New Head Unit Install (A guide)

[BADHAB|T]

Hey ladies and germs

All of you seem to be asking in seperate forums questions about specific cars to do an install on.

Well, I thought I'd take a minute or 4 to mention the basics when doing your own install. Of course every car is different, but alot of their parts come off in a very similar fashion.

Lets start with the wiring -

99.9% of the time, the top of the plug is positive in respect to speakers. The top can be defined as the side of the plug that has the tab on it that needs to be pushed down to release it.

Factory Nissans have two plugs for their stereos. They changed the shape of their plugs around 1995 from plugs with yellow trim to black trim.

The smaller plug always has the wiring for the rear speakers.

The larger plug has the front speakers and 3 powers and antenna wires.

Telling you what colours Nissan have is useless, they changed alot.

Find the three powers first. Using a test light or multi meter prod around with the key out. The only wire with 12v is your permanent power (Batt). Now turn the key to ACC and find the wire with 12v. This is Accessory (ACC). Turn your lights on, find the wire with 12v. This is Illumination (ILL).

You will now have 4 or 5 wires remaining on the large plug. Four of these are speaker wires. To find what speaker is what, get an AA battery, solder/tape whatever a wire to both terminals of the battery. Now you can poke those wires into the stereo plug. A speaker will make a noise when you send 1.5 volts though it. Now with those 4 wires sorted, you may have one remaining depending on your car. If you have a manual aerial, dont expect to see a spare wire as this is for the electric aerial. This gets connected to the blue or blue/white of your new stereo loom. Even if you dont have an aerial that goes up and down, you will still need to connect this wire (common mistake with DIY R32 installs). Your aerial will be in the back or side window and needs 12v to make it work.

For the smaller plug, use the battery again to find the speakers. There may be a 5th wire on the smaller plug, insulate it and ignore it.

Nissans DO NOT have an earth in their loom so ground the stereo by connecting the black wire to the chassis (stereo brackets, back of the stereo)

ALot of cheaper stereos do not have Illumination in ther loom, so insulate the wire if it is not required. Otherwise it can short and blow a fuse.

Just in case someone out there doesnt already know this I will type it out. These colours are pretty much generic for an aftermarket stereo but DO NOT match colours with the car wiring

Yellow - Battery

Red - Accessory

Orange - Illumination

White - Front Left +

White/Black - Front Left -

Grey - Front Right +

Grey/Black - Front Right -

Green - Rear Left +

Green/Black - Rear Left -

Purple - Rear Right +

Purple/Black - Rear Right -

Blue - System Remote (Electric Aerial and/or Amp Remote)

Black - Earth

It IS important you get the phasing correct when wiring speakers. (ie: Positive to positive, negative to negative) If it is incorrect, it will cancell out any bass.

Now, getting to the factory head deck -

Most Nissans pull apart in a similar way.

Nine times out of ten, the shifter surround comes off first. Its usually on clips so just pull it up. This allows access to the stereo facia. It usually has screws right at the bottom (around the ash tray / cig lighter area) and screws near the top (around the heater controlls area). There can be hidden screws (behind an ashtray etc) but usually once the visable ones are out, the stereo facia pulls off (held on fairly tight with clips still). Undo all plugs and get the facia out of the immidiate work space so it doesnt get scratched.

The factory head deck location will be either a single DIN (stereo sized) or double DIN. If it is a double DIN hole (R32, R33, Primera etc), what size stereo came out? Double or single DIN? If it was a double DIN, you will need to purchase a Nissan pocket to fill the hole. If you removed a single DIN factory stereo, you should already have a pocket there.

Anyway....

ALL Nissan factory stereos are mounted on brackets. There are 4 screws holding the brackets in.

Once the brackets are out (with the stereo mounted to it) remove the stereo. Your new one will line up with the factory holes perfectly. No need to redrill holes or anything. YOU DO NOT USE THE TRIM THAT COMES WITH THE NEW STEREO. That is there for stereos that are cage mounted.

Cage - http://www.newministuff.co.uk/16_cage_in.jpg

You do not require the cage aswell. Different cars get the stereo mounted differently.

This is just a guide as not ALL Nissans are like this but it is fairly generic.

For example, the stereo facia on a Stagea is attatched to the stereo brackets so you remove the whole lot in one go.

Use a paint scraper or similar to wedge tight panels off as a screw driver can damage plastic and vinyl.

Alot of Nissans require an aerial adaptor as as covered alot already, they have a double pin aerial as opposed to a normal single pin. The adaptor is usually worth about $15. Its not as common for later models to need one of these.

If you are not running any rear (or front) speakers it is very important to insulate the spare speaker wires (on the new stereo loom) as these will kill your stereo if they touch earth with the stereo on.

I think thats about all the tips and tricks I can think of right about now for a generic Nissan install, I may add to it later on but I hope this gets Stuck up the top for all to see! I can easily go into more detail about specific cars but I have to leave bits out as its a generic guide.

If you have any specific questions regarding your car (doesnt have to be Nissan), feel free to PM me and Ill try help out

Nissans and Toyotas are really very easy when installing a new stereo, no cutting, re-drilling etc needed.

Hope that helps

Gareth

[Ant]

Lets start with the wiring -  

99.9% of the time, the top of the plug is positive in respect to speakers. The top can be defined as the side of the plug that has the tab on it that needs to be pushed down to release it.  

Factory Nissans have two plugs for their stereos. They changed the shape of their plugs around 1995 from plugs with yellow trim to black trim.

The smaller plug always has the wiring for the rear speakers.

The larger plug has the front speakers and 3 powers and antenna wires.

Telling you what colours Nissan have is useless, they changed alot.

Plug drawings/diagrams and (typical) wire colours:

http://www.installdr.com/Harnesses/Nissan-Wiring.pdf

From those diagrams you should also be able to work out the function of each wire.