OK So here goes. I'm going to document the process of my stereo install, and I'm going to try to clarify anything that has not been clarified before. If there is anything you do not understand, as always you may PM me. I am here to learn and educate. Like-wise, if there is anything I have done wrong PM me.
*I will reserve three posts below this one, because I know this will spill over, and I don't want to make people hunt through pages of info. I like to keep it all together. Mods, please allow me to do this, it will make the search of information easier.*
Legal: USE THIS INFO AT YOUR OWN RISK. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU DAMAGE ANYTHING. EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. Blah, Blah, Blah.
The List
__________________________________________
Products:
Head Unit: Clarion VX409
Front Speakers: Phoenix Gold RSD65CS 6.5" Components
Rear Fill Speakers: Phoenix Gold RSD6.5 6.5" Coaxials
Amp for Mids and highs: Polk Audio PA500.4 (90x4 RMS, you can believe their ratings)
Wiring Harness:Metra Combo Kit 99-7608 (Read post below for notes)
Speaker Wire: Knu Konceptz Karma SS 12 GA
Amp Power Wire: Knu Konceptz 4GA Kolossus Fleks Cable (Red)
Amp Ground Wire: Knu Conceptz 4GA Kolossus Fleks Cable (Black)
In Line Power Fuse: Knu Conceptz In-Line Waterproof Mini-ANL Fuse Holder w 120A Fuse
RCA Cables: (2) Knu Conceptz Karma SS RCA Cables
(4) eBay 6.5" Speaker Adapters
100ft FatMat Sound Damper.
NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT USE THE COMBO KIT, AS I HAVE SUGGESTED FURTHER DOWN IN THE POST, PLEASE USE Metra 40-NI12 FOR THE DIVERSITY ANTENNA, AND Metra 70-7552 FOR THE STEREO HARNESS ADAPTER. THANK YOU AGAIN CubeRich.
This covers what I have. I am also going to make a list for what I am going to get, and will add it to the above as I install.
Sub: Phoenix Gold RSDc104 10" Dual Voice Coil 4Ohm
Sub Amp: Phoenix Gold RSD 600.1 Mono D-Block Amp (Open to suggestions, trying to keep power in check with front speakers)
Cables: Power Cables, RCAs and Speaker Wire will be the same as above.
Enclosure: ATI 10" Sub-Enclosure
Headrest Monitors: Clarion VMA770 7" Widescreen
___________________________________
Head Unit:
I picked this head unit for a few reasons:
1:It's Clarion, so you know it's good.
2:Even though manufactured in the Chinese factory, the OEM Head Unit Is Clarion
3:I liked the fit when I saw it in a previous thread. Not all of the Double Dins look this clean when installed.
4:Lots of dedicated preouts, and all are 4-Volt, meaning my amp is going to get a clean, strong signal.
5:Upgradable, I know a lot of you want the Nav built in. It's not on this, but you an add it. And IMHO you can add it cheaper than you can get a good name brand 7" class headunit with built in NAV.
That said, this unit is simple to install. The note above on the Metra combo kit is that if you use the Clarion VX409, YOU DO NOT NEED THE METRA DASH KIT. Save your money. This HU uses the factory brackets, bolts and fits fine with minimal gap. You honestly probably notice it more in photos than you do in real life. I'm talking in millimeter terms here. Fits like factory.
Clarion VX409 Compared to stock head unit from Base Model.
Preparing the Harness:
Get your Metra Dash Harness, and your Head Unit Harness. Familiarize yourself with the wires, and get the wiring chart for your stereo System. On the base model I didn't wire up the Remote Amp Wire. I wired a length of wire directly to the Clarion Harness to run back to my amp. You may need to wire it to the Metra harness if you have the RF system from the factory. I'm not sure on this.
I soldered all the wires and used shrink tubing on it, before taping the whole thing. I can't really tell you how to do this, as it is pretty simple. Color Match and double check that the color code is correct to what the wire's function is.
