Car Stereo Installation

[Putty]

Hey guys, I'm getting my first car today / tomorrow and wanted to put a car stereo in that has an auxiliary port.

How many of you guys have installed your own car stereos? Do you just slide out the old radio, leave the old wires hanging out, hook up the new stereo to old wires, push it back in? Is that all you do?

How do you get the radio out exactly?

 

[meatyshield90]

no it does not just "slide" out. you must take the panel off around it to remove it. also you will need to go to walmart or a car audio place to get a wiring harness and stereo holding unit because the stereo you want to put in will not match the stock one that is in the car. once you do that you cut of the old harness and wire up the new one. then you can plug it in and put the stereo back in and put the panel back on. should be set after that.

 

[Putty]

So if I go to Bestbuy and purchase the stereo, will they show me what all I need?

 

[meatyshield90]

So if I go to Bestbuy and purchase the stereo, will they show me what all I need?

yea they should, if not just make sure you ask for the wiring harness and they will ask for the year of your car so they can get the right one. make sure to tell them u need the faceplate as well.

 

[DragonD]

Most of those places, if you buy the stereo there, they have a HUGE installation discount (usually free).

 

[meatyshield90]

Most of those places, if you buy the stereo there, they have a HUGE installation discount (usually free).

best bung with many others have stopped free installation with purchase even. they will tell you that you can get a discount for installation but ranges between $50-100. not even worth the money when you can do it yourself for free plus you learn something new.

 

[PhaseXero]

Wow this thread is *perfectly* timed. I have a 2001 civic and I was looking to get a new deck for my car and get rid of that crappy factory model.

Buying a Radio
Definitely don't buy from BB//FS most of the stuff there is horribly overpriced unless there is a big sale. I'm still doing a ton of research but one place I found that was really good was Crutchfield. Wow I just checked out the american site, apparently 129.99 gets you the trim kit, wire harness and install guide. That's a really good deal.

Installation
If your like me and are just installing the radio and keeping everything else stock (no sub, factory speakers) then I would try doing it yourself and saving the cash. If your driving a fairly well known car there is probably a radio installation instructions posted with pictures. Check it out and see if it's easy enough to do, chances are it is. The wiring harness makes things nice and simple, just plug and play especially since its color coded most of the time, plus you can reinstall the stock radio since you didn't cut anything.

Features
As for features, if you have an ipod it might be worth it to find a model that has a ipod cable since it can feed information directly, plus you can use your radio // steering wheel controls to change songs (definitely worth the price). I would look at getting HD radio if you are in the united states as its pretty popular there.

The model im looking at Kenwood KDC-MP442 basically does everything I need and includes the kit for 149.99 (it's 149 for Canadians to get the free stuff).


Edit: What's your new car? Congrats!

Eugh I just looked a radio install for my car on yotuube. Wow that's going to be fun, I have to remove the center console to get to my dash.