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Aftermarket Car Stereo Installation Guide
See Car Stereo Removal for your year and model for specific removal and installation.
 
Elizabeth Randall - Elizabeth Randall Author

This section is an aftermarket car stereo installation guide. There is no standard that works 100% of the time. We will touch on several areas, car stereo size, kits, wire harnesses, antenna adaptors and installation. Some troubleshooting tips and notes.

   

Car Stereo Sizes

  • Single Din - dimensions for front face approx. 2" x 7"
  • Din and One Half - This size stereo is commonly found in Chrysler, Dodge, GM and Jeep
  • Double Din - dimensions for front face approx. 4" x 7".

Factory Car Stereo Repair - Audi A4 / A6 Bose Amplifier - Bose Speaker Amplifier repair GM/Delco Car Stereo Installation Car Stereo Installation

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Car Stereo Kits
  • Physically fit the factory car stereo opening
  • Mount to the factory car stereo bolt pattern
  • House a single or double din car stereo.

 

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Car Stereo Wire Harnesses
  • Mate to the original car stereo wire harness
  • Aftermarket wire harness colors match most aftermarket car stereo wire colors
  • Saves you the headache of cutting the factory wire harness and figuring out the colors.

 

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Car Stereo Antenna Adaptors
  • Many factory antenna connectors are not universal to mate aftermarket car stereo
  • Mate to factory non-universal antenna lead
  • Saves you the headache of cutting and splicing the fatory antenns lead.

 

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Installing an Aftermarket Car Stereo

  • If the original factory car stereo opening is single din, in most case an aftermarket installtion kit is not needed. However, purchase the correct aftermarket wire harness and antenna adaptor if needed.
  • All other aftermarket car stereo installions will require a kit, wireharnes and antenna adaptor if needed.

 

Do It Yourself How to Troubleshoot Your Corvette Bose Gold Stereo System
Intalling an Aftermarket Wireharness
  • Aftermarket wireharness mates color for color to aftermarket car stereo wire harness
  • Splice same color wires together, careful to mate colored wires with stripes correctly
  • Splice aftermarket wire harness and aftermarket car stereo mate to factory wire harness.

 

 

Installing Aftermarket Antenna Adaptor

  • Antenna adaptor mates to aftermarket car stereo
  • Antenna adaptor mates to factory antenna lead.

 

 

Mounting an Aftermarket Car Stereo into Mounting Kit

  • Many kits do not allow flip face stereos to operate properly - filing of the kit will be needed
  • Aftermarket car stereos mount to kits in two different fasions,
    1) The aftermarket car stereo mounting "Sleeve" attaches to the kit and car stereo slides into sleeve to lock into place
    2) The aftermarket car stereo mounts to the installation kit.

 

 

Installing Mounting Kit and Aftermarket Car Stereo

  • Attach aftermarket wireharness to factory wireharness
  • Tuck wireharness and bundle into car stereo opening
  • Place kit and car stereo into place
  • Mount kit and car stereo into place.

 

 

Aftermarket Wireharness Universal Color Code

  • Yellow - Constant +12 volts
  • Red - Swithched +12 volts from ignition
  • Black - Ground
  • Blue and Blue with White Stripe - Amplifier and Antenna Triggers
  • Orange and Orange with White Stripe - Illumination and Dimmer for Back Lights on Car Stereo
  • White - Front Left (+) Positive
    White with Black Stripe - Front Left (-) Negative
  • Gray - Front Right (+) Positive
    Gray with Black Stripe - Front Right (-) Negative
  • Green - Rear Left (+) Positive
    Green with Black Stripe - Rear Left (-) Negative
  • Violet - Rear Right (+) Positive
    Violet with Black Stripe - Rear Right (-) Negative.

 

 

Speaker Phasing

Each speaker has a (+) positive and (-) negative terminal. Placing the (+) positive speaker terminal to the solid color wire and the (-) negative speaker terminal to the stripped wire is very important. Connecting these wires correctly is called "In Phase". Placing just one set of speaker wires backwards causes "Out of Phase" speakers.

What is the symptom of "Out of Phase" speakers? Lose of bass!

How do you test for "Out of Phase" speakers? There are two tests!

  • Listen to the audio - Place the bass at the highest setting, turn the volume to a moderate level, adjust balance and fade to one speaker. Listen to the bass, balance to the opposite speaker. If speakers are out of phase, you will loose bass response as you balance through the center detent and bass will return when one speaker is on. Then fade to one speaker, listening to the bass. Balance to final speaker listening to the bass.
  • If you have access to the speakers - Place a "Flash Light" batter across the speaker contacts, the speaker cone will jump forward away from the magnet or in toward the magnet on the speaker. When the speaker cone jumps away from the magnet, recongize which terminal is attached to the (+) positive side of the battery, this is the (-) positive terminal of the speaker.

 
See our video on Correct Speaker Phase Hook Up  
   

FAQ's

My car stereo is installed and I have no sound?

  • Many factory audio systems have an amplifier seperate from the stereo. If you have no audio, you need to connect the "Blue" Amplifier trigger from the aftermarket stereo to the "Blue

    " wire of the aftermarket wire harness. However, there may be audio level problems when using an aftermarket stereo in an amplified factory system. An amplifier bypass cable or in-line "Hi/Low Level" adaptor may be needed for matching the aftermarket stereo output level to the factory amplifier.

My car stereo reception is poor?

  • Did you hook up the antenna to the car stereo?
  • Did you use the correct antenna adaptor if needed?
  • Many vehicles have an antenna amplifier to increase reception.
 

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Elizabeth Randall - Elizabeth Randall Author