Everytime I go into the local JB HIFI the guy there does this hard sell about getting the system "professionally"' installed and how it's a "big job".
What the flip is he on about? I'm trying to ask questions about the systems and he just goes on.
What's involved? I would have thought there is a standard adapter for our cars plug to an ISO standard, does anyone know? I know Mal had some adapter for sale a while back.

I was looking at an Alpine unit and this guy was saying "oh no, you can't get an adapter of this unit to fit ur car".

Can someone clear up what the situation is as far as fitting a new unit into our cars?

big job my arse..the pocket is only attached to the fascia..remove that ..presto..double din opening.

Aeropro have heaps of adapters for magna.

Magna adapter

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Mitsubishi-Colt-Magna-Mirage-Nimbus-ISO-Wiring-Harness-Plug-Aerpro-APP0111-/290971558017?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item43bf41a081


Alpine to ISO plug...

http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_odkw=aerpro+mitsubishi+magna&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xalpine+to +iso&_nkw=alpine+to+iso&_sacat=0

Someone's leading you up the garden path...

Super easy job, no extra brackets required (use the existing ones) - and plug & play with the Aerpro harnesses as above.
No harder to install than a single DIN stereo.. With the right harnesses, it'd be a half hour job tops.

Thanks for the sanity check guys. KL's not that old and im expecting most, if not all, connections to be handled via the plug and an adapter (except for camera). I'd also expect most current systems to nave standardised plugs.
Flippin annoying when sales people cross sell like this, im not going back there.

I would, I would go back there, find the fella who was giving you this bullshit, make sure you go in when its busy, and let yourself fly at him, talking in a raised, but not shouting, and let eferyone know around him that what he has said is full of shit, and his intention wasnt to give you the best advice, but rather to try and get as much cash as possible from you

He will be highly embarresed, chances are he wont do it to the next person for fear of getting burnt again

It is highly likely he has been doing this to most people he thinks can be taken for a ride, so has probably been succesful in feeding people bullshit and getting more coin out of it

Its what id do......but im a bit of a prick like that...lol

Yeah these shops all use the wiring harness's and try and charge you top rate for some monkey to install the deck!

Haggle with them & get the best price you can, buy the harness's off ebay (there was a seller in HK who is dirt cheap!) and DIY install!

Where abouts in Victoria do you live? Cause I wouldn't buy anything car audio from JB. Go and see these guys http://www.streetsoundvision.com.au/

Where abouts in Victoria do you live? Cause I wouldn't buy anything car audio from JB. Go and see these guys http://www.streetsoundvision.com.au/
Hey, awesome, thanks! They're not too far away.

I personally wouldnt buy a system from JB, ebay has everything you need.

I would buy from JB no sweat, especially If I wanted Australian warranted JL Audio Amps and Subs at 30% percent off RRP....

Getting things installed from them :Eeeek:
However, the 380 is the easiest car to put a new deck in I have come across so far. Harness adapter are your friend, and if you can solder, join the new decks loom to the APP0111, and save $16-25.00..........
Anything with moving parts, Ebay is a last resort.... Besides, you can't listen and feel any quality on Ebay...

L O L

id never buy from ebay, not with so many reputable stores to buy from,

jbhi are alright to buy from for SOME things, however much like autobarn you will find their installs to be very basic ( and from store to store you may even find them below basic ) and very very overpriced.

there are many video guides of installing speakers and headunits for magnas on youtube, watch it and see how easy it really is or use a proper local car audio store if your still not comfortable doing it yourself

replacing the headunit on a magna is very easy if you have basic soldering skills. if your not willing to solder dont try it yourself , nothing worse than a dodgey install

replacing the headunit on a magna is very easy if you have basic soldering skills. if your not willing to solder dont try it yourself , nothing worse than a dodgey install
I want to use plugs, in case i need to remove it again at some point.

Trying to decide which system to get. So many choices. Plenty of Chinese imports on eBay at great prices but no way to test them :(

I notice Alpine is still a high priced brand - lots of Kenwoods and Pioneers but they were cheap quality back in the day so i dont trust them.
Whats Clarion like?

I notice a few installers are just crimping wires and not soldering. Proper solder job with heat shrink insulators would be ideal, but as i said i will just make up a good loom with connectors.

Are there any known issues in these cats with routing of wires and cables?

been through 3 head units in mine, a Sony, Clarion, and now a JVC. Old car had an Alpine, which I spent a weeks wage on lol (going back 8 years now).