METRA DIVERSITY ADAPTER: If you do not buy the whole kit from metra, the diversity antenna adapter is Metra Part Number: Metra 40-NI12. The following paragraph as well as the photo were taken from www.crutchfield.com
"The Metra 40-NI12 vehicle antenna adapter cable allows you to replace your 2007 and up Nissan factory radio with an aftermarket radio that uses a standard motorola antenna input. The adapter cable features a proprietary plug that connects to your Nissan's factory antenna and a standard male motorola plug that connects to your aftermarket radio's antenna socket. The adapter cable also features a blue wire which connects to your aftermarket radio's power-antenna/turn-on lead."
With that being said, it should be easy to wire into the rest of the harness. Just wire the blue power wire to the antenna lead from the dash harness, and the rest is plug-n-play. I can't believe I forgot to add that in. Especially since I searched for a good 40 minutes on the internet looking for where to wire the blue wire. Thank you Cube Rich, for letting me know that I forgot to put that in there. You are getting a rep boost for that one.
This is a how to solder video from Popular Mechanics on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QznAAwL8rI
When you solder you also need to make sure to tape or my favorite, shrink tube your solder joints. Again Popular Mechanics on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-j98tkAbh8&feature=related
If you are not comfortable with soldering, you can use splicers, it's just bulkier and IMHO, not as clean. It also runs a bigger chance of pulling apart.
Alpine Harness and Metra Harness, which is still in the bag
Harness completed and Electrical taped. The blue wire bundle is for amp power, and the green is the parking brake wire for the video, which I am about to address.
PARKING BRAKE WIRE:
In order to keep things legal, you have to complete the circuit with the parking brake to watch video. IMHO this is LAME. NEVER WATCH THE SCREEN WATCH THE ROAD! But you may have a passenger who wants to watch the video. The manual tells you to tie it into the parking lamp's ground wire. This is the work around. Special Thanks to Twisted, who originally clarified this in a PM for me.
You need a two prong continuous switch, and a wiretap, as well as an extra length of DC wire of the same guage as the wires that exist. You will also need 2 Crimp on female spades. You can ground the wire to anything you want, but I think it is easiest to tap it back into the existing ground, so that is how I will explain it.
On the Clarion, the wire is Grass Green, and will be referred to as the green wire. If you have something else, use that color where ever I say green wire.
1: Crimp a female spade onto the green wire that is correct size for the male blade on the switch.
2: Crimp a female spade onto the wire that you are going to splice into the existing ground wire.
3: Wiretap the extra length of wire into the existing gound.
4: Plug the female spades onto the male blades of the power and ground poles. (Some switches come with an extra ACC blade. You may leave this alone, it does not matter.
Twisted said he hits the button twice, but I only flip the switch to the on position and it works. I have been told if you use a momentary switch you can press it twice, but I have no knowledge of this.
Kindegarten Quality drawing giving you a rough idea of the connections.
Switch while I was testing it for functionality. Here you can see the spades connected to the switch.
How's that for a clean install? Haha, bad joke. This is where I will wire it to, but I'm going to get a better looking switch and install it into the plug they put there for people that are not baller enough for the start button smart key system.
This was a pilot hole I made. After this point, I used a coarse round file to remove material. There is no way I was going to be able to drill to 15/16" without damaging the piece. The hole was very rough, but you can never tell from the front.
_________________________________________
DIVERSITY ANTENNA:
I had some trouble finding out where to hook up the power wire for Nissan's diversity antenna system, so I googled it and found out that it should be wired into the "accessory on" 12v wire on the Metra wiring harness. I used a wire tap for this, just the same as I did with the ground wire for the parking brake bypass.
__________________________________________
Removing the Stock HU:
1:Remove the battery's negative cable.
2:Remove the lower AC control panel. As you can see circled in yellow, there are two philips head screws. remove these and the panel pops off pretty easily.
3:Remove the two screws exposed by removing the lower AC Panel, and pull it away slowly. There are two wires atached to this, and you don't wanna rip them out, so no incredible Hulk stuff.
4:As you can see, Nissan has given you generous amounts of wire, so that you can actually access the wires. Remove these two berg connectors and the panel is free.
