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Project R33 Audio - by NickC |
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There can't be very many UK owned Skylines around that still have their original stereos (or head unit) fitted. Why not ? well the original unit was in most cases a drab radio cassette player, that worked in the 70-90 Mhz range, so needed an 18 Mhz expander to work properly in FM in this country, unless you only ever want to listen to Radio 2, which is fairly unlikely. Some imports come in with after market CD or Minidisc players, which may be worth keeping and fitting an expander for FM (£30). If your car didn't, you'll probably want to replace the original with an aftermarket unit. Having just bought a newly imported R33, I found myself in this situation. I wanted a CD player, nothing too fancy, no CD changer, just a CD head unit with FM that worked in the right frequency range. I decided to buy a unit from a website, and fit it myself. I couldn't find much help on the Net with the fitting, so thought that I should document what I did, and put it here, so it might prove some use to others. Before continuing, I should tell you a couple of things, firstly: I didn't do this: take the seats out and pull the carpet up to replace all the cabling, fill the boot up with a huge subwoofer, take out the door panels and parcel shelf to change all the speakers. If you want to do all this, then good luck to you, and you might find some of what follows of use. I wanted to listen to CD's and the radio in my car, with as little work for me and impact on the car as possible, that's it, and that's what this is about. Secondly, I had a helping hand with this, which turned out to be invaluable. However this job can be done single handed, without any problems, but a bit of help never goes amiss. Big thanks to Les for being the helping hand. One more thing, this is based on my experiences doing the job, and should be taken as a guide. The wiring in your car may be different to mine, you car may be different to mine, if you break something, it's not my fault. If in doubt with wiring, always check it with a multimeter, if in doubt with fitting, pay your local dealer or specialist to do it ! The car is a 1995 Manual R33 GTS-t, this may be important, because connectors and layouts vary over the years. For more info on the car CLICK HERE GETTING STARTED... Here's a picture of the dash
Notice the complete lack of screws, where do you start ? Well, pull the ashtray out, behind it there are 2 Phillips screws, undo them. Now grab the back of the plastic trim around the gearshift shroud, and pull/ prise it upwards, and it will pop out. Now carefully lift it over the gearshift so it is out of the way (does not need to be removed completely). There should now be some more Phillips screws visible, undo all those that secure the bottom of the dash front. (when it comes to screws - if in doubt, take it out). You should now have something that looks like this:
Now the front dash surround has to come loose. You've already removed all the screws holding it, the rest of it is held on with clips. Starting at the bottom, gently prise it out all the way round. Be particularly careful with the bit that goes across the top of the steering wheel, this is where it's at it's thinnest. Once the lower dash is loose you'll need to disconnect some of the connectors on the back of it, notably hazard lights, aircon control and possibly fog light switch. All the connectors are different so its impossible to put them back wrong. You should now be able to see behind the lower dash 4 more phillips screws which are holding in a cage, in which is fixed the head unit and the storage pocket (could also be a blanking plate or a double DIN head unit). Undo these screws, and the cage will drop down. Now pull it forward, then reach behind it and unplug the connector on the back of the head unit. By tilting the unit up to the vertical position, we were just able to remove the cage without having to completely remove the lower dash. Having removed the cage from the car, you can now remove the 4 screws retaining the original head unit, and put in your new unit in it's place. WIRING... Now your new head unit is almost certainly going to have an ISO connector on it, but when you look at the wiring loom connector in your Skyline, you won't see an ISO connector. There's a number of ways around this, you could pull out all the seats and carpets, and run new cables - I covered that earlier remember ? you could cut the loom connector off in the car and connect wire to wire using chocolate block, bullet connectors or some other type of crimp connectors, OR you save yourself a lot of hassle and buy an aftermarket head unit adaptor. An aftermarket head unit adaptor provides an ISO plug on one end, and an socket on the other end to match the connector in your car. This has a number of advantages; you don't have to cut into the cars wiring loom, it takes about 20 seconds to fit, and you don't have to do any wiring. They cost a tenner, but are worth every penny. The trick is of course getting the right adaptor. My car needed a "PC2-76-4" which is described as "Nissan Micra July - 2000 Onwards - (4 speaker system)". It looks like this:
This is not the same as the so-called "All Nissans" connector which some companies and shops will sell you. I believe this connector to be the right one for any R33 GTS from 1995 onwards, but it may also be good for other variants too. I got mine from my local in car hi-fi shop "Sextons". If you can't get it locally (Halfords also sell these), you can get it online from this website: www.incar-discount.co.uk This one is made by Autoleads, but there may be other manufacturers around. Autoleads have their own website you can order from, but they list the connector with the wrong description, making ordering the right one somewhat confusing. If your car is pre-1995, you may (but I cannot guarantee this !) need this connector, PC2-13-4:
This is a common Nissan connector, used on most of their cars, including all Skylines from 1999 onwards apparently. It is also available from Autoleads. The only way to make sure you get the right connector is to check what is in your car before buying, and compare what you see with the pics above. If you do not want to use an adaptor, but would rather cut the existing one out and use bullet connectors or chocolate block, then check out www.installdr.com/Harnesses/Nissan-Wiring.pdf for a key as to what each of the wires do, but bear in mind that the colour schemes of the wires vary wildly. What is consistent is a wires POSITION in the connector, so this is what you should use to determine what a particular wire does. Connect up your new head unit with the adaptor, and connect up the aerial lead as well. Now, before re-assembling everything, give it a thorough test. Make sure that the right things come on when you turn the ignition on and off, make sure you have sound coming out of all speakers, and test the left and right balance, front and rear fader controls on your head unit. Once you are happy that all is well, replacement really is the reversal of removal, you'll have it all back together in 5 minutes. THE FINISHED PRODUCT...
This is a JVC KD-LH1000R from www.caraudiodirect.co.uk which cost £220 delivered next day to my door. There is a finishing piece of trim which should go round the edge, but it won't fit, due to the close proximity of the lower dash surround. It could be possible to cut this trim piece so it would fit, but I haven't tried it yet. What next ? well now I have a reasonable head unit, it's apparent that the aftermarket Carrozzeria rear speakers the car came with not only look nasty, but sound it too..... If you have any questions or feedback on this article, from your own experiences past or present, please e-mail them to Ron who will forward them to me, and I will update this accordingly. Please remember, no one paid me to write this..... Good luck, Nick (Nice work mate, will be great help to many I'm sure :-) - cheers RonS) |
