How To Install New car stereo Unit?
Discussion
My old original unit has gone bust and frankly the only other function other than radio ( which can only catch 1 station now) it had was cassette player 
Anyway I can see you can get those stereo units from china for like $10-$15 , not sure how can they make and ship them so cheap tho specially considering when they got all those great functions to turn your vintage car to something more modern ,so why not...
removed the old stereo unit to have a look at the connectors and they look way different than they come now for new stereo units.
This is what mine looks like ( wiring seems a total mess with those chocolate blocks and the odd black tape,seems like someone has already fiddled with it in past)
And this is how it looks for those new units I want to buy:
it does have some new connector which you need to re-wire that comes with it seems like
as you can see for the new stereo unit there are the white/red signal ports but the mine old ones doesn't have those, for mine it has all been bundled together in just 2 power plugs where also the sound signal is integrated so it seems?
Also the antenna port looks way different? Do i need some adapter for it? Also about the white/red round signal ports for the new unit - Do i need to use those as I don't have such round signal ports in the old wiring for the old unit? what's the procedure here? Honestly first time doing something like this so have no idea what to expect...
Anyway I can see you can get those stereo units from china for like $10-$15 , not sure how can they make and ship them so cheap tho specially considering when they got all those great functions to turn your vintage car to something more modern ,so why not...
removed the old stereo unit to have a look at the connectors and they look way different than they come now for new stereo units.
This is what mine looks like ( wiring seems a total mess with those chocolate blocks and the odd black tape,seems like someone has already fiddled with it in past)
And this is how it looks for those new units I want to buy:
it does have some new connector which you need to re-wire that comes with it seems like
as you can see for the new stereo unit there are the white/red signal ports but the mine old ones doesn't have those, for mine it has all been bundled together in just 2 power plugs where also the sound signal is integrated so it seems?
Also the antenna port looks way different? Do i need some adapter for it? Also about the white/red round signal ports for the new unit - Do i need to use those as I don't have such round signal ports in the old wiring for the old unit? what's the procedure here?
Honestly first time doing something like this so have no idea what to expect... I found another stereo to buy which seems better than previous one,
the back of it is like this, which seems exactly the same as I have already?
so I won't need to rewire anything?
However the question still stands, I probably need some kind of adapter for the antenna? as the port looks different to what I have? Also again about those 2 (red/white) audio output round ports, do I need to fill them with anything? since I don't have those cables for my old unit? Or they are maybe just for extra speakers if you want to add later on?
this is mine what I have now:
the back of it is like this, which seems exactly the same as I have already?
so I won't need to rewire anything?
However the question still stands, I probably need some kind of adapter for the antenna? as the port looks different to what I have? Also again about those 2 (red/white) audio output round ports, do I need to fill them with anything? since I don't have those cables for my old unit? Or they are maybe just for extra speakers if you want to add later on?
this is mine what I have now:
The connector for the power/audio is a standard ISO connector on both the car and the second stereo, so that's fine.
You need a DIN > ISO adapter for your aerial https://www.amazon.co.uk/Autoleads-PC5-27-Audio-Ae...
Edit to add, if it helps troubleshooting, you should have a red wire which is a switched live, yellow which is permanent live and a ground which is black on one of the rectangular ISO connectors, then pairs of speaker cables (+ive and -ive) coming off the other connector
You need a DIN > ISO adapter for your aerial https://www.amazon.co.uk/Autoleads-PC5-27-Audio-Ae...
Edit to add, if it helps troubleshooting, you should have a red wire which is a switched live, yellow which is permanent live and a ground which is black on one of the rectangular ISO connectors, then pairs of speaker cables (+ive and -ive) coming off the other connector
Edited by pixelatedJH on Monday 13th June 20:01
The new plug with wires, the plug goes into the back of your new stereo, the wires need to be soldered to your car wiring directly. You should have a guide as to which colour wire does what and it should not be too difficult to determine the same on your car, whether directly or by asking/searching. Do it properly, solder, and heatshrink, no block connectors or insulating tape, buy heatshrink also off Ebay...
pixelatedJH said:
The connector for the power/audio is a standard ISO connector on both the car and the second stereo, so that's fine.
