How to Install an Aftermarket Car Stereo

Many new aftermarket stereos that are available now have iPod cables, or even a USB hub built right into them. You can now bring your digital music into your car without having to worry about a stack of CDs. These digital devices can store thousands of songs and can enhance your driving experience by finding songs quickly at the touch of a button, rather than searching through CD books to find the music you want to listen to.

For this reason, one of the first things most people are tempted to replace in their car is the factory stereo (deck); it is also one of the easiest items to install yourself, and with the following knowledge, you can save money on the shop-labour install time.  We will walk you through the entire process.

Before Starting:

a.       The first thing you need to do is also purchase a wiring harness that is designed specifically for your make, model, and year of car. They can range in price from $7 - $14, and can be purchased at almost any place that sells car decks.

b.      The other item you might need is a filler plate. This depends on your vehicle and the size of the new deck. Most older Honda factory stereos are the same size as most standard new decks and you will probably not need a filler plate. You can tell if you need one by comparing the sizes of the stereo currently installed in your vehicle to your new deck. For the install we are demonstrating here, we needed a filler plate.

Tools needed:

• Wire cutters/strippers
• Electrical tape
• Butt-end connectors (not necessary, but preferred)
• Zip ties
• Screw drivers (probably a Philips # 2(star) – depending on what your car requires, and a flathead)
• Bolts or screws to install trim plate (if necessary, see step 8)

The Install:

1.       First off, we’ll wire up the harnesses. You can do this at a table and not in your car if you want. The extra wiring harness you picked up is clearly labeled with writing on the wires themselves, and is colour coded to make the process as simple as possible. The wiring harness that came with the deck is usually colour coded with the exact same colouring. If not, the installation guide that came with your deck will give detailed information on what each wire is, and then you would just match up the wire function name on each harness. From here, it is just matching up the wires and connecting them. Most wiring harnesses are pre-cut for easy stripping. We recommend twisting the rubber coating while removing it from the wire to keep each wire from making a frayed mess. Use the butt-end connectors to ensure a solid connection of the wires. If you do not have butt-end connectors, use electrical tape. If you use the tape method, step number 2 is critical. Check your manual for any additional instructions. The wiring harness for our project was very complex; we needed to add a tab connector for the ground wire. Your wiring will probably be much simpler. 

2.       Next, you want to tidy up those wires by using zip-ties or electrical tape. This helps to clean up the wires and to ensure they do not come in contact with any metal inside the dashboard of your car. Leave the blue wire (remote) easily accessible for future installs of amplifiers for either subwoofers or speakers. (we’ll do that in a later post) We do recommend putting a piece of tape on the end of this wire to make sure it doesn’t come in contact with any metal in the dashboard. We added a connector to the end of our remote wire to make for a simple connection in the future. Our deck also came with a separate harness with RCA jacks for subwoofer control; because we are not installing subwoofers, we’ll leave out this harness.

3.       Now to your car. Remove any trim or pieces of the console that cover the factory deck. Check for screws that keep the console in place. On many newer cars, the trim just snaps into place. We recommend doing an internet search for “how to remove the factory stereo out of your make, model, and year of car”.

4.       Once the trim is out of the way, remove the factory stereo by unscrewing any bolts that attach it to your car, and disconnect the stereo from the wiring harness. If your vehicle does not require a trim plate, the factory deck is probably attached to its own built-in cage; unbolt the cage from the car, and remove the deck from the cage.

5.       For our particular deck, we have an iPod cable. So we removed the liner of the glove compartment, and drilled a hole just big enough to get the cable through (not the iPod connection side). Once drilled, we mounted the iPod converter box into place using zip ties inside the dashboard and installed the cable.

6.       Now is a good time to check your wiring job. Plug the harness into the back of the deck, and the other side into the harness of your car (the one that the factory stereo was plugged into). Plug in the antennae cable if you want to test the radio, and any other accessories that you want to test out (in our case, the iPod cable). If everything works, turn off the deck, and disconnect the harness from both the car and the back of the deck (you’ll understand why later).  

