Head unit rant

[Carstereopro]

It's actually very easy to make the radio install painless.


After you've made all of your connections, but befor you slide the radio mounting sleeve in do the following:

- Remove the heater vents above the radio.
- pull the bulk of the wiring up, between the vent opening and the blank in the dash on the cluster trim panel, but leaving the radio-end of the harness and the antenna plug hanging out of the opening (around 6-8" of it).
- make sure the factory plug and the bulky part of the adaptor harness end up behind the cluster trim panel
- slide in the mounting sleeve (be sure not to damage the wiring) making sure the bulk of the wires are on top of it and the radio plug and antenna plug protrude about 3" from the opening
- bend tabs on the sleeve
- connect the radio to the harness and antenna
- pull on the harness through the vent opening slightly while you slide the radio into the sleeve
- once radio locks in, tuck harness slack into the space between the vents and the top of the radio
- re-install vents.

This makes it so much easier.

Back in 2004, When I had to install my flip out H.U. I had 4 pairs of audio rca's (front, rear, sub, and aux in), 1 set of video rca's (dvd in), XM radio adaptor harness, and the remote turn-on wire for my amps.

After trying for almost an hour I yanked the vent off and slid it in on the first try.

[blndweasel]

wow, 4 RCA's... that's crazy.

I finished wiring in my sub this weekend, was pleased to find knock-out holes in the fusebox at the firewall. The knowledgebase article on this site said "fish around with a coathanger until it pops out under the hood" which is a total joke. You have to knock out one of the hole tabs to pass through the lead for your amp.

I didn't have any trouble reinstalling the head unit, although I was only installing the stock unit back in there, I ran line level inputs to the speaker wires right behind the factory harness.

I removed my glove box and this made a huge difference. Also replaced the heater control console piece while I was in there... getting those two lower tabs to insert properly was the single hardest part of the install.

[2cam16]

Thanks for the tips, Carstereopro. I'll try and find time to re-do it again.

[zboot]

I ended up breaking those tabs on my install: http://www.318ti.org/forum/showthread.php?t=20742

My stock radio harness seemed to be snaked in from below, so I didn't think to remove the upper vents.

However, that sounds like a great plan, because when I add in the Navigation and rear view camera, I'd be cramming more stuff into the same place.

[graymae]

hi guys, i installed my radio a few days ago, i cut the main harness and wired all the wires together, however the radio turns on everything works but theres no sound coming from the speakers, does anyone know what could be the problem for this to happen? I checked and double check the wires they are connected coreectly,, so i dont understand y this is happenning.

[ti_guy]

I installed mine today.

You follow all the colors on the harness but you must not connect the blue and blue together.

Here's the info you need to save your hair when installing:
stereo unit to Harness
Solid blue to WHITE
Blue+White stripe to Solid Blue

It's almost like they do it purposely to mess you up!
Had I known this, the install would of taken 1.5 hours instead of 3

Quite a tough install..
It took me 3 rounds of at least 1 hour and a lot of cursing.
Even when you got everything working...you're still screwed when trying to put it all in!

I had to cut off anything unnecessary from the back of the uint..Like 3 pairs of RCA? connectors... Jammed all wires and harness in a pocket deep inside first with hand, then forced the unit in till I heard the "click"
Ahhh... the sound of success.

You owe me a beer.
I think I will start a new post with a decent title to make this easy to find.