Any Wellington based GZ'ers able to help me with the installation of a car head unit?

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › Any Wellington based GZ'ers able to help me with the installation of a car head unit?

lchiu7

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#166122 3-Mar-2015 14:34

I think it's would be pretty easy but I am not expert in this.

Situation: car has an aftermarket stereo unit (Alpine amps in the trunk and different speakers). But a few years ago I had the head unit replaced with a stock Panasonic CD player with MP3 and WMA capability. It drives the amps so I presume the guy fixed all the wiring. The aerial is in the rear window so no motor.

I want to replace this with a stock JVC unit that has no CD but MP3. WMA, BT, USB. I think all that is required is to remove the old head unit, connect up the pre-amp out from the JVC

http://support.jvc.com/consumer/product.jsp?modelId=MODL029327&pathId=139&page=2&archive=true

so that the head unit drives the Alpine amp rather than the speakers.

So all I need I think is a new wiring harness. I can run the microphone out on the side of the unit to the sun visor or some other place.

Don't expect it to be free but perhaps consideration for a fellow GZone member?

Thanks

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ajobbins

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#1250307 3-Mar-2015 14:38

Hopefully your previous install just used a harness adapter and didn't cut the wires. If so, you should be able to get a harness adapter for your new head unit and make it pretty much plug and play.

Usually you need two one from the car harness to ISO, than an ISO to the brand of head unit. If done right last time, hopefully you already have the car harness to ISO there and only need to replace the ISO to JVC part (plus run the mic cable).

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ajobbins

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#1250308 3-Mar-2015 14:41

When I last did one (Car before current one), I got a JVC bluetooth head unit, Car to ISO harness and ISO to JVC harness. Both the factory and the replacement unit were both standard single DIN size. I reckon I had the whole job done in about 10 minutes, about 6 of which were running the mic cable behind the dash and up the drivers A pillar

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lchiu7

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#1250311 3-Mar-2015 14:46

OK I will check it out once I get the unit. I suspect there will be more than just the harness since looking at the harness wiring, some of the wires go to speakers but I said, my speakers are driven by the Alpine amps in the trunk. So perhaps the previous installer (or the people who actually put the aftermarket amps in the car [this is a BMW 5 series]) rewired the harness so that the speaker wiring was not connected and left wires to connect to the pre-amp out of the head unit to the Alpine.

I suspect it will be more than 10 minutes.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

ajobbins

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#1250315 3-Mar-2015 14:51

Pull the existing unit out and take a photo of the connections. Ideally, to drive the amp there will be 2x RCA (Stereo) cables, which will bypass the factory harness for speaker wiring and go directly to the amp. There is probably also a signal wire that will go from the head unit to the amp that controls power to the amp (As they are usually direct connected to the battery and you don't want it to drain it when the car isn't running).

The factory harness will supply power (both ACC and constant so you don't lose your presets) and maybe other things (Eg. signal booster signal). Really depends how it was wired up previously as to how easy it will be. Also, do you have factory steering wheel controls and if so, are they working now? That may complicate things.

It may be easier to just pay a professional. Considering you have an after market amp and head unit already, it will likely be a trivial job for someone who knows what they are doing.

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