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Last week I noticed that my car's tape deck was getting very reluctant to take my tapes, so with a drive all the way to Michigan coming up this weekend, my search more a new car stereo took on a renewed urgency. Therefore I had to relax my requirements a bit.
First I took apart my dashboard just enough to see if I felt comfortable doing the installation myself. In the process, I was reminded that Haynes auto repair manuals are nearly useless; the book listed a total of eight steps for removing the radio, only two of which were really substantive, but those were unclear, and the only picture given didn't match my car. I've gotta find a Chilton's book for my car.
I burned a couple CDRWs of MP3s and grabbed some USB devices with MP3s on them, and headed over to Best Buy, which has a $120 store-brand MP3/CD car stereo with a USB port. Unfortunately it wouldn't even recognize my MP3 CDRWs, and it said my USB device had no files (turns out it wants them in an AUDIO subdirectory, which it oh-so-helpfully created). Scratch that off the list. That took me back to units that don't have USB or flash-card capability, since vaporware doesn't help me now. And I didn't see anything else at Best Buy I liked.
The next day (yesterday) I went over to a local car audio specialty store, and ended up with a $200 Alpine, along with a $30 aux input cable for plugging into my portable MP3 player for when I don't have time to burn my MP3s to CD. (And if I ever get an iPod, I could buy a $100 cable to allow the car stereo to control the iPod.) I also saw a single-height combination CD/cassette player, which would've made![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nontacitare happier (she still likes cassettes), but it wouldn't do MP3s.
The next challenge was the install. I hadn't done anything like this in at least 15 years, and even then I would mostly help/watch my dad. But I felt like I wanted to control how my car was modified, and I figured I should be able to handle it.
I gathered (and bought) some connectors to match the ones on the Alpine wiring harness, and some more for the wires without any connectors already, then sat down with my crimping tool, the wiring chart, and two wiring harnesses needing to be connected in about 15 places. The first ones were relatively easy, though it was a bit of a challenge to get the crimping tight enough to hold the wire. Then I got down to the last few speaker wires, color-coded (according to the wiring chart) to violet, green, and gray. My mild colorblindness struck again: I could distinguish them from each other, but couldn't tell what color each wire was. I ended up getting out my camera and my full-spectrum desklamp to help me figure it out. After I connected everything in the car and messed with the balance and fader, I was amazed that I had apparently chosen correctly.
After all the wires had connectors, I connected them together and took everything out to the car. I removed the old stereo, attached to wires to the new one, and was happy to see everything work. Except that I noticed a blown front right speaker.
Then I set about trying to figure out how the new stereo was supposed to attach to the car; the old one was in a steel bracket that won't work with the new plastic mounting frame I'd bought at Best Buy, and without that bracket the holes in the car and stereo wouldn't match up properly. After puzzling over it for a while, I looked again at the single page in the Alpine manual claiming to be installation instructions. Since nothing there seemed to match the way the old stereo was mounted, I'd thought it only applied to other types of cars, but I finally realized that it would work for what I was doing. Instead of the stereo being screwed directly to the car, underneath the plastic dash panels as before, I needed to mount the stereo in the dash panel (well, in that plastic mounting frame I'd bought). I was a little hesitant about this since it seemed to have questionable support stability, but once I put it all together it seemed OK. The only problem was that the mounting frame needs about 1/8" shaved off the top to allow space for some switches to fit properly on top of it, but I fit things in a way that'll work for now.
I finished around 12:30 last night, after working about four hours (not counting my various parts purchases).
The stereo works great so far, except that the FM sensitivity is lower than the old one, so I can't really listen to my usual Akron/Kent/Cleveland/Youngstown radio stations very well around Canton. I might look for an antenna signal amplifier to fix that problem.
Update: I went back to the store where I got the stereo, and asked about a signal booster. I was told that they'd love to sell me one, but it wouldn't do me any good, because stereos from Alpine, Sony, and others in the last three years are really bad at reception at the lower end of the FM frequency range.