I'm personally in love with Alpine, Sony aren't as bad for the money if you're after a budget system. And with Alpine you're paying premium just for the brand name. The Clarion I had was an old second hand DVD unit and was craptastic. Same with the current JVC.

Pioneer have got some really good stuff out that isn't at the crazy price point of Alpine. Might be the go? There's a lot of brands out there and all will have pro's and con's.

EDIT: also the guy at JB is a twit. Not a good way to keep customers. The job takes maybe an hour. If you have an adaptor even less.

+1 for Pioneer. They have come a long way quality and value for money wise.

guess if you want to go with the plug and play option you could always just use aeropro loom adaptors.

just buy one from the factory harness and then another for the brand specific plug to suit your headunit, they are available for the all the major brands typically makes to job 50x easier but costs about a extra 40.00 (around 20 a plug )


if you cant put 2 plugs together your in trouble hahaha

Agreed, Pioneer. I have a Pioneer 7" double din in my TW and it's worked flawlessly since I installed it in Jan. Competitively priced and great products

Ah well, i got a good deal on an Alpine INA-W900E and reversing camera. Its got navigation, CD/DVD, AM/FM, USB, bluetooth for the phone, SD Card, iPod connectivity (via cable), EQ and a bunch of other features I wont need. Its supposed to be a good responsive system with quality sound. Just need to get an ISO adapter next.
The only thing it cant seem to do is stream audio via bluetooth, which i might have liked on rare occasions.

Whats the best route for the camera cable?
Also, i want to install it above the number plate in the rear garnish. Theres an ideal space there between the plate lamps.

From behind theres a metal cover that the plate lamps are mounted on and a screw sits right between them in the spot i want to drill the hole through (halfway between the lamps).
Does anyone have any pics of the boot lid with the garnish removed? Otherwise i'll just drill the hole carefully there and deal with any screws/objects that are revealed.

Installed it on the weekend. It does everything i want so very happy with it.
I think that the 7" screen looks a bit bland in the dash, unlike the stock unit which has a few big buttons and those big knobs on the front, but i did this for the functionality, not the aesthetics!

The menu is simple and easy to navigate, although it will take a while for me to get used to it. The nav is excellent and its handy that it lowers the stereo volume when giving directions. No more GPS stuck on the windscreen! Audio is brilliant, makes the old speakers seem better.

Couple of traps and a few words to the wise for anyone installing one of these without having done it before:
1. The 4 mounting holes on your new unit wont necessarily line up with the holes in the KL's brackets. I could only get 3 on one side and 2 on the other no matter how i tried. In the end it doesn't matter as I'm sure the 4 mounts are to minimise vibration, not for securing the unit as 2 screws on each side would be enough for that.

2. I made the mistake of installing the camera first and followed the camera installation instructions to the letter. This was a mistake because i tapped into the reverse lights circuit as instructed, but if i'd read the units instructions i would have found they wanted me to tap into ACC. It just means the camera only works when I'm in reverse, which is what i wanted anyway. If I'd hooked into ACC the camera would have been on all the time and theres a menu option to view it if you want. Pfft.
3. I routed the camera cables through the rear garnish and mounted the camera between the 2 number plate lights. This was a problem because in that exact spot behind the garnish is a screw mounting which i had to modify to make room for the camera nut. Easy to do as its only plastic, but a lot of fiddling around. Oh yeah, had to remove the garnish completely to get access.
Theres 3 screws and a few clips. Then you pull it off carefully as there is also soft glue behind it. Theres also a fine rubber strip that goes around the edge of the garnish. I routed the video cables through a reverse light hole in the garnish and rear boot lid panel instead of drilling a new hole. This is probably the only "dickie" thing i did as its a little pinched there, not too tight, but a potential point of failure down the track.

All up took me 2 hours to carefully remove it, drill a hole to mount the camera and re-install it all.

Should mention that i've soldered all connections, shrink wrapped them and wrapped in insulation tape. I've also used plastic sleeving where the cables run down the boot hinge, following the antenna cable to give a professional looking finish. I've zip tied that to the boot hinge and checked for any risk of abrasion with boot lid opening/closing. It looks pretty neat!

