Step by Step DIY Installation of Your Car Audio System

You might be wondering whether it is possible for you to install your car audio system by yourself. The answer is, it depends. It depends whether you have any background with electrical wiring or not. If you do and feel confident that you can do it on your own, then by all means do it.

 

One of the benefits of doing any DIY projects is that it can save you some money than when hiring a professional to install it for you. Doing the installation of your car audio system on your own is quite difficult but with these simple step by step guide you will be surprised how really easy it is to install a new car stereo in your dash board:

 

1. Turn off your cars electric power by taking out its negative battery cable from the terminal.

 

2. Next remove the old car stereo from your dash board. This is quite tricky as you need to remove the screws and clips first. Some car manufacturers tries to hide these screws by hiding them in the glove compartment for example.

 

3. Take out your cars old head unit by unscrewing it from the dashboard. Pull it out until you see the wires at the back then disconnect the power cable, remove the car stereo harness, and the antenna cable. The harness refers to a plastic connector that holds all stereo wiring in a bundle. Car stereos have an adapter that is compatible with each wire in the harness.

 

4. The cars harness has 4 to 8 color coded wires attached at the back. A pair of wires: negative and positive goes to each speaker. Positive wire usually comes in one color while negative wires always have a black stripe.

 

5. If your car stereo does not come with an adapter that is compatible with your dashboards harness you will need to buy a wiring harness kit. Harness kits from electronics store costs are reasonable and the money is worth it otherwise you will have to cut the wires form the harness. Doing so will still make your car stereo work however it will be a disservice to you should you decide to change your stereo again in the future.

 

6. If your new stereo is smaller than the old one you should get an adapter kit for the new stereo to fit properly in your dashboard. An adapter kits is affordable and can be adjusted to any size you want.

 

7. Set up the new wiring harness and attach it to the new stereo. Match the color coded wires in the harness to the new stereo making sure it is connected firmly. After attaching the all the wires, you can now test how your stereo sounds. Test the radio fader and balance adjustments if it functions correctly.

 

8. When the test is successfully done, push the radio to the dashboard to set it in place. Put all the screws in place and tightly fasten each one.
 
9. Put back the trims and replace the hardware to set the radio in place.

 

Just a few more tips. If the newly installed car stereo does not turn on the usual cause of this is a bad ground. In this case, find a piece of metal that you can attach the ground to and turn it on once more time. You can rub the surface of the metal using a sand paper for better connection.

 

Remember never touch the electric wires with the ground wire connected to your cars battery as it can harm you or damage your equipment.