Good morning, is it possible to replace the bose head unit in my 96 max gle with the bose head unit from my 2000 pathfinder? The harness plugs in fine but the unit wont turn on. Anyone do this or have any ideas?

 

As far as I can tell, the Pathfinder head unit should work. The pinouts for the 1996 & 2000 head units are the same. Try running a ground wire from a good chasis ground point to the radio case. The ground in the dashboard is crappy at best.

Also, double check fuses 21 & 40 (10 amp & 7.5 amp) in case they got blown somehow.

 

check your wiring

 

Even if the harness fits, isn't it possible that some of the pins are not in the same places? I'd be willing to bet that an aftermarket harness for the two are different. (Same plug, different wiring layout. Just a thought.

 

It's possible but in this case, no. For example, pins 1 & 2 go the the left front speaker in both head units and the pin assignments for both head units are the same.

 

Thanks everyone for all the insight. I'm going to give this another try this weekend because the original bose is so erratic. The one from my pathfinder worked fine and it's just sitting on the shelf. Ill post back with the results.

 

Could not wait, went out to try the radio from my pathfinder and it worked. Strange thing is after grounding the chasis it came on and worked fine (thanks DennnisMik) like I unlocked it or something. I did not permanently ground the chasis and it still works after I put it all back together. It also sounds great, better than the original. Thanks again everyone for the insight, that old radio has been slowly going downhill and lately driving me nuts and I had the other sitting on the shelf for a year and a
half.

 

It is grounded through the chasis per the FSM. I put a 2005 Pathfinder in mine, it required one jumper wire. I guess the 2000 is different.

 

I think part of the problem was I just plugged the radio in to test it verses installing it in the unit with the climate control and storage drawer. The unit has the metal for the radio to ground against but I wanted to see if it would work before taking the unit apart.

 

hey sjonesist how was your original h/u screwwing up? im wondering because mine isn't right either and im making sure its actualy the hu before i go and replace it.

 

bose units develop problems like nothing. speaking from experience. DennisMik (great guy) sent me a replacement unit for my wife's bose that had a volume button problem: couldn't control the volume at all.
his unit worked fine for about 6 months until the same thing started happening, then the tape player went south, then the unit started fading in and out (front-rear) if she were to go over bumps. Both units (i saved the old one) developed the fading in and out problem. I'd hit it with my fist and it'd work until the next bump lol
i've had enough and just purchased an aftermarket stereo for her.

p.s. i do have a bose faceplate with a brand-new volume pot installed for sale. it shouldn't go bad (at least not as quick as a used replacement). easy to replace as well.

 

The problem with my unit was the cd player. It would not play the first couple tracks if the weather was really hot or cold. It would also intermittently stop spinning the disk and give me a err error message. If I hit it with my fist it would usually work for a while or at least until it sat again. I think the tape was a bit erattic too but I did not use it. The display was fine and never any issue with the volumn but for the last few years the problem with the cd kept getting worse to the point where it was an issue daily verse every once in a while or until the car warmed up or cooled off.