Now I need to make more MP3 CDs to replace my trusty case of 15 cassettes. Oh yeah, and look for a new speaker -- which I might go ahead and pay someone else to install.
First I took apart my dashboard just enough to see if I felt comfortable doing the installation myself. In the process, I was reminded that Haynes auto repair manuals are nearly useless; the book listed a total of eight steps for removing the radio, only two of which were really substantive, but those were unclear, and the only picture given didn't match my car. I've gotta find a Chilton's book for my car.
I burned a couple CDRWs of MP3s and grabbed some USB devices with MP3s on them, and headed over to Best Buy, which has a $120 store-brand MP3/CD car stereo with a USB port. Unfortunately it wouldn't even recognize my MP3 CDRWs, and it said my USB device had no files (turns out it wants them in an AUDIO subdirectory, which it oh-so-helpfully created). Scratch that off the list. That took me back to units that don't have USB or flash-card capability, since vaporware doesn't help me now. And I didn't see anything else at Best Buy I liked.
The next day (yesterday) I went over to a local car audio specialty store, and ended up with a $200 Alpine, along with a $30 aux input cable for plugging into my portable MP3 player for when I don't have time to burn my MP3s to CD. (And if I ever get an iPod, I could buy a $100 cable to allow the car stereo to control the iPod.) I also saw a single-height combination CD/cassette player, which would've made
nontacitare happier (she still likes cassettes), but it wouldn't do MP3s.The next challenge was the install. I hadn't done anything like this in at least 15 years, and even then I would mostly help/watch my dad. But I felt like I wanted to control how my car was modified, and I figured I should be able to handle it.
I gathered (and bought) some connectors to match the ones on the Alpine wiring harness, and some more for the wires without any connectors already, then sat down with my crimping tool, the wiring chart, and two wiring harnesses needing to be connected in about 15 places. The first ones were relatively easy, though it was a bit of a challenge to get the crimping tight enough to hold the wire. Then I got down to the last few speaker wires, color-coded (according to the wiring chart) to violet, green, and gray. My mild colorblindness struck again: I could distinguish them from each other, but couldn't tell what color each wire was. I ended up getting out my camera and my full-spectrum desklamp to help me figure it out. After I connected everything in the car and messed with the balance and fader, I was amazed that I had apparently chosen correctly.After all the wires had connectors, I connected them together and took everything out to the car. I removed the old stereo, attached to wires to the new one, and was happy to see everything work. Except that I noticed a blown front right speaker.
Then I set about trying to figure out how the new stereo was supposed to attach to the car; the old one was in a steel bracket that won't work with the new plastic mounting frame I'd bought at Best Buy, and without that bracket the holes in the car and stereo wouldn't match up properly. After puzzling over it for a while, I looked again at the single page in the Alpine manual claiming to be installation instructions. Since nothing there seemed to match the way the old stereo was mounted, I'd thought it only applied to other types of cars, but I finally realized that it would work for what I was doing. Instead of the stereo being screwed directly to the car, underneath the plastic dash panels as before, I needed to mount the stereo in the dash panel (well, in that plastic mounting frame I'd bought). I was a little hesitant about this since it seemed to have questionable support stability, but once I put it all together it seemed OK. The only problem was that the mounting frame needs about 1/8" shaved off the top to allow space for some switches to fit properly on top of it, but I fit things in a way that'll work for now.
I finished around 12:30 last night, after working about four hours (not counting my various parts purchases).The stereo works great so far, except that the FM sensitivity is lower than the old one, so I can't really listen to my usual Akron/Kent/Cleveland/Youngstown radio stations very well around Canton. I might look for an antenna signal amplifier to fix that problem.
Update: I went back to the store where I got the stereo, and asked about a signal booster. I was told that they'd love to sell me one, but it wouldn't do me any good, because stereos from Alpine, Sony, and others in the last three years are really bad at reception at the lower end of the FM frequency range.
Now I need to make more MP3 CDs to replace my trusty case of 15 cassettes. Oh yeah, and look for a new speaker -- which I might go ahead and pay someone else to install.
accomplished