View Full Version : Fitting a new headunit?
Right, my kenwood mp3 headunit has just packed up so I am looking at getting a new one. I like the look of the Alpine CDA-7893R unit, but it seems that it needs a seperate power cable running from the battery. Is this going to be a very tricky job?
no, shouldnt be to hard at all.
go towards the back of your engine bay, and see where the gromets are that pass pipes/cables into the cabin (preferably near the battery side)
Once youve found where it leaves the engine bay and enters the cabin (theres usually one behind the glovebox) then you may have to pull some carpets back and remove some trim. then just pull the cable thro.
Sounds harder than it is, its all pretty self explanatory
(he says, then we find out mk3 ibiza's have no gromets)
good luck :cheers:
Right, so my new headunit arrived today and you think I can wait until the weekend to fit it - not likely!?
Now the installation instructions state that the live should be connected to the battery or fusebox - because it needs a 20A supply. However, it seems that the radio circuit already has a 20A fuse in the fusebox, and the wires in the cars ISO connector are the same gauge as the flyleads on the headunit so do I really need to connect to the battery? Because I couldnt wait, I have just hooked into the existing supply (and I wont be going anywhere near the 4x60W with the standard Ibiza speakers!) - but can I leave it like this or should I install a new feed at the weekend?
Also, why do they make the output leads so long on the back of the unit??? As well as the power/speaker connections and aerial, there are sub/front/rear/cdchanger cables - how are you supposed to squeeze them all in behind the unit!?
My Pioneer was a nightmare with all the cables in the back. I got it in, just, but have since pulled it all out in favour of a Blaupunkt Woodstock DAB 52; CD, MMC (both supporting MP3), DAB and analogue tuner is one box, with all the connections exactly as the standard car in the back, except for having to swap the permanent and switched lives around.
Funny that thing about the switched live - when I had my old kenwood unit in, that responded correctly without me having to switch any wires round (ie it went off when the key was removed). But I have just put in this Alpine unit and it works without the key - I assume I now need to swap the lives over - weird!?
My Pioneer had bullets in its mini-loom to allow swapping the powers over. The Blaupunkt would switch off with the key, but wouldn't switch on without the ignition (it is supposed to, for an hour at a time) and lost all its presets before I swapped them over.