Trying to install a new car stereo headunit for the first time....help

[shurato]

I just got a new kenwood kdc-322 stereo head unit for my birthday. I drive a 96 nissan sentra gxe and have an aftermarket sony headunit that is pretty much dead already installed.

I want to try to install this thing myself. I figure if I can build computers, overclock, troubleshoot, etc...I can install a headunit in my car. Only thing is, how do i get started? Any online resources for this kind of thing? I know absolutely nothing about cars or car stereo equipment.

 

[Colt45]

the old deck will have a red = "blah" blue-"blah2" thing written on it.

find the corresponding wires on the new deck, solder, done.

 

[MrBond]

Originally posted by: Colt45
the old deck will have a red = "blah" blue-"blah2" thing written on it.

find the corresponding wires on the new deck, solder, done.

Not if it's a sony. My sony had no lables, it was all in the manual.

Check online, you may get lucky and find instructions for your car. When I bought my head unit, it came with instructions that were close (not exactly) to what my car was. I've gotten really good at it, I can have my head unit out and in in under 30 minutes .

Crutchfield offers free install support on the off chance you bought the head unit there

 

[BCYL]

The hardest part is not the wiring, which is usually pretty much plug-and-play...

The hardest part will be taking out the center console (and doing it without scratching anything) and removing the old unit... Go find some Nissan Sentra forum and see if people there can help you... Since every car is different there's no universal way to do it...

 

[kt]

The most challenging/time consuming part will be taking your dash board off. The rest is just a cakewalk. Since you already have an aftermarket headunit in there, there should be an wire harness already in there. Just cut the ends of the wire harness and connect to your new headunit. It should be fairly simple. You may run into different color match up with the speaker wires, but the important wires like power, ground, dimmer, and accessory wires are/should be the same.

 

[Spac3d]

This should help.

 

[shurato]

Thanks for the help guys...will I be needing any special tools? Basically all I have are tools I use for my computers.

edit : nevermind the link spac3d provided seems to have everything i need...thanks for the link man.