I found a good headunit through Walmart and would rather not let them touch my car. I've heard many horror stories about how install guys go out after work and steal what they just installed, so I'd rather not risk having my car broken into.

Anyway, I've done a bit of searching and come up with nothing. Has anyone installed a headunit in their FC (either S4 or S5)? From what I can see, I'd just need to pop off the trim piece around the vents. Since the factory am/fm cassette with equalizer is double-din, I shouldn't need an install kit, right? Well, except for maybe a DIN picket to fill up the space.

That brings me to another subject. I searched for this and unfortunately couldn't draw any conclusions from it. Since the 92-95 Taurus/Sable has a din-sized cupholder, I'd like to put one in my car to fill the extra DIN slot. Anything I should be aware of?

 

Let them install it.... If your seriously worried about installers on meth stealing a wal-mart head-unit them give them a fake addrress.

 

It's just a walmart head unit.lmao....

let them install it.

 

if you follow someone home from walmart to steal stuff you put in that sad really sad.

 

if you are looking at headunits in walmart, walk away from your car.
wow, best buy, circuit city, or crutchfield, the only places ill even consider.
BB for alpine, CC for eclipse, and crutchfield for everythign else, lol.
if the deck is less than 100$, its not a nice deck
a "nice" deck is 2g, aka, pioneer n3.

peace

 

etronics.com usually has some cheaper decks good brands but a cheaper price than crutchfield.

 

Thats crazy, Iam a car audio installer at Circuit City. No self-respecting installer would go after your car. Especially for a deck that isn't even worth 100 bucks. Metra makes a universal Iso-Mount kit that works on the fc. If you still dont trust installers do it yourself. On the radio red is switched power, yellow constant 12v, black ground. The speaker wire comes in gray and white for the fronts and green and purple for the rears. Take a 9volt and pop your speakers and connect accordingly. I recommend you solder your connections. Good Luck

 

BTW those are the colors on the back of the harness that comes with the radio , check the fsm or your fc and just match them up.

 

Well, the 'horror stores' I heard were from my other car's site (www.mirageforums.net for Mitsubishi Mirages/Eagle Summits/Dodge and Plymouth Colts) and it involved a best buy installer going around and jacking the amps/subs that he installed earlier in the day.

No offense to you, SOX, but I like my FC too much to risk having some nutjob at Best Buy wrench on it in ANY way, especially one that works on commission. I did that once with my Mirage and the guy (who owned a Mirage as well) took a few nuts and bolts, as well as the excess pieces from the install kit and deck, probably for his own car. Plus, I like the idea of being able to do something myself, and have it done the way I want it done

I got the last harness and install kit the local Best Buy had in the store, so I'll be installing it later tonight after transplanting my friend's stereo from his truck to his car. and just for the record, I'm not exactly made of money, so no tv screen, dvd player or GPS for me.

 

yeah there should be a few pioneer decks on etroncs.com i picked up a 4600mp for like 140 i think there if not it was another site good sterio. not the best but still has decent quality.

 

ive had to hard wire complete dash harnesses, because something happened (such as electrical short, or blown fuse wire) and i was nice enough to fix it for a small fee (somethin like 20 bucks)
ya, ive heard of some shady characters, thats why i started getting into the installer game, try to offer piece of mind, credibilty, and friendly service.
not an eagle scout for no reason, specially to steal something.
to make matters worse, ive heard of people copying keys with putty or clay, then making a copy of the key, and jacking the system, and of course making it so that they can disconnect it superfast.
**** happens.

peace

 

oh man..you're paranoid. You don't want a BB employee "wrenching" on your car? The only thing he needs to do a radio install on an FC is a phillips screw drive and "maybe" a 10mm socket if he grounds it to one of the shifter bolts.

If you MUST do it yourself...go to BB or CC and buy a dash kit and a wiring harness for your car. Connect the wires from the harness you buy and the harness that comes with your radio together (just match the colors. You don't need to connect several of the wires (such as the orange illumination wires). Really only Need Yellow, red, black, grays, whites, purples, and greens. The blue wire and blue/white wire are used for remote turn on (for an external amplifier) and for the power antenna (however in an FC you'll have to run this through a relay as the stock power antenna needs a ground triggee...not 12v that the aftermarket receiver will put out)

Again, just take it to BB. The horror stories you hear are likely from cars that are a pita to work on such as alot of the GM and Pontiac cars. The only thing I see them not doing right is the power antenna...I severely doubt they wire in a relay. With that said, don't let them do anything more than a radio install (such as an alarm or remote start). If you ever want to find an alarm brain on a BB install...knee the dash real hard on the driver side and it'll probably drop right down for ya to cut the power.

 

Well, I got the new headunit in without any ridiculous troubles, aside from my headunit being too long. A 1/4 later, everything lined up, but the side panels will need to be dremeled to make it look stock.

After getting it in, I turned it on and there was no sound. I've read that this comes up every so often, but can't remember a solution. I figure that my speakers are dead. But just in case, what would the solution be?

