CD is toast....need to get cubby box

[pbkid]

any single din sized radio will fit in your factory slot...

instructions-
as far as taking apart the dash-
1. take off the little piece around the changer/cigarette lighter (it just unclips with a good pull)
2. take out 7 screws to remove dash; one above the stock head unit, two above the steering wheel, four along the joint of the dash and the knee bolster (place below dash)
3. pull dash out, but be careful not to break it trying to get it past the wheel (that is the hardest part on the VX
4. unplug all the plugs so that you can completely remove the factory dash
5. before you do any of this pre-wire the harness. its really easy to do, strip all the wires on both the radio and the aftermarket harness...then either solder or use 'butt' connectors to attach them to each other. (you may be able to pay the best buy guy like $20 to pre-wire it up for you really quick if you dont have all the tools to do it) but if you can get a hold of all the tools its just a straight match, color to color. you will need strippers, butt connectors, and crimpers to do the wiring
6. next plug in the harness to the factory harness and plug the other end into the radio...mount the new radio (you should be able to remove the factory brackets off the factory radio and put the brackets right onto the radio making for easy mounting) and make sure everything is plugged back in when you screw the dash back in...
7. there's a basic breakdown of the install for ya...



bam! done!

[twistedsymphony]

^yup that pretty much sums it up

some other pieces of advice:



a soldered connection is way better than a but connector connection...

The best way to solder

go to radio shack and pick up the following:
-$8 pencil style 15Watt soldering iron (more wattage isn't always better, first timers are better off with lower wattage anyway)
-a spring holster with a sponge (optional)
-a set of "helping hands" (optional)
-some Silver Bearing Solder
-heat shrink tubing that looks like it's big enough to easily slip over you wires.. but not TOO big. you'll need a heat gun (or a hair dryer) to shrink the heat shrink tubing too, if you don't have that, then electrical tape will work fine so pick up that instead.

-cut and and slip on the tubing to all the wires you need
-point the wires at each other and overlap the bare metal and twist them together (like two people shaking hands)
-use the helping hands to hold them in place while you solder... use the iron to heat up the metal and then melt the solder into the metal, use the sponge to clean off the iron if it gets solder on it
-once you've completed all of the joins slide the heat shirink tube up over them all and use your heat gun or hair dryer to shrink each tube one by one, don't over do it through or they'll start to melt right off the wire.

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another thing I've noticed is that the ground wire on the factory stereo harness isn't active. so the stereo needs to actually be mounted in place (with the metal chassis of the stereo grounding to the metal chass of the car) before it will get adequate power.

it doesn't matter what head unit you buy you wont have some booming stereo by just replacing the CD player... those people typically use large external Amplifiers and subwoofer enclosures to produce that level of noise.

honestly if you're just looking for a quality CD player I'd highly recommend Alpine, they're easy to use they sound phenomenal and they're filled with every feature you'd likely want in a CD player.

think about what you want to do with it... CDs? Satellite Radio? iPod hook up? HD Radio? MP3 CDs or External USB media? Bluetooth phone integration? do you want to add subwoofers down the road? if it's a screen unit do you want DVD and navigation?

Also think about what you like on the interface... do you prefer a knob for volume or up and down buttons? do like to read the names of your iPod tracks through the CD player, make sure it's got a screen that will show you the info you want to see... etc.

once you've got the features you're looking for start looking for head units that meet your critera and keep a list of the makes and models... then start looking at which ones have those features BUILT IN and which ones require additional hardware and how much that hardware costs... for instance most CD players require additional hardware to use an iPod... the adapters can range from $20 to $200 on top of the cost of the unit, other CD players have the port built right in and you can use a generic usb ipod cable with them.