If it isn’t working, (1) make sure your car is turned on, (2) check your connections, making sure the wires are securely attached to each other and wired properly (you can check continuity by disconnecting the wiring harness from the vehicle and deck, and using a multi-meter set at the Ohm (Ω) or diode (triangle with a line through it) setting, and touching the respective pins on each side of the harness, (3) check your installation manual that came with the deck for troubleshooting, (4) check online for your make, model, and year of car to see if there are any “hidden” tricks to installing a deck in your particular vehicle, (5) or email us, and we can try to troubleshoot with you.

7.       If your vehicle does not require a trim plate, move onto step 9. If you need a trim plate for your vehicle, you will need to install the cage that your aftermarket deck came with. Simply slide the cage into the opening on the trim plate and fold the tabs of the cage over to secure the two pieces together.

8.       Trim plates are designed to bolt right into your vehicle. Bolt the trim plate into place using the existing bolts and where the pre-drilled holes are. If the holes do not line up with anywhere that has a bolt or screw, then you may need to purchase some screws to firmly mount the trim plate. 

Usually they don't look crooked, and this is not our error. It is the design of this particular trim plate.

9.       If your vehicle does not need a trim plate, then you use the existing screws that mounted the factory stereo into the cage, to mount the aftermarket deck. Aftermarket decks have pre-drilled and threaded holes on each side to attach the deck securely into place.

10.   Now you hook up the wiring harness to the harness in your car. We recommend doing this part before connecting the harness to the back of your new deck to make the installation much easier.

11.   Now is when you get to plug in your deck. Plug the harness into the back of the deck, and plug in your antennae cable. 

12.   You may need to play with the positioning of the wiring harnesses for this next step in order to get the deck to mount into place properly.

With Filler Plate: slide the deck into the cage and push it in all of the way. You will hear a “click” sound when the deck is securely in place.

Without Filler Plate: mount the cage with the deck back into place.

13.   If your deck came with a trim piece, put it on (usually just snaps into place)

14.   Here is a good time to double-check that your new deck is properly working before continuing on. Then, re-assemble the dashboard/console/trim pieces in the reverse order you removed them.

15.   If your deck has a removable face-plate, snap it into place.

16.   Installation is that easy, and you now just saved yourself some money! Enjoy your new stereo!

photos done by Steve - DIY Car Modifications

HID CONVERSION

    One of the first things you see when a vehicle is heading your way is the headlights. This being said they're also the brightest part of your car, and have the ability to make the biggest impression. So why cruise around with dull headlights, poor visibility, and that stock look? Grab a set of HIDs and we’ll show you the rest.

   Let’s talk a little history about HIDs, for those of you who don’t know. HIDs or High Intensity Discharge are a replacement bulb and ballast system for your stock headlight bulb, that come in all the needed bulb designs (H11, 9006, or H3 for example) and a variety of “colours” or light spectrum, measured in thousands of Kelvin or K. These bulbs create this ultra bright light by converting your vehicles low voltage DC current, through a ballast, into high voltage AC current. Keeping it simple, the high voltage arc ionizes the gas in the bulb and creates a conducting medium between the electrodes bringing the bulb up to temperature, vaporising the metallic salts and giving the bulb its particular Kelvin or colour temperature.

As a basic guide 3000K= Yellow-ish, 6000K= White-ish, and 10000K= Blue-ish. 

Now to the mod!

   Once you grab yourself a set of HIDs from a local auto shop, e-bay or however else you may come upon them, work your way through the following steps:

1.  Open your hood and check for room to work behind your headlights. Depending on the model of vehicle you own, you may or not be able to access your headlight bulbs without removing your headlights, or other parts of your vehicle for that matter.

   In our case, our Chevy Colorado had ample room, since we were working behind the taillights. Yup here's a teaser of the custom mounted HID reverse lights. It's necessary with double limo tints.But we will continue on with the mod as if we are dealing with our headlights.




