EDIT: Car stereo installed. My first whoo hoo!

[StageLeft]

[/b]EDIT: Go to last post[/b]

It has come to my attention that this is a "3 hour job" for best buy to do. It costs like $47 to do plus parts. They said all they need is a bracket. How it could take 3 hours I don't know. Also $30 per speaker set installation. I've never done this before but if I have to pay $70 for the headunit I'm just not going to bother replacing the stereo at all. So it's either I do it or nobody does. Speakers are child's play, but what should I know about the headunit? I tried taking apart the front "dash plate", but when I unscrew the screws it doesn't come out.

Am I getting in over my head? I don't think it can be that hard...afterall thieves take these out in a few minutes, so assuming the adapters are the same at the back can't I just take the factory stereo out and throw the new one in?

 

[wyvrn]

I don't know about your car, but on my Accord I have to remove the screws to the center console piece first, then I have access to the screws holding in the radio and can get to the back of it to splice the speaker wires. Get down on the floorboards and look unscrew the center piece, come back if that doesn't work

 

[Thegonagle]

You might need a new bracket(s), but if it's similar to the Nissan I had, you won?t. You need to carefully remove parts of the dash around the radio and remove the four horizontal screws near the sides of the radio. Remove the existing "angle brackets" that hold onto the sides of your factory radio and use the screws supplied with the new radio to attach the brackets to the sides of the new radio (use the holes marked ?N?). Plug in the harness to the factory wiring, do a quick test, and reassemble.

Be sure to use a wiring harness adapter, or you're asking for car electrical trouble. For long term reliability of the connections, I personally prefer to use heat shrink tubing and solder to hook up the adapter.

EDIT: Tip about removing your dash parts: If it doesn?t come off, don?t force it. Look for more screws at any hidden angle you can think of, and under small blanking panels.



Uggh! Freaking cut and paste troubles!

 

[wyvrn]

Oh yeah good point, buy the extra harness (about 15 bucks), which will save you a lot of time figuring out which wires on radio connect to the wires in your car.

 

[StageLeft]

OK here is what happened: I undid the four screws on the front black dash plate. Most of this now comes off so I can see how the factory unit is screwed in and what not - but the problem is I can't quite get the entire front face plate off. It's latched on somehow below. I tried gently forcing but it wouldn't come off. It's like there are plastic clips hooked in (as there are on the top of the plate) but it refuses to come off! Should I be taking more panels apart like around the shifter and what not or just force this harder?

Lastly - what are these wiring harnesses exactly? Can't I just take the jack that is hooked into the stereo now and hook it into a new headunit? I guess not - so how do these things work?

 

[wyvrn]

Ok as far as wiring goes on Honda. When buy a new radio, they come with the raw wires, and the harness snaps onto the car's wiring, and the colors are supposed to match up between the harness' wires and the new radio wires (so just splice blue to blue, brown to brown, and so on). If you don't buy the harness for your make of car, you now have the problem of figuring out which color of wire on your car's wiring matches that of your radio's. The harness basically does the translation for you.

 

[notfred]

Getting the old cd player out is the easy part, the hard part is figuring out which wires go to which speakers

You shouldn't have to take the shifter apart, usually the stereo bezel jsut snaps on. Try pulling harder, that's how my car comes apart
If you can't figure it out, pick up a chilton's manual for your car, it'll have detailed instructions.



<< Lastly - what are these wiring harnesses exactly? Can't I just take the jack that is hooked into the stereo now and hook it into a new headunit? I guess not - so how do these things work? >>



different brands of stereos have different connectors on them. They need a few wires for power, and 2 for each speaker (typically 4 speakers). Nissan has one connector, Toyoto has another, dodge has another, sony has another, Pioneer has another, etc.... The wiring harness you'll need is one that converts from the Nissan harness in the car, to the connector on the back of the head unit. When I put my MP3 player in my car, I couldn't get a kenwood to Ford Mustang harness. I had to cut off the old harness, and spent a lot of time with a continuity tester and a soldering iron under the dash. I had to test for each speaker, and solder them on to the harness that came with the P3 player (it was Kenwood to bare wire... ie, nothing on the other end.) There was anbout 12 wires that I had to find, sort out, and hook up.

good luck.

