. I have plenty of wire to run an extension.

 

Well the entire front stage is beyond done. I've poured countless hours into it. And now it's acting up because I don't have any speakers connected to factory wires. It was fine with just the back door speakers being hooked up. I ordered the resistors. Fingers crossed that cures what ales me.

 

that should fix the problem and guarantees that you will have audio should you ever need to communicate with starlink