2.  Next, use a multi-meter to check the voltage at the bulb, to insure you have a full 12 Volts.  If you do not your ballast’s may not turn on, or stay on, and could just flicker.
                                

Multi-Meter Tips

• Use DCV setting at 20V, this will make sure the voltage appear with the decimal in the right place
• Place the positive and negative ends of the meter in the respective prongs of the wiring harness to get your reading.
• If your meter shows 12Volts, go ahead and continue with your modification.
• If you do not have a constant 12 Volts you might get lucky but, more than likely u will need a relay, but that’s a topic for another day.

3.  From here on in, it’s plug and play. Disconnect you factory bulb by removing the factory harness.

4.  Now, remove your factory bulbs and replace them (careful not to touch the actual bulb) with your new HID bulbs. You may want to keep these in a safe place just in case you ever swap them back to stock.

HID's up front as well.  Fogs and low beams

5.  Connect your HID bulb to the ballast, and from there the ballast to your factory bulb harness. Now try them out!

Yah, it’s that simple, the connectors only work one way, and are of course colour coordinated, so you really can’t do any wrong. If the particular kit you are using is not colour coordinated, or universal clips, be sure to take your time to read the directions and make good use of that multi-meter!

Remember, this is our taillight install.

   Now take the time to neatly mount your ballasts, zip tie your loose wires, and grab some of your left over wire loom from last weeks post and tidy it up even more.

   So, your HIDs are successfully installed, take a minute, take a step back, and enjoy that new impression and added sense of style your vehicle just gained.

Oh, and we promise you will never drive with ordinary bulbs ever again!

photos done by Justin - DIY Car Modifications

Engine Loom/ Coloured Hoses

One of the most forgotten places on a vehicle, and if properly cleaned and dressed up, could leave quite an impression: the engine 

It is one of the easiest and cheapest modifications you can do yourself on a vehicle. Adding colourful loom and hoses under the hood helps to “clean up” those wiring harnesses, and turn drab flat black hoses into eye-grabbing accents.

First, in order to make the loom and hoses stand out, you need to clean your engine. This should be done before washing the rest of your vehicle in case any oil or grease gets splashed onto the exterior paint of your car.

• If you have an older car, or have NEVER cleaned under the hood, a degreaser such as GUNK works well to break up the oil and grease build-up around the engine or splashed onto the underside of the hood. Use as directed, but keep the degreaser away from areas such as engine belts and the air-intake box or filter. As well, when power washing the engine, try not to soak the air-intake box or filter too much, this could let water get into the engine and create problems.

• Once the engine is degreased, let it dry. This can be done by starting the car and taking it for a drive. The heat will help to get rid of any moisture. When the engine is fully dry, products like ArmorAll can be used on the plastics under the hood to create a nice shine. Follow directions for use, and attempt to avoid getting ArmorAll on any painted surfaces.

Loom can be found at any automotive shop and can be used to wrap anything from wiring, hoses, or even the hood-stand. Do not loom over metal exhaust pipes or anything that sits too closely to the engine; the engine heat will melt the plastic.

• Simply wrap one end of the loom over the area you would like to cover, and continue to slide the loom over the desired area until you have reached the preferred length. Cut the loom, and adjust the loom as necessary to hide the split on the loom.

Coloured hoses can also be found at any automotive shop, and come in various outside and inside diameters. We recommend removing the old hoses you wish to replace (windshield washer fluid hoses, etc.) and bringing them with you. The inside diameter is what is important when replacing these hoses. However, sometimes an outside diameter that is too big, may not fit into the factory clamps for the original hose, so you should bring one of those along as well to ensure a good fit.

• To measure the hoses for length, simply lay the original hose next to the new coloured hose and cut to length. Install the new hoses in the reverse process you removed them.

An otherwise dirty and forgotten part of the vehicle, but also, the most important part of the vehicle, can be cleaned up and made more attractive to grab that extra attention.

photos done by Steve - DIY Car Modifications

Comming Soon!

Hey guys,

DIY will be posting your first simple mod in the near future.
Stay clicked!