 

[StageLeft]

OK guys thanks! So i need a wiring harness for sure. I'm definitely all about making it as easy as possible. So I guess bestbuy would have nissan -> cd player harnesses?

I'm gonna check if I can find something about a 93 sentra dash specifically but if not just yank it. As long as the car still drives i guess

 

[minendo]

The install will take no more than 30-45 minutes, but they say 3 hours in case they have another job that is running over time or whatever else they have to do. Trust me I know how fast those decks go in because I used to work for Best Buy and I assisted in several installs.

 

[StageLeft]

ok I got the JVC S580. I bought the appropriate wire harness gear. I got the dash open and the player installed. Everything hooked up and all wires are connected to their correct colors. Only problem is when I try to turn it on nothing happens. Just to be sure things were fine I then plugged in the factory one again and it does work. The only difference I can find between the two is that the factory unit's antena joins in with another wire just before going into the factory unit - this other wire is two-pronged and plugs into the back of the factory unit. When this dual wire is unplugged the unit does not power; since the new jvc unit doesn't have an input for this dual prong and has only an input for the antenna what is goin on...?

Thanks for any help!

 

[StageLeft]

Bump cause this is fallin fast!

 

[glen]

Is the antena wire strong enought to turn ther unit on?
If not, add a relay.

 

[StageLeft]

<< Is the antena wire strong enought to turn ther unit on?
If not, add a relay. >>

wtf?

BTW the unit does have specific power and ground wires. This "antenna" wire in the factory one is not just the antenna wire but also leads up to the dual prong wire. I'm wondering if that is another power or something. Doesn't make sense to me but what do I know?

 

[StageLeft]

ah dammit what is this looks like what I need. nobody at BB or circuit city mentioned this. Maybe I'm wrong...

 

[glen]

Car stereo salesmen are the lowest form of life maybe only followed by Installers.

 

[StageLeft]

<< Car stereo salesmen are the lowest form of life maybe only followed by Installers. >>

Hehe. well I found it. My nissan uses two antennas for some STUPID farkin reason, so now I need to buy yet another item. I hope that I can find one easily locally. Probably can...it better not cost too damn much though. adapter

 

[StageLeft]

Well myself and Mrs. Skoorb finally got the unit installed. Since this was a 93 sentra I needed a nissan diversity antenna adapter. What a pain in the butt.

The speakers were an INCREDIBLE pain in the A$$ to get out of the back. Unlike my 89 accord I had which you could just unscrew them and go to town these involved various clips and other crap and some RIDICULOUS angles playing with the screws. I finally got my $30 Profile 6.5" speakers in though. I haven't properly mounted them so they are actually just sitting in the holes for now

Then on the way back from airport today I semi-blew one of them. Oops, So i got store credit at circuit city for them and bought a better pair of Kenwood 6.5"s for $60. They are much better...still need something for the front though as the factory front ones are blown beyond repair, but I'm happy so far.

 

[ThisIsMatt]

<< Well myself and Mrs. Skoorb finally got the unit installed. Since this was a 93 sentra I needed a nissan diversity antenna adapter. What a pain in the butt.

The speakers were an INCREDIBLE pain in the A$$ to get out of the back. Unlike my 89 accord I had which you could just unscrew them and go to town these involved various clips and other crap and some RIDICULOUS angles playing with the screws. I finally got my $30 Profile 6.5" speakers in though. I haven't properly mounted them so they are actually just sitting in the holes for now

Then on the way back from airport today I semi-blew one of them. Oops, So i got store credit at circuit city for them and bought a better pair of Kenwood 6.5"s for $60. They are much better...still need something for the front though as the factory front ones are blown beyond repair, but I'm happy so far. >>

Oh my!

