About to pull the trigger on a new car stereo
- Thread starter Haywood
- Start date
I plan to install my new car stereo and phone mount next weekend. The next project will be giving my interior a facelift with a wood trim kit, but it might be a couple months before I get to that. Then I'm going to get some damaged tint on the back passenger window replaced. Eventually, I want to get rid of a couple minor door dings, replace a piece of broken trim above my rear bumper and get the car repainted (I've got a lot of rock chips and the paint is starting to fade).
The old radio is out, the wiring harness is hooked up and so is the antenna adapter. Then I ran into a couple problems I didn't have the right tools for. There is a plastic bracket in the double din slot that I need to cut out and I cannot finish snaking the wire for the microphone without removing some panels from under the dashboard. Unfortunately, those panels were attached with star head screws. One trip to the Home Depot later, I have a set of star head screws and a Demel with cutting attachments. I'm ready to finish rocking this thing in the morning!
Doghart
Well-Known Member
$20 bucks for full set of standard, allen and Torx drivers:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dl ... 280901434+
D
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dl ... 280901434+
D
Doghart
Well-Known Member
Sorry for the hyjack....
Here's my setup in the Dodge 4x4. Sad thing is, the audio is worth more than the truck
I can control my iPod from the deck, or have it in my lap and use the iPod to control the deck. nice feature. I usually just have a USB drive in the glovebox though.
Alpine digital amp under the passenger seat and 4x Alpine separates all the way around. I honestly can't say I've heard many systems that sound better.
Would love a subwoofer to add some punch, but I have less than a year in this truck before it gets replaced.
D
Here's my setup in the Dodge 4x4. Sad thing is, the audio is worth more than the truck
I can control my iPod from the deck, or have it in my lap and use the iPod to control the deck. nice feature. I usually just have a USB drive in the glovebox though.
Alpine digital amp under the passenger seat and 4x Alpine separates all the way around. I honestly can't say I've heard many systems that sound better.
Would love a subwoofer to add some punch, but I have less than a year in this truck before it gets replaced.
D
I finally finished! I am extremely pleased with the result. The only minor disappointment is that the head unit only powers up the USB ports when they are selected as the source. This is a bummer, because I connected a microUSB cable and coiled it up in the dash pocket so that I could charge my phone with it. My phone is not compatible as a USB source, so that cable is just going to sit there with no purpose. On the flip side, the BlueTooth stuff works great. The phone functionality is excellent and the audio streaming works well to. I even have track forward, back, play and pause control from the head unit. In addition to the apparently useless microUSB, I also ran a female USB cable to the dash pocket for use with iPads/Pods/Phones or USB thumb drives. The phone mount is attached to the dash with adhesive and seems fairly sturdy (it should be for $43).
Did I mention that the sound quality is noticeably better than my stock radio? I am also enjoying HD Radio more than I thought I would. All in all, this head unit was a great pick. I set the color scheme to red for the buttons and blue for the display, so it matches my car beautifully. With the minor exception of the no power to USB gripe, I am VERY pleased.
Did I mention that the sound quality is noticeably better than my stock radio? I am also enjoying HD Radio more than I thought I would. All in all, this head unit was a great pick. I set the color scheme to red for the buttons and blue for the display, so it matches my car beautifully. With the minor exception of the no power to USB gripe, I am VERY pleased.
The hardest thing to install was the microphone, which I forgot to take a picture of. I mounted it to the front edge of the headliner between the driver's visor and the rear view mirror. I ran the cable under the headliner to the front I beam, down the I beam a few inches to a seam, under the seam around to the trim around the door, under the door trim down to the bottom of the dash, I then had to unbolt the bottom of the dash to get the cable inside as far as the opening for the steering column and I pulled it the rest of the way thru to the din opening in the center console with a wire snake I made from a coat hanger. It took a long time, especially when you factor in the trip to Home Depot for the star bits.
The second hardest part was the need to cut out a section of the stock radio support bracket. I ended up buying a Dremel and using a cutting wheel, which worked pretty well.
I once had thoughts that I might go back later to add the steering wheel controls, but I have no desire to monkey with that dash board again. The controls on the radio are literally at my fingertips when seated in the driver's seat. Good enough!
The second hardest part was the need to cut out a section of the stock radio support bracket. I ended up buying a Dremel and using a cutting wheel, which worked pretty well.
I once had thoughts that I might go back later to add the steering wheel controls, but I have no desire to monkey with that dash board again. The controls on the radio are literally at my fingertips when seated in the driver's seat. Good enough!
smgreen20
Active Member
In regards to the crutchfield deal above, they can't touch the prices I get things for, so it really is a "who you know" thing as far as dash kits and harnesses go. Bose/Monsoon makes things a pinch more difficult, then when you add on the door chimes and onstar, you better get out the anal ease. It's going to hurt. That;s the car dealers way of TRYING to get us to stop changing things out.
A lot of people freak out when doing something such as this. All you have to do is roughly a weeks worth of research and
TAKE
YOUR
TIME.
It's well known here that I'm the car audio aficionado so I wont derail this thread posting my install as it's already been posted here before.
Good job though, we knew you could do it.
A lot of people freak out when doing something such as this. All you have to do is roughly a weeks worth of research and
TAKE
YOUR
TIME.
It's well known here that I'm the car audio aficionado so I wont derail this thread posting my install as it's already been posted here before.
Good job though, we knew you could do it.
The Monsoon system may be slightly more of a pain to interface with (at least from a cost perspective), but it does have the advantage of having pretty decent sounding speakers. I am pretty pleased with the way my system sounds with the new head unit. The main thing I need to do is figure out how to tune the EQ to the interior of the car. Any suggestions on how to do that?
Haywood said:
At least you don't have a Bose setup. One of my friends was going to change the system in his Maxima. Several places told him he would have to have the whole system gutted due to how the system was wired together. He just gave up and kept what he had.
The Monsoon system is a mixed bag as far as that goes. The amplifier takes speaker-level inputs as well as a control line from a CAN module. That's why I had to drop $65 on a wiring harness when I replaced the head unit. I am pretty sure I can replace the stock speakers without re-wiring. If I want to replace the amp, however, I'd have to do a pretty significant re-wiring job. I don't see any compelling reason to do that. The only thing I am seriously considering is adding a subwoofer in the trunk. If I do that, I might also go ahead and connect the steering wheel controls while I have the dash apart. I only plan to keep this car for another 3 to 4 years before handing if off to my daughter and the stock speakers sound reasonably good.