 

bypass the factory amplifier (i think they all have it) in the pass. front speaker enclosure thing, that was my problem anyways

 

Negetaive...
that will work but isn't required. you can use the stock AMPS with aftermarket head unit, I know becuase I did it..

to the OP if you have a power antenna you will probably notice thta doesn't go up either..

go to autozone and buy a 5 or 10 dollar relay, not sure the price but under 10 bucks.. now you have some wiring to do.. not to hard but just have to make sure you do it right...

here is a pic of the stock plugs, should be correct for your car, not sure, but all you need to do is find the power antenna trigger, should be the same trigger for the amps..
the problem is that the stock head unit uses a Neg trigger for power antenna and amps, while aftermarket uses a +12v trigger



here is a quote from installdr.com

I couldn't get the pic out of the PDF file, its all text based, but here is a link the the guide, just scroll down and you will see the pic..

http://www.installdr.com/Harnesses/Mazda-Wiring.pdf

edit: that link will also show where to find the power ant trigger in the car, doesn't have color code, and that pic i put in up there is to small to read sorry about that...

 

also be aware, if you don't replace stock speakers, don't crank that radio up to loud, you shouldn't have to anyway with those stock amps, but keep in mind your new radio has a higher output than the stock one, so to much volume will blow the speakers

 

Well, I wasn't planning on entering any stereo competitions, just wanting sound in my car to stay sane on long drives.

I've sent a message to the admins about helping to compile the information into a solve-all FAQ to be placed in the Second-Gen archives, with a link in the Interior/Exterior/Audio section. I thought it might help eliminate reduntant threads about the FC's voo-doo powered stock audio system.

 

just for future reference, its been covered at least on a biweekly basis since I have been on this forum, a couple of searches will bring you the answers, all i did was search for POWER ANTENNA, with an advanced search to include 2nd gen section as well as interior / audio... section, looked through about 3 threads with titles that appeared to be useful and found the link to that site, as well as that picture that you can barley see up there..
that goes for just about ANYTHING you can think of that goes fubar on your car.. read through the archives too, they have tons of info that will help you out, most of my problems i have not even had to ask about just search for, i still don't flame people for not searching because i didn't know how to use that when i first got here either, alot of other members will simply ignore your post or flame you for not searching and reading the FSM, so don't get upset if that happens for a problem that you have in the future

 

I downloaded the S4 FSM and went straight to the audio section of it. In it, it specifically mentions to NOT open the factory speaker/amp combo that's mounted in the passenger side of the dashboard.

In the Haynes manual, it gives no mention of any amy of any kind, glossing over it. Even in the pictures, it just says "pull off the trim piece and remove the speaker"

I took apart my dashboard and found the unit in question, but it appears to be hardwired into the car, with no plugs. How do I go about bypassing it, without cracking it open?

Edit: I thought it over and have an idea: How feasible would it be to simply use the factory amps, wired into the dual-RCA Amp pre-outs?

 

well like i said before, i belive the AMP is triggered on by the power antenna lead, without that relay and the wiring it WILL NOT WORK, also I noticed that there is a wire on that schematic pin M if i remember, a serate plug all alone, I think that may actually be the power on for the amps, one of those is, not sure, but make sure that wire has +12v when the radio is on, ie power ant circuit w/o relay, or just +12 key will work, then if everything is hooked up it will work,

i ran a aftermarket unit in my car with the factory amps, i know it will work..

that won't work, the problem that you are having is powering the amps, not supplying an input signal, the input signal for all the amps comes from the regular old speaker wire, in fact each amp has its own channel, so Fade and Balance will work just like in any other car

and again the wiring color code is at the link i posted for installdr.com, just scroll down and it has all the color codes you need and the info for the relay you need to hook up

 

well if you did everything the FSM says you would have to take that thing in for the radio.. LOL just thought i would add that..
I opened all 3 of the amps in my car, nothing to them, just a simple circuit card with some junk on them and some wires going to speakers

my recomendation is to leave everything alone and just get the power to work tot he amps,
otherwise you need to spend more money
like rewiring and replacing all 4 speakers..
thats just me though, its your car and your final decision

 

Many thanks for your invaluable help. Just to be certain, the amps require a 12v+ line to turn on and get sound coming out of the speakers, right?

I know that the power antenna requires a negative trigger to be used. Since my car is currently without an antenna, I'm not too concerned with it at the moment.

In short

Antenna: requires a polarity-reversing relay to work with the modern 12v+ power antenna wiring

Amps: Option 1: Crack it open and bypass them completely, by removing the signal wires from the amps' input and connecting those wires directly to the speakers.

Option 2: Simply bridge the power antenna wire from the stereo to the amp's 12v+

Is this correct?

 

I just got my stereo working, by giving the amps' line (the last connector) 12v+. All 3 fired right up the first time.

 

At the urging of mike_merryguy, I chose to take the simplest route and run a short length of wire from the antenna 12v+ to the Amps' 12v+ line and all three amps fired up with no troubles.

Many thanks to all that have contributed.

 

glad we could be of assistance, that is teh suck that you don't have an antenna, i hear they are a PITA to change