I have a basic stereo with a cd player, no cd changer, no nav unit.

Based on reading some posts here, it seems it is doable to replace the stereo with a new double din unit. I've picked a Nav unit with built in blue-tooth, and with Ipod playing capability. I've ordered the unit, along with a wiring harness connector, an IPOD cable, and a harness to connect to the steering wheel controls.

I have an OEM shop manual, on dvd, that shows the basic ( very basic) steps to remove the console and the stereo.

I think I can do this myself.

I do need to know - (the shop manual doesn't say) is what kind of tool do I need to remove the cover on the console? Can anyone here tell me what I need and the best place to get it?

Anyone have any words of wisdom or advise?

My son is recommending taking it to a shop, but I really want to do this. If I do get in over my head, any recommendations for a place to have this done in the Northern VA area?

Thanks!

 

the wood around the shifter pops up if you grab in front of it with the ashtray open. then you have to remove the center console to expose the screw holder the center entertainment stack in and you pull it back with the shifter in drive or somewhere to the back and out of the way. unhook everything and voila' its now in your hands. Personally I would let a stereo shop do the install and 1 that deal with hi end cars. hell I paid to have my alarm/remote start put in my Nissan because they do it all day. And they charged me $100 and I went to work, earned more than that and picked it up at the end of the day. finished and to think I had it not installed for a year!!!

 

i have some good people around that area that could do a custom install for you. Let me know if you need their contact info

 

Thanks Jason,

I sent you an email asking for the recommendations you have. I don't have access to send PMs from work, and I guess that it doesn't work when you're not on-line.

I really appreciate you taking the time to send your recommendations to me.

Alice

 

Safe & Sound Custom Car Audio
(703) 368-1564
8104 Sudley Rd, Manassas, VA 20109


this shop has glowing reviews.

If you want to take a drive to westminster, MD i have a very good friend of mine shops there, that i can guarantee you, their work is top notch.

 

Thanks Jason!

 

I ultimately decided to DIY the replacement myself. I just really felt like it was something I wanted to do, so I proceeded to remove the center console to get a look at what I was dealing with. Until I started, I hadn't really understood that the entire thing had to be removed, but it was amazingly easy to remove something that looks so substantial and integral to the car.

After initially ordering the wrong wiring harness (a stupid mistake on my part, but at least a cheap one) I found the wiring harness I needed on ebay motors from a source in the UK. The harness took 9 days to arrive, coming in yesterday.

So, today my husband soldered the wires from the aftermarket wiring harness to the Kenwood DNX6960's wiring harness. Ok - I know I say DIY, but my husband has lots more experience soldering than I do, and does it much nicer than I could. I had read all the instructions on the wiring, and could've done it, but very much appreciate my husband's skills and willingness to help. He also soldered the stereo column control adapter's wires to the wiring harness and to the head unit's wiring.

I plugged everything in - wiring harness, IPOD connector, antenna connector, GPS antenna connector, and the microphone plug, and tried it out. Most things worked right away, but I had to play around with the Bluetooth connectivity a while before it was right. That was probably due to my inexperience with Bluetooth. But even then some of the phone capabilities were not there, because the head unit thought we weren't in park, and even if we weren't I'd want those options anyway. Also, I only got volume on DVDs, not the picture.

I knew I'd read that it was possible to watch DVDs, and figured the same fix would resolve the phone issues, so I went inside and did a search and quickly found that I needed to connect the head unit's parking brake wire (green) to the ground wires (black). My husband made that connection for me, and when I retried, everything worked. I'm very psyched about that.

Unfortunately I had to leave for work about that time, so I shoved the wires back and pushed the unit into the opening, and propped it up with some small books, and drove to work with it like that. But I can already tell I'm going to absolutely love having the new nav/stereo/iPod/Bluetooth options. I listened to my IPod during my drive, and watched my progress on the nav screen. I made a call to my husband to test the phone sound quality, and it was very clear.

Tomorrow the hard part begins. Mounting the unit and finally deciding what to do for the fascia, and then doing it. I've got a couple of ideas, mostly based on things I've read here. I really want this to look as great as it functions; like most of the ones I've seen here.

Oh - and I forgot - I've still got to program the steering adapter, but that should only take a few minutes.

I've taken quite a few pictures, and will take more when the job is done, and I'll post them. Hopefully it will be of interest to some.

 

If you want to see the DVD video during drive, just ground that wire you connected to the parking brake wire. Should work...its a common 'workaround' that isn't published due to safety reasons.

Don't forget pics when you're finished. We all wanna see.

 

Alice, Can you tell me how you connected your steering wheel control to the new unit. I'm going to the same process...
On my new unit there's two wires. Black & White (with SWC - short for steering wheel control) but when I pulled the factory unit there's no additional wires. There's the harness & another Iso with two wires. But the ISO looks like more for the Navigation that runs all the way to the back / trunk. I might be wrong on the ISO - Is that the Steering Wheel Control Wiring? Thanks.