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(72 votes) Published: Nov 14, 2007 3:07 p.m. In 5 Favorites Lists Viewed 316 times
Ok as many unfortunate people have learned, the standard rates for stereo installation at bestbuy are $55 per speaker installed, $75 for a head unit installed, $210 for an amplifier installed, $110 for a subwoofer setup pieced together and installed. Those rates are only for labor and do not include disposal of factory equipment, price for parts, accessories, wires, connectors or the additional rates of further custom work. Having a car stereo installed can easily cost $650+ for a basic install.
I have recently opened up a microbusiness with one of my friends and we install car stereos, and do alot of performance enginework and general engine/vehicle tuning. Installing a car stereo isnt something that requires an engineering degree. The tools needed are very basic, the accessories and supplies are very cheap and the most expensive part of the entire thing is the speakers and electronics.
STEP 1, REMOVE ORIGINAL HEAD UNIT BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.
Supplies needed:
-Red, Yellow and Blue Electrical Tube connectors
-Heat Shrink Tubing (optional but often needed)
-Wire strippers (different Diameters)
-Razor Blades
-Phillips/Flathead Screwdrivers
-ZipTies
-12 gauge wire (as many feet as needed)
With that said, Lets get started on converting factory head unit wiring over to aftermarket ones.
What makes this process really easy is the fact that autozone, advance autoparts, pepboys and best buy all sell adaptors to convert stock wiring over to aftermarket wiring. Aftermarket stereo companies like Sony, Alpine, Pioneer, Jensen and others all use the same color wiring representing the same thing. Head unit wires out the back are easy enough to understand once the adaptor plug has been installed on the original plug for the factory head unit. The wires on wire adaptors as well as the aftermarket wiring for the new head unit use the same color codes. Yellow is usually a positive constant power. Black is a ground wire connected to the chassis of a car, grey (if used) is a dimmer for the backlight (activated by a daylight switch), and the speaker wires are indicated by their own color. If the positive wire for the front right speaker is purple, than the negative wire for the front right speaker is purple with a black line running through it. Purple wires go with purple, blue go with blue and so on and so forth. Many head units have a 3.5mm auxillary jack on the backside even if there isnt one on the front. IF you wish to hook up an ipod or cd player to your head unit than now would be a good time to attach a cable and run it through the dash to a place that is convenient.
The wires coming out of the head unit adaptor are most likely the same color as the wires for the new head unit but if they arent, than do your research with an online source or a shop manual to find out what each color of the factory wires represents and find out which ones you will need. When you know, attach wires with electrical connectors so that the positive wire from the battery goes to the positive wire jack on the head unit and so on and so forth...
Head Unit Adaptors
Before you install the head unit into the dashboard, make sure it turns on. Some cars require that the ignition key is in the on position for the head unit to turn on. Make sure that you have all of your wires headed into the correct direction for their corresponding speakers. Confirm it a few times and make sure all of your electrical connections are strong and wont shake loose.
Whether you have your speakers located in your doors or on your dash, make sure your new speakers are going to fit in the desired location. If your speaker is a 6x9 and you plan to cut a hole in a door to install it, make sure that the speaker depth is shallow enough so that the window can be rolled down and so that no wires get tangled. Connect all grouped wires with zipties to keep them from tangling in eachother or anything else. Putting heat shrink tubing over them can be another good measure to keep them dry and safe. Before you start cutting holes in your doors and installing speakers, remove your door cards. Door cards are the "interior" side of the door. After removing the accessories of the door (handles, knobs, buttons, trays...) find all of the door card removal screws around the the outside of the door card and separate it from the rest of the door. Check to make sure there there is no sheet metal obstructing speaker installation and that the windows wont hit the speakers when they are open.
DOOR CARD
After the area has been checked out and it is a GO, use the template/stencil that came with the speakers and cut it out of the piece of paper. Use the outline of the template and a piece of chalk and trace the outline of it onto the door material. After the spot has been double and triple checked, you can then use a razor blade and make a permanant stencil sketch onto the plastic/leather/vinyl. IF the material is leather or vinyl, a razorblade will usually cut through it like nothing. For plastic or medium density fiberboard, a carbide saw, jigsaw, dremel cutter or sheet metal cutter would be a better tool for this. Once the hole has been made and the speaker seems as though it will fit like a glove, mark your holes for your screws.
Before screwing in the new speaker, you must hook up the wires after they have been pulled underneath the carpet, through the door jam, past the door hinge, through the hole in the forward side of the door, into the door and out the speaker hole. Hook up the solid colored wire to the positive terminal of the speakers, and hook up the colored wire with the black stripe on it to the negative terminal of the speakers. You can then push the speaker in, install the screws and then install the faceplate. You can pull the wires from the door jam with the door wide open so that it gives the wire tension but only as much tension as it will ever receive. You can shorten the wires by looping them and holding them in place with a ziptie.
For installation of a Subwoofer/Amp setup, read my other eggs.
A good head unit can be $150. IT can be installed in 45 minutes. Good speakers can be $100+ each and can be installed in 30 minutes each. Subwoofers take about 4 hours in total to install including the prepwork, sound tuning, hooking it up to the remote lines of the head unit and the RCA line out jacks. I have installed entire subwoofer setups in as little as 1 hour but it didnt look pretty and wasnt wired to sound good. It was just wired to be there, in your trunk and make noise. An 8 year old could install a head unit (the installation is color coded).
Nov 14, 2007 3:56 pm - I figured something like this is more useable to the everyday guy who isnt looking to supe the fuck out of his car to fly down a racetrack. It can be a great saturday morning project that saves hundreds, can be as custom or as simple as you like, the outcome is very rewarding and systems can range in complexity from a $200 four speaker system to a $4,000 system that uses 12 speakers, an in-dash dvd player/tv screen and 2 subwoofers.
N v 14, 2007 4:49 pm - the problem is that alot of stereo install guides only show one part of the entire system. They dont show the amplifiers, head unit and speakers at once. they just show a rough sketch of amp wiring and a rough idea of how to wire the speakers. THIS IS MY PICTURE OF THE SYSTEM AS A WHOLE and your own installation instructions will break it down into more specific instructions in pieces.
Nov 15, 2007 2:53 pm - Well alot of cars dont come with head units installed from the factory. And sometimes the ones that do use 12 or 14 gauge wiring for the power wires and shares battery wires with many other electric sources in the car. Using thicker wires will enable you to run more power and less resistance. I have come across systems that are difficult to install and i believe that this guide covers all of the "book" material that you will need to know for installing a stereo. The installation manual that comes with your stereo doesnt tell you about impedance, bridging, wire routing or running amps in series. Most people will just run the RCA line from the head unit to the amp but the stronger the signal (speaker wires have strong signals), the clearer the subwoofers and additional speakers will sound. So using strong signals is better especially for lower power amplifiers with a low signal to noise ratio.
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