 

[notfred]

What CD player did you put in there, anyway?

 

[StageLeft]

<< What CD player did you put in there, anyway? >>

JVC S580. I was going to get a Kenwood that circuit city had for $140 but it was not in stock. Originally I was going to super-cheap it and get a $80 deck with $20 speakers from best buy but it was all out. In the end this deck cost $140 with speakers $60. Then the wire harness, antenna adapter, tax and crap made it about $240, but I still have to put some fronts in.

It's not the best stuff but it's not too bad and I have so many other things that have to be bought in the near future that I couldn't go shelling out big bucks. Compared to my non-functional factory deck this thing is rocking the khasbah. The deck has a detachable face but the speakers are asking to be stolen...hopefully that won't happen.

 

[911paramedic]

It has come to my attention that this is a "3 hour job" for best buy to do. It costs like $47 to do plus parts.

And that is for the "free" install right?

"They fvck you at the drive through"

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

Oh gosh, Skoorb i don't like saying this but I couldn't hold back. You are an ignorant car audio newbie. You are wasting your money, you don't know what your doing. YOu cant just throw random speakers and a random HU and all this cheap crap together and expect good sound. If your gonna spend that kinda money get some decent speakers up front and a decent HU there. The difference between a budget value speaker and a just plain crappy cheap speaker is larger than you think. Here's what I suggest, ditch your entire system and start from scratch. Get yourself some infinity reference components 605cs, which can be had for $110. Then get yourself a decent pioneer or alpine HU, they have many great budget HU's. Ditch rear speakers entirely because they will just fug up your soundstage, although if you must get some get some matching infinity coaxials. You can put together a decent system for under $300. If you want to add a sub later you can.

 

[Lithium381]

<< Oh gosh, Skoorb i don't like saying this but I couldn't hold back. You are an ignorant car audio newbie. You are wasting your money, you don't know what your doing. YOu cant just throw random speakers and a random HU and all this cheap crap together and expect good sound. If your gonna spend that kinda money get some decent speakers up front and a decent HU there. The difference between a budget value speaker and a just plain crappy cheap speaker is larger than you think. Here's what I suggest, ditch your entire system and start from scratch. Get yourself some infinity reference components 605cs, which can be had for $110. Then get yourself a decent pioneer or alpine HU, they have many great budget HU's. Ditch rear speakers entirely because they will just fug up your soundstage, although if you must get some get some matching infinity coaxials. You can put together a decent system for under $300. If you want to add a sub later you can. >>



hah, right after all of this trouble and getting a new HU, heh, that'd be frustrating, though it's happend to me with computers before...

 

[StageLeft]

sudheer anne You are an ignorant car audio newbie. You are wasting your money, you don't know what your doing. Nothing like insulting a person before dispensing advice. If anything will open them up to it that is what will do it. I think you missed this part in my last post

<< I have so many other things that have to be bought in the near future that I couldn't go shelling out big bucks. >>

Unlike some people here there is more to my life than my car stereo. My car is worth around $2300, so I'm not going to be plunking down big bucks on the audio. If you really think I'm about to bring all the gear back to the store and buy some new stuff, costing me even more money, you wasted your time bothering.

<< The difference between a budget value speaker and a just plain crappy cheap speaker is larger than you think. >>

No, I think there is a big difference. I feel that in some ways I'm blessed because once I get some fronts in there (I plan on spending about $50 on them just to let you know) this setup will have all the power I care about. I don't care if my bass is lacking or my highs aren't crisp enough because instead of throwing money into car audio beyond the basics I could be paying down my student loans, getting more stuff for my home audio, upgrading my computer, saving up for a house, etc. To some people car audio is their life/hobby. It isn't mine.

In regards to those speakers you mentioned crutchfield has them for $199 or so! plus my fronts are 4X6...

 

[Static911]

Your lucky...

for my car, I gotta remove the entire door panel to reach the speakers...I'm half-tempted to just cut the whole and glue the mesh cover over the speaker back

Static911