I bought a 1993 XJ6 XJ40 Vanden Plas to fix up for my 57th Birthday this week.

I have fixed almost every and any type car or truck starting when I was 8 helping to change plugs and oil and greasing anything needed it. I always liked Jaguar quality of workmanship.

I will have many posts in time I am sure. I am a disabled VET on a limited budget. This post is about the radio cassette player and in trunk cd changer.

I was wondering if anyone had a suggestion for a good compatible and still attractive new or used cd upgrade, even from a different model Jaguar or other car perhaps. I am good with tools and wiring so I can take the dash apart and do some rewiring if needed.

Please help. I have no cassettes and do have cds. I filled the cassette in the trunk and love it. I would just like to put one in the dash too occasionally. Perhaps MP3 compatible even, Nav system would be nice too. I have looked around and am a bit confused due to the cd changer and security system. I trust the community to know better than I do about inexpensive good upgrades.

Thank you in advance for any advice.

 

Welcome to the forum Rich.

I know nothing about MP3 or Nav systems.

But I did change the original units for a Pioneer system a couple of years ago.

No real problems, but whatever, you will need to sort out and pair up the speaker wiring with whatever new unit you go for.

 

Nice B-day gift, you should be driving a trouble free cat by your 77th birthday for sure! LOL, Try Crutchfield.com they have a pretty good choice of equipment. You can find one that fits if it's too expensive through them, search for the same on Ebay or online. You can get most connectors through crutchfield no matter where you buy the stereo/nav unit.

Good Luck!
Charlie



[QUOTE=Lionhearted55;549851]I bought a 1993 XJ6 XJ40 Vanden Plas to fix up for my 57th Birthday this week.

I will have many posts in time I am sure. I am a disabled VET on a limited budget. This post is about the radio cassette player and in trunk cd changer.

I was wondering if anyone had a suggestion for a good compatible and still attractive new or used cd upgrade, even from a different model Jaguar or other car perhaps. I am good with tools and wiring so I can take the dash apart and do some rewiring if needed.

 

Well. Thank you for the input. I should have said up front I had some thought to try to do the car with all Jaguar parts except for performance and safety upgrades. I will go after market if it has far better qualities. i am looking now at the sites you recommended, but, still wondering about factory newer year plug ins. Perhaps someone knows.

 

Hey i have a 93 jag xj6 vanden plus i was going to change my stereo for a after market but i cant find a wiring diagram? I was wondering how did you do it

 

93xj6 vaden plas does your car have the original tapedeck? To put an aftermarket unit in you have to rewire either the front or rear speakers as they share a common ground. I ran the rear speakers into a 4 channel amp under the drivers seat with new wires from all rear speakers. Was pretty easy but took a full day.

 

Definitely go for an aftermarket unit. The advantages far exceed the disadvantage of having an oem unit. I was going down the same path but its a lot better sound quality and wiring ease. I know some 90's model x types came with nav and a touch screen but I think they used a double din setup and the xj40 definitely uses a single din. You could still give it a go but expect some headaches and a big price difference.

 

I installed a JVC Arsenal MP3/CD/USB headunit in my 1992 a little after I got the car. I had to cut the factory connector off and solder in the JVC harness. There's a USB on the front panel, and one on the rear of the unit, which I ran under the ski-slope and into the center console, where my iPod lives, and gets charged. I have the USB bluetooth chip plugged in the front panel, and there is a microphone wire on the back of the unit that I ran up behind the A-pillar and to the overhead console area for hand-free bluetooth calling. I chose the JVC Arsenal because of the 3-year warranty, and the fact that the display and button color is infinitely variable, meaning I can keep the blue/green Jaguar color.

I too have the factory 5-disc CD-changer in the trunk. It is an Alpine branded changer and uses Alpine's 8-pin "M-Bus" interface. Alpine upgraded their interface to "Ai-Net", and they are not backward compatible, at least in the sense of using your factory CD-changer with a new headunit.

