any suggestions on what could be the problem here? right channel works for radio & cds. both channels work on ipod through headphones. right side is dead when playing through my element stereo. any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Could it be the patch cable? You might try a different cable. Seems like Radio Shack sells both a stereo cable and a monaural cable. That would be the first thing I looked at. Mine works just fine.

Yep - Viking nailed it. It's got to be the patch cable. Look at the ends of it - if there's only one band around the metal post then it's mono - two if it's stereo. Only other possibilites are that you don't have the cable pushed in all the way to the jack or ipod - or you have a faulty cable.

Not to hijack the thread, but I was really disappointed with the sound quality of my Ipod when using the headphone jack run to the the E's AUX input. I had to crank the volume up all the way on my Ipod.

The solution I found was the SiK imp in-car charger/line out adaptor. Instead of using the headphone jack, it connects to the dock connector. I ended up with better sound quality and no need to mess with volume on the Ipod (which used to cause ear damage when I'd forget and turn the Ipod on while jogging).

I paid around $30 for the thing and am very happy with the results.

You're right about sound from the headphone jack. My solution was the Belkin car charger because it connects to the line out and then has a jack on the side with a built in amplifier. I run an 8" cable from that jack to the AUX IN of the element. Sound is terrific!!!!