5: The radio is held in by two philips head screws on each side. Unscrew both of these, and pull the radio out slowly. Disconnect the two connectors in the back and the radio is out. If you have the Clarion like me, you will reuse the brackets on the side. This may also be true for other Double Din units.
6:Use a Torx Bit to remove the brackets from the OEM unit, and move them to the Clarion unit. There are nipples on the brackets (for lack of a better word) that will line up in indentions in the Clarion unit. Reinstall screws into the Clarion, they are the right length and thread pitch.
Clarion with the OEM brackets installed
Above shot of the Clarion and OEM stereo for a comparison.
7:At this time attach the wire harness to the Clarion (or other head unit), Plug in the harness, Motorola Antenna connector, and, in my case, the iPod harness. You may also have more harnesses depending on what options you are installing.
8lug the harness adapter into the OEM dash wiring, and plug in the diversity antenna connector. I ran the iPod Connector through the right side and into the top shelf area of the glove box, because I'm a neat freak and didn't know where else to run it. The parking brake bypass switch i ran through the plug for the push button start. For the Amp RCA wires and Remote turn on wire, I ran them straight down to the lower panel area for the console. (I will cover this in better detail for the Amp Install section.)
9:Screw the brackets back into the OEM locations. The photo above was a quick mount, so I could test that the head unit worked before moving on. Use all the screws and tighten them down.
10: For the rest of it, Installation is the reverse of removal. Make sure to wire your emergency flashers button and airbag indicator light. If you do not, the Airbag light will illuminate.
Here it is, with the upper panel in place. Yes, I know my interior needs detailed badly. I will do that after the install is completed for sure.
I am still in the process of installing stuff. I move slow. This will be updated slowly in the areas I have reserved for updates. I hope this helps some people.
It took me two hours to type this out by time I uploaded, and edited photos. I started resizing halfway down, because I realized that these things were redonkulously huge. If you can find it in your heart to boost me (Shameless Plug), that would rule. I'm currently FatMatting the doors, and installing the trim rings. I am at work today, so tomorrow I am putting in another long day on the cube.
*I will reserve three posts below this one, because I know this will spill over, and I don't want to make people hunt through pages of info. I like to keep it all together. Mods, please allow me to do this, it will make the search of information easier.*
Legal: USE THIS INFO AT YOUR OWN RISK. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU DAMAGE ANYTHING. EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. Blah, Blah, Blah.
The List
__________________________________________
Products:
Head Unit: Clarion VX409
Front Speakers: Phoenix Gold RSD65CS 6.5" Components
Rear Fill Speakers: Phoenix Gold RSD6.5 6.5" Coaxials
Amp for Mids and highs: Polk Audio PA500.4 (90x4 RMS, you can believe their ratings)
Wiring Harness:Metra Combo Kit 99-7608 (Read post below for notes)
Speaker Wire: Knu Konceptz Karma SS 12 GA
Amp Power Wire: Knu Konceptz 4GA Kolossus Fleks Cable (Red)
Amp Ground Wire: Knu Conceptz 4GA Kolossus Fleks Cable (Black)
In Line Power Fuse: Knu Conceptz In-Line Waterproof Mini-ANL Fuse Holder w 120A Fuse
RCA Cables: (2) Knu Conceptz Karma SS RCA Cables
(4) eBay 6.5" Speaker Adapters
100ft FatMat Sound Damper.
NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT USE THE COMBO KIT, AS I HAVE SUGGESTED FURTHER DOWN IN THE POST, PLEASE USE Metra 40-NI12 FOR THE DIVERSITY ANTENNA, AND Metra 70-7552 FOR THE STEREO HARNESS ADAPTER. THANK YOU AGAIN CubeRich.
This covers what I have. I am also going to make a list for what I am going to get, and will add it to the above as I install.
Sub: Phoenix Gold RSDc104 10" Dual Voice Coil 4Ohm
Sub Amp: Phoenix Gold RSD 600.1 Mono D-Block Amp (Open to suggestions, trying to keep power in check with front speakers)
Cables: Power Cables, RCAs and Speaker Wire will be the same as above.
