Anybody ever upgrade the audio components.....

[TangoJuliet]

I have a 1999 ford mustang convertible. I have the Mach sound system with a tape deck and cd player. I also own a Sirius Sportster radio that is hooked up to the radio.

I really want a GPS navigation system and was looking at the Garmin nuvi 660 but that would give me a lot of things on my windshield. Is that my best bet having both the garmin and sportster or should I just get an indash GPS with sirius?

Has anyone done upgrades like this and if so what would you recommend?

 

[QueBert]

I own a Taurus with the Mach System, and can tell you from personal experience of getting my system upgraded to after market shi!t, make absolutly sure whoever you have do it is experince with Mach systems. I don't care how good they say they are with stereos in general. Circuit City had my car for almost a week, their head installer came in on his day off and worked on it all day. I spend close to $1,500 and the end result was a stereo that sounded much much worse than my stock did. Also does your Stang have the analog or digital dash? I'm talking about your AC/heater controls. Mine's the digital and there is no dash replacement so getting an after market deck would have meant having a custom fabricated unit, which would have cost thousands alone. If you have the analog you're fine Bosche and a few others make dash kits, if you have digital you will have to rig something as you can't just remove the deck from the dash because the circuit board behind it controls everything. I finally found 2 people out here in So Cal who were experts in working with Mach systems, they are a royal bitch and a lot of shops wouldn't touch my car

my end result, I got rid of the stock system, but it's still in my dash, I had the tray under it converted and the desk was mounted there. You say you want a GPS in the dash, like I said if your dash is digital you might as well forget it, or be prepared to spend so much money it ain't funny.

what I recommend, if you have the tray beneath your controls get an in dash deck that has a screen that pops up, you can run your GPS there, and have a deck which will sound better than your stock system. It sounds kind of rigged I know, but mine honestly doesn't look that bad, and the angle the decks at, and it being so low on my dash thieves can't even see it.

I say m333333h to Ford and their blasted Mach system.

 

[TangoJuliet]

Originally posted by: QueBert
I own a Taurus with the Mach System, and can tell you from personal experience of getting my system upgraded to after market shi!t, make absolutly sure whoever you have do it is experince with Mach systems. I don't care how good they say they are with stereos in general. Circuit City had my car for almost a week, their head installer came in on his day off and worked on it all day. I spend close to $1,500 and the end result was a stereo that sounded much much worse than my stock did. Also does your Stang have the analog or digital dash? I'm talking about your AC/heater controls. Mine's the digital and there is no dash replacement so getting an after market deck would have meant having a custom fabricated unit, which would have cost thousands alone. If you have the analog you're fine Bosche and a few others make dash kits, if you have digital you will have to rig something as you can't just remove the deck from the dash because the circuit board behind it controls everything. I finally found 2 people out here in So Cal who were experts in working with Mach systems, they are a royal bitch and a lot of shops wouldn't touch my car

my end result, I got rid of the stock system, but it's still in my dash, I had the tray under it converted and the desk was mounted there. You say you want a GPS in the dash, like I said if your dash is digital you might as well forget it, or be prepared to spend so much money it ain't funny.

what I recommend, if you have the tray beneath your controls get an in dash deck that has a screen that pops up, you can run your GPS there, and have a deck which will sound better than your stock system. It sounds kind of rigged I know, but mine honestly doesn't look that bad, and the angle the decks at, and it being so low on my dash thieves can't even see it.

I say m333333h to Ford and their blasted Mach system.

Hey thanks for the reply. Nothing in the dash is digital....I have all analog components. I will take some pictures later on to show the setup and how I would like it to look.

I don't mind spending money to have it look nice and professional. I just dont want some slop job done to it by someone that doesnt have a clue and that seems to be the problem with the mach systems.....its such a b!tch that nobody wants anything to do with it.

There are a couple shops by my house but they do really sloppy work. I need to find a place that can do a nice job on it. Unless I just get the garmin and mount that and the sportster on the windshield....then I wouldnt need anyone to install anything.

 

[SVT Cobra]

I still have the Mach system in mine, but I know a lot of guys over at SVTperformance.com who upgraded theirs ( a lot of them even have LCD screens now for their GPS and Stereo, there is a kit). Go there and ask, they will definitely know how to tell you to go about it.