If you want to keep your Jaguar CD-Changer, look for a used Alpine headunit with M-Bus, usually marked "CD Shuttle" or "CD Changer Control." Some have a built-in CD player as well, giving you 6-disc capability.

You will have to do quite a bit of wiring to the head unit. My '92 had common grounds, so I had to run separate speaker wires to the front door speakers. I still need to install my amplifier in the trunk to power the two subwoofers under the rear seat. I have them tied into the rear door speaker wires, which probably isn't great for the head-units amplifier...

Nothing OEM would be directly compatible with your car. In-dash CD wasn't an option for XJ40s, hence the trunk-mounted CD-Changer. With the M-bus port on the back of your factory head-unit, you can interface an iPod, if you have one. There are M-bus to iPod connector cables, which will also charge the iPod too. I used this setup in a previous vehicle that had an aftermarket Alpine FM-Modulated CD-Changer controller. You would have to choose one or the other, the iPod or the changer, as there is only one M-bus port on the back of the headunit.

Hope this helps,
Nick

 

While my car didn't have the CD player I replaced the head unit with a modern Kenwood deck. It has a single in dash CD player, a USB port an an AUX in that I just plug my phone or Zune into.

I bought this kit from ebay.

Jaguar XJ12 XJ6 Sovereign CD Radio Fascia Adaptor Car ISO Wiring Lead Kit | eBay

It's for a 94 but they should have one for a 93. For the life of me I don't recall if I used the adapter harness but the install wasn't a big deal and it's been trouble free for 2+ years.

 

Thank you so much for the info. If i change the stereo for a after market stereo would the car antenna still go up when the radio is on and will it go back down if i turn off the radio?

 

Yes, it will function exactly like it does with the factory radio. The mast will extend when the radio turns on, and will retract (after a few second delay - controlled by the central processor in the car) when either the key is turned off or the radio is manually powered down. The antenna trigger will be one of the wires you'll need to connect to the new radio.

Nick

 

FWIW. The Kenwood head unit in my car will activate the antenna only with the radio. If I am useing the CD player or aux in the antenna stays down.

 

hey i barley got my stereo installed and i love it i couldn't find nobody that wanted to connect my stereo but the only problem is is that when i turn on the lights at nigh t the radio turns off so i could only use it at night everybody tells me its the ground wire i went back to the guy how hooked it up and said that is not his problem that i have to pay him again can i do it my self??

 

He charged me 60 to installe it know he wants me to give him 60 again just for something he did wrong

 

That same problem happened to me.

It turned out that the dimmer wire was the same color as one of the rear speaker's negative wire, so every time I turned on the dimmer, I was shorting out the amplifier's output, causing the radio to cut output until I turned it off and back on again.

Both were green with orange stripe if I remember right.

It's not too hard to do it, just get the wiring diagram for your year, and the wiring diagram for your model radio, and verify the wires. It just takes patience. My install in my 1992 took me close to 5 hours, and I thought I was handy with car electronics and a soldering iron. Don't ask me how long my Viper alarm to install in this car!

Nick

 

Can it also be that my new after market stereo uses more energy to power it on?? I couldn't connecte non,off the illumination wire cause the new after market stero doesn't have to were you can connect it should i connect the illumination wires some were else

 

I never connected the antenna can that have anything to do with,the stereo going off with the lights?

 

As stated previously, check the wiring to ensure the installer in fact used the correct wire. If he did not, rewire it and do a post install check. Turn the lights and the radio on at the same time to see if the problem was corrected or continues to exist.

If you can't resolve it that way, you might want to run new wire (upgrade wire this time for clarity) to all your speakers, back to the head unit.

Disconnect the battery. Run 4 strips of wire--1 running to each door and back to head unit, or you can run all 4 wires to an amplifier and run the RCA cable back to output on the new head unit. Wire up the amplifier (make sure you use a good ground close by) as stated in the amplifier literature.

Most head units are rated around 45watts x 4 channels. so it's not necessary to use an amplifier unless you desire to.