New Stereo In Car

Gaz83

I've replaced loads of car stereos for mates and myself in the past but none for the past few years.

I know it used to be the case that you had to buy a harness depending on your make of car and make of stereo. I have a Citroen, so a few years ago I'd have needed a different harness for Citroen to Sony, Citroen to Pioneer, Citroen to JVC etc..

Nowadays it seems that you just need a harness for your particular make of car. Is it the case now that modern car stereos have the same standardised fitting in the back?

Thanks for any advice.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

its not the case that new/newish cars has reverted to using standard size stereo ISO fitment wiring harnesses.


its the same now as it was back then.

forgotmyname

You may find your insurer will want to know. Ive been asked several times when getting quotes if the Stereo os the original one.

Gaz83

So what you're saying is that a Sony unit, a Pioneer unit, a JVC unit etc. will have a different plug on the back?

Gaz83

Let me clarify a bit: I have a 55-plate Citroen Xsara Picasso. I want to buy a new stereo for it so that I can listen to music and podcasts from my phone or a USB stick.

The last time I changed a car stereo (a few years ago now admittedly, since I think all cars released in the last eight years or so have CD players) I needed to buy a particular adaptor for the car, and the stereo that I had gotten. So when I replaced my mate's stereo in her Toyota with a Sony one, I had to buy a Toyota to Sony adaptor.

Nowadays I look in Halfords and all I see is one Citroen adaptor. Not three or four Citroen adaptors depending on what manufacturer of stereo I go for. It seems like it's just one adaptor that goes into each manufacturer's stereo.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

Gaz83 wrote: »

So what you're saying is that a Sony unit, a Pioneer unit, a JVC unit etc. will have a different plug on the back?

must have mis read your OP.


all CAR manufacturers use their own size or a standard size ISO connectors.


since I can remember all manufacturers of aftermarket stereo's have used a standard size ISO plugs, whether that's a panel on the rear of the unit, or the wires coming out of the unit if you have wires coming and you lose that then you have to buy the harness form JVC sony etc as the bit that plugs into the unit from the wiring block have their own 12 or 14 pin conector.






you've always had to buy standard ISO to FORD harness for E.G.

londonTiger

If you need to make stereo completely compatible with the steering wheel remote then it can be tricky.

On the golf forum someone with a mk4 golf who bought a mk5 golf steering wheel and put it in because he couldn't get the mk4 remote to work with their stero. There was a mk5 kit around though.

Weird_Nev

Generally speaking, the Head unit comes with a plug that converts a small plug (or two) on the back of the head unit into what is called an 'ISO' connector - often a pair of them, one slightly bigger than the other. These are standard. Your car wiring loom sometimes has an ISO block to connect to the stereo loom, but more often than not has it's own connector.

The specific adaptor you buy converts whatever the cars connector block is to the 2 ISO connectors on the stereo loom and sits between the two.

Check however, how integrated your Citroen stereo is. Many stereos are now not even standard single DIN slots, and can be a little face plate with very little behind. This makes fitting a DIN cage and fascia surround a chore as the mount points may not even be there. Stereos are often also connected to the CAN-BUS of the car, via a digital link so that they can be security coded and also display information from the car on the Stereo screen (or information from the stereo on the dash cluster). Replacing these can be next to impossible, or actually impossible if you want to retain functionality.

So do your reseach before you start spending money or pulling anything apart.