Car Stereo Upgrade

[Cobbler]

Years ago my father in law bought a radio cassette player on holiday on a day trip to Gibraltar, he got me to fit it in his Marina if I remember correctly. It was typical junk off a market stall, when I fitted it the tape player sped up & slowed down in time with the engine speed, it obviously had no voltage stabilisation circuit of any form. The trouble was, he blamed me, reckoned I fitted it wrongly, he said it was a really good make, it said Motomobile on the front. I couldn’t convince him that it was neither a Motorola or Radiomobile. It was still on the shelf in the garage when we cleared the house years later.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Errrr, didn't you recently post

Move on 20/25 years & I'm at a point now where I have so many work and personal projects on the go or in the back of my mind that I've put the brakes on everything pretty much. My head is literally spinning though.

Not having a go , but it sounds like you're adding to your problem? If your lad isn't fussed, just leave things as they are (nice as the deed would be).

 

[Dcal]

I recently fitted a radio to an Alfa 159 to get the phone to work properly and give me apple play etc.
It was a pig of a job, made even worse when I decided to install a reversing camera and dab ariel as well.

Stuff you have made today

Finished off this one this morning. I can't take credit for the polishing, passed that off onto our polisher while I helped him.out with some less technical polishing on another job. Got to be a bit mindful how you build little ones like that, easy to screw yourself over and make things really...

www.mig-welding.co.uk

It does work well though

 

[winchman]

I recently fitted a radio to an Alfa 159 to get the phone to work properly and give me apple play etc.
It was a pig of a job, made even worse when I decided to install a reversing camera and dab ariel as well.

Stuff you have made today

Finished off this one this morning. I can't take credit for the polishing, passed that off onto our polisher while I helped him.out with some less technical polishing on another job. Got to be a bit mindful how you build little ones like that, easy to screw yourself over and make things really...

www.mig-welding.co.uk

It does work well though

The head unit is easy mine even came with a plastic prodder thing for opening the dash trims to remove the old radio.
But
Reversing camera took a few hours, got a wire threading tool stuck!
In the end I ran the cable up the A post with the dash came cable and along the side of the roof lining as it has no side air bags.
The Flexi Conduit thing carrying the wires from body to tail gate I squirted Air freshener in to lube the cable and plug and it went in quite easy.
Found on a forum that the Purple rear wiper motor cable is an ignition live, and worked fine, I believe if you take it from the reversing lights you then need a relay. The GPS sensor is stuck inside the A post trim, it looks to be working fine from the test page but not uploaded any maps as I tend to use my phone.
I would say its 3-4 hours to fit but then it can take an hour to fathom out how to work it, but I am 100% happy with mine.

 

[Onoff]

Errrr, didn't you recently post


Not having a go , but it sounds like you're adding to your problem? If your lad isn't fussed, just leave things as they are (nice as the deed would be).

Yep. It's like a disease.

Edit: Over the holiday I've to build an L shape stud wall with pocket door to divide the kid's rooms. Thinking how I can make it so you get the original series whoosh sound when it opens / shuts...

 

[Morrisman]

Keep in mind on newer vehicles the stereo is often an integral part of the vehicle, tied in with the BCU and all manner of other components so can sometimes be difficult to upgrade. Worth checking before going too far.

Couple that with the fact that the factory sound quality is probably OK, and most of the music being played is streamed or mp3 quality, there often isn't much point - which I suppose is why the car audio scene died a death about ten years ago!

My daughter has been asking me if I can recommend and fit a new centre console screen music centre gps gadget in her 2010 Mazda 2.

After the shenanigans I've had with my own cars body control module, and the myriad wires, multi pin connectors, and ridiculous complexity of it all, I'd rather steer well clear of getting involved in that sort of installation.

She is now looking at the separate ipad style devices that mount in a bracket on the dash, connect by Blue tooth and can actually be removed when the car is left parked up in scrotesville.

 

[marlinspike]

If you have a local Halfords they often have a clearance cabinet for end of range and ex display car stereos.

 

[Onoff]

Lots of Chinese ones on AliExpress, for peanuts by comparison to eBay & Amazon. Bit of a wait:

https://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-Honda-jazz-android.html?osf=direct&spm=a2g0n.home.header.0

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Lots of Chinese ones on AliExpress, for peanuts by comparison to eBay & Amazon. Bit of a wait:

https://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-Honda-jazz-android.html?osf=direct&spm=a2g0n.home.header.0

Cheap enough to throw away when/if it doesn't work as hoped.

 

[Onoff]

Cheap enough to throw away when/if it doesn't work as hoped.

Or catches fire and torches the car...

 

[Onoff]

@ajlelectronics what's the issue you find with Sony stuff? Reliability? Backup?

Tbh the sound on the old single DIN Sony unit in swmbo's old pug is great. Far superior to the Chinese Bluetooth tat I tried (the one with the memory retention issues). That was tinny to the point of annoyance.

 

[ajlelectronics]

@ajlelectronics what's the issue you find with Sony stuff? Reliability? Backup?

Many things, but mostly their attitude towards their customers...

Sony BMG copy protection rootkit scandal - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Smallfry]

Used to have huge subwoofers in the boot and big speakers in doors etc back in early Eighties, about 2000 watts of power.
Could hear me coming from a long way off apparently.

I prefer the sound of silence these days. Or Radio Four.

 

[Onoff]

Used to have huge subwoofers in the boot and big speakers in doors etc back in early Eighties, about 2000 watts of power.
Could hear me coming from a long way off apparently.

I prefer the sound of silence these days. Or Radio Four.

Those were the days, making your own parcel shelves with timber, carpet and bfo speakers from old radiograms!