Is this hard for someone who's never done this before? Any guides?

 

I don't know of any guides to walk you through it. What you need in addition to the radio is a dash adapter kit for mounting the radio and a wire harness adapter to plug into the Nissan harness. These kits are made by Metra among others. The wire harness kit requires you to splice it together with the radio's wire harness. If you have the kind of mind that can put jigsaw puzzles together, then you can change the radio.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlp2KuWpoFI

 

Thanks I have the kit and adapter and so forth. I can probably take it out but putting in the new unit would be a problem.

 

Pay someone to do it man. Crossing the wires will just lead to problems that will cost you more in the long run. Sometimes somethings should be done by the professionals, besides it will cost double the amount if an installer had to go and troubleshoot the problem. An installer shouldn't charge more than 1-2hrs labour for the job

 

My went together nicely but i ran into one problem. I bought a pioneer AVH-P3200DVD for my 96 max last november. the problem was pioneer did make a wire for the antenna to go down when you watch a movie. it would stay up on the radio but not go down when u operate a dvd. so i got a switch from radioshack and install it by the dim cluster (just right of the steering wheel) now i can operate the antenna independently of the radio

 

I am in the process of doing the same. I know this thread is done with, but this guy did a pretty elementary explanation of the wiring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTti_HuKkV8

Made a lot of sense to me since I don't do too many radio installs...EVER.

 

Yes it is miserable in these cars. The reason or this is the Bose system. If you get a harness and match up the wires as indicated, it will play but you will have the low volume issue that has been discussed on this board. The reason for this is because Bose speakers has different impedance than aftermarket. So then you have to change out your speakers as well to have any volume at all, but now you will have to wire them from the new HU to the new speakers because you are no longer using the Bose amp. I ran wires from he new HU to the output wires from the Bose amp, then used he factory wiring from there to save me from wiring thru the door jambs.(you cannot squeeze a wire thru the front door jamb harness without drilling anyway, he rear is do-able) So once this is all done u will still have no bass because the fronts are 6.5 (decent) and your rear door speakers are 5.25 inches, so u will need a sub for any bass. The long and short is that I was sorry I ever got involved.

 

I ended up using the factory amps with the Metra Factory Amplifier Integration Kit. The only thing you have to remember when using this kit is your radio MUST HAVE AT LEAST 4V PREOUTS. If it doesn't you will run into the low volume issue. Using this method you might end up paying a little more for a higher end head unit (the more expensive HU are more likely to have 4V or 5V preouts), but it is MUCH easier to install. That and you will still have the BOSE amps and subwoofer.

 

That is true. I only did my research into tis issuevaftervi had already committed to a pioneer hd 33 head unit (wife bought it as a gift for Christmas) a 4v preout would probably have avoided the whole issue to begin with. Lesson learned...do you homework early.

 

I got the radio, mount, metra and ground

I didn't get the steering wheel control...

I'm gonna pay someone to do even though it doesn't look too hard by watching the movie.

 

I am a total moron when it comes to electronics...it took me the whole weekend to put it in. Only because I was trying to be very methodical.

But...you get satisfaction from doing it yourself. I have a Pioneer and didn't get the 4v. My stereo sounds great. You can totally DIY...

 

OK, first of all is this a 5th gen or the 5.5 gen? I have a 2002 (5.5 gen) so here's my 2 cents worth. Disregard if this is a 2000 or 2001.

I HATED doing the stereo in my max. The factory amp uses XLR instead of RCA type connections. An XLR is what they use in pro audio; it's the same as a 3-prong microphone jack if you've ever seen one of those. You won't have XLR jacks on the stereo of course, but that's still the type of connection between the head unit and factory amp. NO aftermarket stereo's have XLR outputs. They make adapters for our cars but they're very pricey.

I had a bunch of time when I did mine so I actually ran brand new wires out to the speakers. Put the amps in the trunk and ran RCA wires from the new head unit back to the amps. Best Buy had the best price on the dash adapter, had to buy a t-handled screw driver to get the screws off the factory radio. The REALLY bolted that radio down to the bracket... wish they'd used that kind of pressure on their VAIS bolts...

Anyway, you're radio won't work very well when you're done. The antenna is actually in the rear window glass. There's 2 antenna's in the glass and the factory radio would switch between to the antenna with the best reception. With an aftermarket radio you'll be stuck with only one of those antenna's. You can't run both at the same time, the ohm loads won't balance out. I ended up using my phone and downloaded the iHeart and Tunein radio apps and ran an aux cable from my phone to the head unit.

Hope all this helps. If you have some extra amps you can run a real nice 3-way setup... just say the word and I'll post the details on how I did mine.

 

it's E Z.. i just installed a dual double din DVD player in my car, the hardest part was getting the screws on the mounting bracket off. those are a pita to get off, you will probably end up stripping them if you don't have a really strong torque screwdriver.. but the wiring was pretty easy and self explanatory, i even wired it up so that i can watch movies while driving

 

Tapping the screws, then turning to tighten before attempting to loosen will help, but you DO need a good screwdriver/bit for this.

An electric drill may help, an impact driver will help more. But you can do it by hand with the above method and a decent screwdriver/bit.

 

Yeah, I broke 2 screwdrivers. Even tapped them as you suggested, didn't help in my case. At least one of the screwdrivers was a craftsman... gotta love a lifetime warranty.

 

So if I understand correctly, My issue is that my new head unit (Pioneer FH-X700BT) won't work because its pre-amps are only 2V? I have it hooked up with a Metra harness adapter but I'm only getting sound out of the front two door speakers. Rears, and Sub wont Work and the volume is exceptionally low not to mention the incredibly poor radio reception. I've got an '03 with the Bose.

I thought at first perhaps the head unit is sending a weak signal, expecting the amp to .. well.. amplify it. and thought that only the sub was run off the amp while the rest of the speakers were run normally. I suppose I'm wrong in this assumption.

Does anyone have a way for me to fix this? preferably without re-wiring the entire car / getting new speakers.

 

You have the wrong harness. You need to buy the hsrness that has the rca preouts that you plug into the back of your headunit. Thatll fix your problem

 

I went ahead and got my gear from crutchfield. Good prices.. and if you spend over $100 you get free mounting hardware. Plus it came with a wiring diagram on top of color coded and labeled wires. Made matching up the connections a breeze! Use your soldering skills and voila. Took me a good 6 hours without any experience at all.

 

I have never bought from crutchfield, but have friends who have and they are very happy with their purchases.

 

I highly recommend them for all the reasons I stated!

 

I been trying for two weeks to install my dual double din head unit I matched all the wires and still cant get any power help please