Stereo Replacement

[ibaker]

I have a '91 Legacy sedan with the factory stereo. I want to put in a new Sony I have, but i'm confused as to what i need to properly install it. The new stereo is smaller than the factory one, so I need to fill in the gap with something. I have asked several car shops, and they told me I needed a mounting kit, but when I got one, I was then told that it wouldn't work for my specific car for some reason. What do I actually need to replace the factory stereo?

[Platinum_Racing]

You need a half-din cubby and an antenna wire extension.

 

The radio will screw right into the factory mount, but without the half-din cubby there will be a big gap under the aftermarket radio. Since I didn't really care and I have too much time on my hand I took a chunk of the box the radio came in and cut it to the size of the gap. I stuck the box section under the radio and now there is just a solid black bar with SONY written in huge font on one side.

 

Remove the radio trim. There are hidden screws that are above the ash tray. Remove these screws and pull the trim off. Remove the screws that hold the radio cage to the car. With the cage removed you must unhook the wires that plug the radio into the car. Unscrew the stock radio and slide it out of the cage. Screw the aftermarket radio into the stock cage. DO NOT USE the Sony supplied cage or trim piece. All the wiring diagrams I looked up online for the car were drastically wrong, so I just went ahead and figured out the wiring myself. Use a multi-meter to determine which wires are the (+), the Ground, and the Accessory. You can always just wire the Ground straight to the metal radio bracket in the dash, which is what I did. The rest of the wires are for the speakers. Just make sure you get the polarity of the speaker wires correct for best sound quality. With reversed speaker polarity the speakers will still work but quality is always best when the polarity is correct. Don't guess on which speaker wires go where. Follow the wires as far as you can until you have a good idea of which ones are which. You may have to unscrew and unclip the door panels to see which color wires go to the speakers. DO NOT TRUST the wires in the trunk. The wires for the rear speakers in the dash are NOT the same color as the wires for the rear speakers in the trunk. This is what really had me confused when I did mine. Install the antenna wire extension and wrap it with electrical tape. Now is when you should install the half-din cubby if you choose to use one. If not, just find a good section of the cardboard box that the radio came in and save it for later. Screw the radio cage/radio assembly back into the car. Install the trim, making sure to secure the ash tray slides to the car as well (The same screws that hold the trim in place also hold the ash tray slides). A 90 degree screwdriver works best for these screws. If you decided to go with the cardboard box method for closing up that huge gap in your interior now is the time to press the cardboard in place.

 

 

 

Good luck!