Enclosure: ATI 10" Sub-Enclosure
Headrest Monitors: Clarion VMA770 7" Widescreen
___________________________________
Head Unit:
I picked this head unit for a few reasons:
1:It's Clarion, so you know it's good.
2:Even though manufactured in the Chinese factory, the OEM Head Unit Is Clarion
3:I liked the fit when I saw it in a previous thread. Not all of the Double Dins look this clean when installed.
4:Lots of dedicated preouts, and all are 4-Volt, meaning my amp is going to get a clean, strong signal.
5:Upgradable, I know a lot of you want the Nav built in. It's not on this, but you an add it. And IMHO you can add it cheaper than you can get a good name brand 7" class headunit with built in NAV.
That said, this unit is simple to install. The note above on the Metra combo kit is that if you use the Clarion VX409, YOU DO NOT NEED THE METRA DASH KIT. Save your money. This HU uses the factory brackets, bolts and fits fine with minimal gap. You honestly probably notice it more in photos than you do in real life. I'm talking in millimeter terms here. Fits like factory.
Clarion VX409 Compared to stock head unit from Base Model.
Preparing the Harness:
Get your Metra Dash Harness, and your Head Unit Harness. Familiarize yourself with the wires, and get the wiring chart for your stereo System. On the base model I didn't wire up the Remote Amp Wire. I wired a length of wire directly to the Clarion Harness to run back to my amp. You may need to wire it to the Metra harness if you have the RF system from the factory. I'm not sure on this.
I soldered all the wires and used shrink tubing on it, before taping the whole thing. I can't really tell you how to do this, as it is pretty simple. Color Match and double check that the color code is correct to what the wire's function is.
METRA DIVERSITY ADAPTER: If you do not buy the whole kit from metra, the diversity antenna adapter is Metra Part Number: Metra 40-NI12. The following paragraph as well as the photo were taken from www.crutchfield.com
"The Metra 40-NI12 vehicle antenna adapter cable allows you to replace your 2007 and up Nissan factory radio with an aftermarket radio that uses a standard motorola antenna input. The adapter cable features a proprietary plug that connects to your Nissan's factory antenna and a standard male motorola plug that connects to your aftermarket radio's antenna socket. The adapter cable also features a blue wire which connects to your aftermarket radio's power-antenna/turn-on lead."
With that being said, it should be easy to wire into the rest of the harness. Just wire the blue power wire to the antenna lead from the dash harness, and the rest is plug-n-play. I can't believe I forgot to add that in. Especially since I searched for a good 40 minutes on the internet looking for where to wire the blue wire. Thank you Cube Rich, for letting me know that I forgot to put that in there. You are getting a rep boost for that one.
This is a how to solder video from Popular Mechanics on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QznAAwL8rI
When you solder you also need to make sure to tape or my favorite, shrink tube your solder joints. Again Popular Mechanics on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-j98tkAbh8&feature=related
If you are not comfortable with soldering, you can use splicers, it's just bulkier and IMHO, not as clean. It also runs a bigger chance of pulling apart.
Alpine Harness and Metra Harness, which is still in the bag
Harness completed and Electrical taped. The blue wire bundle is for amp power, and the green is the parking brake wire for the video, which I am about to address.
PARKING BRAKE WIRE:
In order to keep things legal, you have to complete the circuit with the parking brake to watch video. IMHO this is LAME. NEVER WATCH THE SCREEN WATCH THE ROAD! But you may have a passenger who wants to watch the video. The manual tells you to tie it into the parking lamp's ground wire. This is the work around. Special Thanks to Twisted, who originally clarified this in a PM for me.
You need a two prong continuous switch, and a wiretap, as well as an extra length of DC wire of the same guage as the wires that exist. You will also need 2 Crimp on female spades. You can ground the wire to anything you want, but I think it is easiest to tap it back into the existing ground, so that is how I will explain it.