 

[exdeath]

I'm not a car stereo guy, I've debated taking the Mach 460 out of my Cobra completely. Just unnecessary weight to me. I don't get people that add 1000 lbs of subs and amps to their 'modded' cars but thats just me.

 

[Ketchup]

I redid the stereo in my 2001 Mach-equipped Mustang after the CD player quit working and one of the amps went out. The hairy part of the Mach 460 is that there are three external amps in the system rather than one amp built into the head unit.

Are you thinking of doing the work yourself or taking it to a shop? If you take it to a shop, pick a local shop with a good rep (no Circuit City or Best Buy) and make sure they have worked on Machs before. If doing it yourself, make SURE you get the right harness, and you will be fine. I did a lot of research before redoing my system, and honestly it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and I love the way my new system sounds.

Here is what I have if anyone is interested:

MTX 4244 4-channel amp
MTX MXA8001 class D amp pushing a little over 900 watts RMS to
2 Kicker 12" L5's in a sealed enclosure
2 sets Infinity Kappa component 5x8's (mount great in stock speaker locations)
Sony XPLOD CD/MP3 head unit with front aux input

 

[TangoJuliet]

I plan on taking the car to a shop so I need to ask around to see which shop is reliable. There are 2 big shops by my house but they both do really sloppy work.

I dont really want to replace the whole system as I really just want to get rid of the head unit/tape deck and replace it with a GPS/MP3/CD/Sirius head unit and then take out the CD player and replace it with something else....probably a EQ or something.

However if that is going to be too expensive then I may just go the easy route and get the portable garmin 660 and move my sportster off to the driver's side instead of in the middle of the windshield.

I am about to take some pics in a few.....so they'll be up later.

 

[TangoJuliet]

Here are the pics

Center Console

http://i186.photobucket.com/al...24/Random/IMG_2369.jpg

View from Driver's Side

http://i186.photobucket.com/al...24/Random/IMG_2370.jpg


If I dont rip out the head unit and cd player I plan to move the Starmate all the way over to the left and then run the nuvi 660 down the center where the Starmate is currently. (as shown in 2nd picture)

 

[TangoJuliet]

comments/suggestions?

 

[mcturkey]

The only easy way to upgrade your system when you have the Mach installed is to replace everything. I can't speak for the price of doing it at shops, but they are all entirely too expensive for the work being performed. It took all of about two hours for some friends and I to do a better job than what a shop charged several hundred dollars to do. It's really not hard at all to replace this stuff if you have very basic wiring knowledge. Check out http://www.caraudio.com/forum or any of the Mustang forums for help on doing it. I really strongly recommend that versus paying a shop to do it, as the money you save could go into buying better equipment.

 

[TangoJuliet]

Originally posted by: mcturkey
The only easy way to upgrade your system when you have the Mach installed is to replace everything. I can't speak for the price of doing it at shops, but they are all entirely too expensive for the work being performed. It took all of about two hours for some friends and I to do a better job than what a shop charged several hundred dollars to do. It's really not hard at all to replace this stuff if you have very basic wiring knowledge. Check out http://www.caraudio.com/forum or any of the Mustang forums for help on doing it. I really strongly recommend that versus paying a shop to do it, as the money you save could go into buying better equipment.

ah I really dont know how to do it
I'd be willing to pay someone that could do it locally

 

[QueBert]

he doesn't need to have the entire system redone, if he's fine with a new head unit, he can run his front/rear speakers and totally bypass the factory amps. Won't sound as good but he can have his GPS/Sirus and a new deck in the dash.

If he's talking a head unit swap and rewiring, it shouldn't cost too much, I had a friend put my new headunit in because I was cheap. He actually does good work, well he fvked something up and a wire was wrong. Which lead to my battery draining even when the car was off. My battery almost exploded and my Altenator went out. If you factor in the tow bill from when my car died to replacing the altenator it would have been cheaper to have a shop do it.

 

[Compton]

You do NOT need to replace everything. You can get a new head unit and keep all your existing amps and speakers. You need a special wiring harness. I did this on my 2002 Mustang GT.

Here is an article on stangnet that tells you what to do.

http://www.stangnet.com/Tech-A...ach-460-Head-Unit.html


You can get more help on the forums over there if you need it.