You need a DIN > ISO adapter for your aerial https://www.amazon.co.uk/Autoleads-PC5-27-Audio-Ae...
thanks for that adapter You need a DIN > ISO adapter for your aerial https://www.amazon.co.uk/Autoleads-PC5-27-Audio-Ae...
what about those white/red round ports which are marked as ''Audio Output'' in the picture? Do i need to connect anything to them for it to work? Because I don't have anything to connect to them...
It looks like someone has chopped off the factory connector to install a universal adapter and then swapped back to the original.
If there is not enough of the original loom left to perform proper repairs you could opt for a clean start and install a new universal ISO adapter like this:
Then when you buy a new stereo it will come with an adapter that looks a bit like this.
If there is not enough of the original loom left to perform proper repairs you could opt for a clean start and install a new universal ISO adapter like this:
Then when you buy a new stereo it will come with an adapter that looks a bit like this.
essayer said:
It's for connecting an external amplifier, which you don't need to worry about. Are you sure the head unit does definitely have an amplifier in it?
Perfect ,thank you so much!Honestly have no idea if it got the amplifier in it.
Anyway ordering this, came out to some $13 after some coupons I had ,and that convertor.
http://www.everbuying.net/product1151738.html
I still can't understand how they can make and ship one for so little, even found one on ebay for $8
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hot-Car-Radio-12V-Auto-Aud...
I guess will see what kind of stereo unit the chinese guys can make and ship to me for $10
itaa said:
Perfect ,thank you so much!
Honestly have no idea if it got the amplifier in it.
Anyway ordering this, came out to some $13 after some coupons I had ,and that convertor.
http://www.everbuying.net/product1151738.html
I still can't understand how they can make and ship one for so little, even found one on ebay for $8
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hot-Car-Radio-12V-Auto-Aud...
I guess will see what kind of stereo unit the chinese guys can make and ship to me for $10
That will have the amp built in - do post what the stereo turns out to be like - a bluetooth stereo for 15 quid is crazy Honestly have no idea if it got the amplifier in it.
Anyway ordering this, came out to some $13 after some coupons I had ,and that convertor.
http://www.everbuying.net/product1151738.html
I still can't understand how they can make and ship one for so little, even found one on ebay for $8
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hot-Car-Radio-12V-Auto-Aud...
I guess will see what kind of stereo unit the chinese guys can make and ship to me for $10
I got one like your first link for our Taimar (just to fill the hole really ), and it works surprisingly well, think I paid £10 in total for it. It's obviously not the best, but it's good enough, and it had USB and SD card capability, no CD so it was short and light. Worked well when I tested my amp with it too.
), and it works surprisingly well, think I paid £10 in total for it. It's obviously not the best, but it's good enough, and it had USB and SD card capability, no CD so it was short and light. Worked well when I tested my amp with it too.itaa said:
I guess will see what kind of stereo unit the chinese guys can make and ship to me for $10
That's easy, it'll be rubbish! That said, if it works, and continues to work longer term, then great! if it does go wrong then it's only a few pounds or so and you can just get another one!
Cheers, Dennis!
Ok I received today the car player, came super super fast!
for the $12 I'm super impressed with it.
However... compared to my old original unit it probably weighs 5x less, the connection ports were not aligned properly, the buttons on it doesn't reeks of quality, It feels super cheap, but from the front-fascia it looks rather well built -that is until you touch it and start using it you can feel it's a cheapo chinese unit.
BUT.. I'm really satisfied with it for the price, the best function of it is the bluetooth so I can stream music to it from my phone and answer calls as well.
sound quality - compared to my old unit, again it's just suuuuperb good , sounds like a dream compared to my old crap.
Going to leave it like this, checked the fascia costs around $15 for my car, more than the player... so will just leave it like that, doesn't even looks terrible.
for the $12 I'm super impressed with it.
However... compared to my old original unit it probably weighs 5x less, the connection ports were not aligned properly, the buttons on it doesn't reeks of quality, It feels super cheap, but from the front-fascia it looks rather well built -that is until you touch it and start using it you can feel it's a cheapo chinese unit.
BUT.. I'm really satisfied with it for the price, the best function of it is the bluetooth so I can stream music to it from my phone and answer calls as well.
sound quality - compared to my old unit, again it's just suuuuperb good , sounds like a dream compared to my old crap.
Going to leave it like this, checked the fascia costs around $15 for my car, more than the player... so will just leave it like that, doesn't even looks terrible.
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