I hate phones and everything phone related. I hate phone people who have to talk about their iPhone or Shineyokia all night long. They make a hardcore trekkie conference look like an appealing vacation option. I have a phone only because it’s a required item. I had to take of the back panel to find out it was a Nokia 6300. What can it do? There’s a green button for answering phone calls and a red one for not answering them. There’s a socket where the power goes and and a power button when I want the world to go away.
I recently bought a 2 year old Ford Focus “Connect”. It features Bluetooth connectivity for the phone. It’s a legal requirement here to use a hands free kit while driving. Get caught and it’s 2 points on your license and your car insurance goes up. I had tried over the last 5 weeks to make the Bluetooth work. I read the manual and it only told me what to do with the phone. There were no car instructions other than turn on the radio. No matter what I did I got “Bonding Failed” on the radio.
I was about to go buy a €30 headset when I decided to do a search. A little while into the search I got two contenders:
- Make sure Bluetooth is enabled in the car. Mine was. Press <Phone> and <Menu>. The option is in there.
- The car can only store 6 phone configurations. Previous owners may have consumed all of the slots. That was the case for me.
I pressed <Phone> and <Menu> and <Menu>. From here I could delete the phone bindings. Now I could follow the car manual instructions. I enabled Bluetooth on the phone and searched for nearby devices. I selected the found “Ford Audio” and entered “0000” as the code. The bonding worked.
I tested it out. The car microphone worked nicely and the car radio volume allowed me to adjust the speaker volume of the call. The sound was clear. Now the phone picks up the car Bluetooth hands free kit once I get in and turn on the radio. Perfect.