On the Clarion, the wire is Grass Green, and will be referred to as the green wire. If you have something else, use that color where ever I say green wire.
1: Crimp a female spade onto the green wire that is correct size for the male blade on the switch.
2: Crimp a female spade onto the wire that you are going to splice into the existing ground wire.
3: Wiretap the extra length of wire into the existing gound.
4: Plug the female spades onto the male blades of the power and ground poles. (Some switches come with an extra ACC blade. You may leave this alone, it does not matter.
Twisted said he hits the button twice, but I only flip the switch to the on position and it works. I have been told if you use a momentary switch you can press it twice, but I have no knowledge of this.
Kindegarten Quality drawing giving you a rough idea of the connections.
Switch while I was testing it for functionality. Here you can see the spades connected to the switch.
How's that for a clean install? Haha, bad joke. This is where I will wire it to, but I'm going to get a better looking switch and install it into the plug they put there for people that are not baller enough for the start button smart key system.
This was a pilot hole I made. After this point, I used a coarse round file to remove material. There is no way I was going to be able to drill to 15/16" without damaging the piece. The hole was very rough, but you can never tell from the front.
_________________________________________
DIVERSITY ANTENNA:
I had some trouble finding out where to hook up the power wire for Nissan's diversity antenna system, so I googled it and found out that it should be wired into the "accessory on" 12v wire on the Metra wiring harness. I used a wire tap for this, just the same as I did with the ground wire for the parking brake bypass.
__________________________________________
Removing the Stock HU:
1:Remove the battery's negative cable.
2:Remove the lower AC control panel. As you can see circled in yellow, there are two philips head screws. remove these and the panel pops off pretty easily.
3:Remove the two screws exposed by removing the lower AC Panel, and pull it away slowly. There are two wires atached to this, and you don't wanna rip them out, so no incredible Hulk stuff.
4:As you can see, Nissan has given you generous amounts of wire, so that you can actually access the wires. Remove these two berg connectors and the panel is free.
5: The radio is held in by two philips head screws on each side. Unscrew both of these, and pull the radio out slowly. Disconnect the two connectors in the back and the radio is out. If you have the Clarion like me, you will reuse the brackets on the side. This may also be true for other Double Din units.
6:Use a Torx Bit to remove the brackets from the OEM unit, and move them to the Clarion unit. There are nipples on the brackets (for lack of a better word) that will line up in indentions in the Clarion unit. Reinstall screws into the Clarion, they are the right length and thread pitch.
Clarion with the OEM brackets installed
Above shot of the Clarion and OEM stereo for a comparison.
7:At this time attach the wire harness to the Clarion (or other head unit), Plug in the harness, Motorola Antenna connector, and, in my case, the iPod harness. You may also have more harnesses depending on what options you are installing.
8lug the harness adapter into the OEM dash wiring, and plug in the diversity antenna connector. I ran the iPod Connector through the right side and into the top shelf area of the glove box, because I'm a neat freak and didn't know where else to run it. The parking brake bypass switch i ran through the plug for the push button start. For the Amp RCA wires and Remote turn on wire, I ran them straight down to the lower panel area for the console. (I will cover this in better detail for the Amp Install section.)
9:Screw the brackets back into the OEM locations. The photo above was a quick mount, so I could test that the head unit worked before moving on. Use all the screws and tighten them down.
10: For the rest of it, Installation is the reverse of removal. Make sure to wire your emergency flashers button and airbag indicator light. If you do not, the Airbag light will illuminate.
Here it is, with the upper panel in place. Yes, I know my interior needs detailed badly. I will do that after the install is completed for sure.
I am still in the process of installing stuff. I move slow. This will be updated slowly in the areas I have reserved for updates. I hope this helps some people.
It took me two hours to type this out by time I uploaded, and edited photos. I started resizing halfway down, because I realized that these things were redonkulously huge. If you can find it in your heart to boost me (Shameless Plug), that would rule. I'm currently FatMatting the doors, and installing the trim rings. I am at work today, so tomorrow I am putting in another long day on the cube.