4. Center dash removal is easy, but couple of things to watch; theres a fine sticky strip all around the edge of the dash pieces. This will be to minimise squeaks between parts. Try to not disturb it and resist the urge to wipe it with a rag!
There are 4 clips holding the center piece in. When re-installing you need to make sure the metal clamps are on the piece itself and not still stuck in the dash frame, otherwise its a pain to line them up properly.
Also, the top vents look as if they're out of alignment when out of the dash! but they will self re-align when the dash gets pushed back in. Weird, but there ya go. This had me puzzled for a while. Looks like they're broken or something, but alls well.
5. Theres actually a bit of room behind the dash but with USB, looms, AV, microphone, GPS antenna etc., it gets a bit cramped, so no matter how careful its difficult to make it look too neat. Doesn't matter, no one sees it!

Speaking of USB, i cut a hole in the rear of the small bottom center tray (tissue/glasses/junk tray) and routed the USB and 2.5 mm audio cable through there. The cable will be connected to a bluetooth breakout box for bluetooth connection to my phone for audio streaming. (Out of the box the unit only supports bluetooth for phone calls.) Its very neat as this tray has a door integrated with rest of the dash, so everything is hidden.

This was all fun and a little scary at times (rear garnish removal) but i took my time and carefully did everything perfectly. End result; as good as a "professional" install, no marks scratches on the dash and everything fits back perfectly.

I just purchased a 98 Ei Verada with the factory unit still in it. Would like to purchase the Pioneer FHX755BT from JB Hi Fi for the benefit of the BT and AUX and USB. I am not really all that competent in fitting it so if any member on here is in the Newy or Lake Macquarie area and feels like a job for a carton then let me know. I will come to you.

3 Mitsu's in the driveway now, A 97 Magna Exec, 98 Ei Verada and a 07 Series 2 SX 380. I need a bigger driveway.

The wiring isn't all that complicated to do in third gens, auto barn and super cheap auto sell a harness set (2 harnesses) one that connects to your specific brand of head unit and one that connects to your car, then the two connectors plug into each other and voila, costs about $35 for both plugs, then all you do is plug your aerial in and your set

Or was I a bit late with this comment?

I used an ISO plug for the Alpine head unit and then connected that to a Mits ISO plug to create a loom. I then used this loom to connect the head unit to the cars wiring harness plug.

The ISO plugs and wiring are an international standard but many cars use a proprietary manufacturer wiring plug. Hence you can connect a modern head unit to the cars wiring plug by using ISO adapters in between. It looks like this:

[cars wiring plug] to
[ISO adapter lead with Mits plug to standard ISO plug] to }
[head unit lead with standard ISO plug to head unit plug] to } loom
[head unit plug]

The Mits ISO adapters are readily available in audio shops and car stereo shops. That was surprising until I realised that Mits must have used the same plug in many of their vehicles, so there must be a lot of demand for them. The sex of each connector is standardised, so you dont need to worry about it.

My Alpine head unit didnt come with an ISO adapter, it just had its own wiring harness with an Alpine plug and then all the loose wires coming out. I couldnt find an ISO adapter for it. I think Alpine changed their plug on my particular units model, anyway I ended up soldering an ISO plug on. The wiring colour coding is all as per the ISO standard and they had a sticker on the head unit with all the wires described so i could verify against the standard.

I actually went to the trouble of searching for wiring diagrams on the KL's side (on the forum somewhere) and then validating the colour coding against the ISO standard. It was all fine. The only one missing from the car is earth (black) but the head unit is chassis grounded and screwed to the cars brackets which are earthed.

I found that I had to swap the ACC and battery power leads around from standard (red and yellow). Fortunately the Mits ISO adapter accommodated that with in-line connectors that you can swap. This is a well known issue with plenty of info online and quite common. I dk why its like this but there you go.

I should add that ideally it would be better to solder and shrink wrap all the wires instead of using the ISO/car adapters as you can then avoid any risk of plugs and wires working loose over time. (You would also have a lot more room behind the head unit too!).
I really wanted the connectors though so I can easily upgrade the head unit and swap it out next time without having to deal with soldering ever again.

No probs if it were brakes , rotors something to that effect no probs for me to do. Just something about me and dashboard and fiddly plastic bits, I tend to massacre them LOL.

Cheers

Steve

All done , fitted the JVC R856BT into it.

Now to put the factory unit on Fleabay and Gumtree and see if i can get a taker. All this for my young blokes first car, The young snot better appreciate it LOL.