The tape deck on my car stereo is broken, which means I also can’t use a tape adapter to hook up my Ipod. I don’t want to invest a bunch of money in my 10-year-old car, so I was thinking of buying a used head unit on Craigslist. I’ve found instructions on how to physically remove and install everything in my car, but I don’t know what I need to do for wiring.
I know companies like Crutchfield will include any sorts of accessories you need for installation in a particular car, and instructions, but I won’t have that if I buy something used. Is there an easy way for me do to the wiring myself? I’ve seen some guides that say you have to hand-wire stuff with strippers, crimpers etc and you have to use a multimeter to figure out what wire is what. Is there an easier way? Why don’t they have some sort of standard connector for all brands?
I’m frustrated by car stereo, since the standard stuff is crappy and could be upgraded fairly cheaply, but if you do that then you end up almost as much for installation as for equipment. I actually replaced my front speakers with Type-S Alpines that were supposed to be good, but they don’t sound much better except the treble. I think it’s just because the doors are lousy enclosures, the speakers actually are tilted towards my feet, and the grilles are thick plastic. I’ve thought to replacing the rears too since they aren’t in such a bad position, but apparently you have to disassemble the whole rear deck or something. I don’t understand why you can’t just unscrew them from below or above.
Yes of course look up how to guildes online, the new stereo would also come with directions. Radios are just installed in cars nothing about new ones are model specific. Installing a deck is one of the easiest things to do on a car.
I’ve put in two stereos (in a Hyundai and a Toyota), and I did have to buy a wiring adapter for each (I think), but it was like a $2 part. I didn’t have to do any crimping, stripping, or anything, the adapters plugged into the back of the stereo, and then plugged into the cabling from the car.
The hard part was getting access/removing the center console, particularly in the Toyota.
I found pretty good directions online for both cars.
Difficulty level depends on the car. Some are much easier than others. This site, http://www.the12volt.com/ can be really helpful if you don’t want to spring for a wiring adapter kit.
It’s not exactly rocket science. Ability to follow instructions is enough…which reminds me; *“I actually replaced my front speakers with Type-S Alpines that were supposed to be good, but they don’t sound much better except the treble” * do you mean they lack bass response? Because that’s an indicator they might be out of phase… meaning the wires are reversed.
If you knew that already, you should be able to do the install. If you installed them reversed… don’t try to do the radio.
It’s pretty hard to judge someone’s ability to do a task, without knowing their experience level.
Professional installer checking in here. (I post sometimes at www.the12volt.com as well, mostly in the alarm/remote starter section.)
Anyway, it’s really going to depend very much on what kind of car it is, and how good you are at these things. Since you already replaced your speakers, that’s a good sign.
Anyway, you essentially have two tasks at hand----one is to physically remove the original radio and put the new one in its place, and the other is to connect the power and speaker wires.
Installation: This is the part where it depends a lot on the car. Some cars have a single panel around the radio you can just pull off with your bare hands; others require quite a bit of disassembly.
Wiring: There are adapter plugs available for most (but not all) cars that you can just plug into the car’s factory wiring, and then each wire from the adapter is connected to the corresponding wire on the new radio.
HINT: If you hack off the car’s factory plug and then can’t figure out what wire does what, most professional shops will charge far more to clean up the mess than for doing a regular install in an unmolested car. Try to avoid cutting off the factory plug unless there’s no adapter available.
The big question here is, are you capable of connecting one wire to another? There are several choices here, the two most popular being soldering the wires and then insulating them with tape or shrink tubing, or using crimp connectors. (Crimping versus soldering is an ongoing debate in the mobile electronics world; do a little searching if you’re interested.)
Useful links for you:
www.metraonline.com You can look up the mounting kit and wiring harness for your car.
Secondly, whatever kind of car you have, it most likely has a dedicated message board, where a little searching will often find you detailed radio replacement instructions.
Also, I’ve almost never found a good deal on a used head unit on Craigslist or any similar site. Most people have an inflated idea of what their used (and often missing parts) equipment is worth, and the newer radios are amazingly well-equipped and inexpensive compared to the old days.
I also wish to bring up liquid tape for insulating exposed wire. You just brush on the liquid tape and it dries into a solid insulator that is water proof. You can buy it for under $5.
In terms of avoiding headaches, picking one of the options from Crutchfield may be worth the added cost vs buying a generic unit, just because they give you any needed adapters so you don’t have to mess with the wiring harnesses.
Car stereos are so tightly woven into cars these days, that it’s getting more and more difficult to swap in something generic without a lot of hacking. The thing you think of as “the stereo” in the dash is sometimes just the display and controller for more gear scattered around the vehicle - the amps are hidden under the trunk next to the spare tire, the subwoofer’s under the rear seat, the satellite radio receiver is behind the glove box…
Another obvious thing no one has suggested is simply buying the same outdated car stereo model (if you can find it). Then installation should be simple because no matter how bad the rat’s nest of wiring is behind the unit, it becomes a simple matter of ‘remove red wire from unit 1 and attach it to the same spot on unit 2’ repeating until all wires are replaced.
Your first sentence could have been written VERBATIM by my husband 3 months ago. I surprised him with a new stereo for Father’s Day.
“Just any” won’t fit, but you’ll find a number of ones that do. The opening in the dash is differently sized depending on your car - for example in my husband’s car, it takes a smaller one (say, 1.5 inches tall by 5 inches wide or whatever), while in mine the space would be about 5 inches wide by 6 inches tall. Look at Bestbuy.com and if you look at a specific unit, you can plug in your car’s model and year and it’ll tell you whether the unit will fit.
IIRC, I had to buy a “harness” (since the old radio was original equipment) and one other thing but I can’t tell you for the world what that other thing was. Supposedly, now that the harness is in place I could swap it out quite easily.
