I'm picking up the car tonight or tomorrow, never had one before so it's unfamiliar and I want to ditch the low end single DIN head unit and either go back to stock or find a double DIN, factory-looking unit that returns the function of the steering wheel controls.

What I need is:
How to tell what factory stereo I need - will any of the units from that year work or are there specific differences between Nav vs no Nav, Bose vs non-Bose, that make the head units incompatible with cars that they didn't come in? I'm looking for a direct installation with no modification to the dash, unit, or harness. Adapters are ok if necessary.

Thanks

 

Do NOT go back to factory. I swapped mine out and the sound was a night and day difference. If you are planning on keeping the car for a while, you should invest in a double din. Some of them come with blutooth so you can take calls while you drive. The only thing that sucks is the JDM DD faceplate is 250-300 bucks. You can get a metra faceplate for about 100. There are a couple adapters that allow you to use the steering controls too. (25-35 bucks for those)

 

Sounds like you've already got the trim and climate controls, so it'll be significantly more expensive to go back to stock anyway.

Just take a pick of aftermarket radio and you'll only really have to swap the new radio's harness with the one that came with your existing aftermarket radio, and you're done.

Pretty much every single radio made can work with the steering wheel controls, so if they don't work with what you have now, you'll have to pick up a ~$40 adapter to have them work.

 

I'm gonna keep the car for awhile...guess I'll just take your word for it on the sound quality, haha. I just want something that doesn't look out of place in the dash. Seems like car stereos are always right up to date with car interiors so when you want to put one in an 8 year old car, nothing matches. The stereos I was installing in 2005 would have gone great with their imitation-metallic looking surfaces, but now everything has gone ultra-gloss black.

What's in it right now is a single DIN low-end Pioneer that I have no interest in keeping. So I'll be changing it regardless, it's just a matter of what I put in. Wish I didn't have to replace the whole center of the dash to switch to double DIN.

 

this is what I'm working with



Been reading up on here about these swaps and can see this is beyond any stereo install I've ever done due to the AC control issue. Never had to mess with that before.

Used cars...

 

Well, that's the metra single-din kit, a shame, since the double-din kit works with single-din as well. You can get a dremel out and cut a double-din opening in that one, or purchase a new trim kit with a double-din-sized opening.

The a/c control 'issue' isn't an issue as far as complexity goes, it's just another harness that gets plugged in during the install. It is an issue as far as cost goes though, can't help that. You *might* be able to talk with Metra and see if there's a way to purchase the DDin trim without a climate controls and save yourself $100 or so. Metra's been pretty good when I've contacted them, so you might be able to convince them to do it.

 

I was very hesitant to change out my factory Bose. I tried upgrading the speakers, installed an FM modulator so I can hook up my Iphone and use the EQ on that.. nothing seemed to make a big improvement. I finally gave in and got a decent Kenwood (older model DX418 I think) for around 300 bucks. It has built in blu tooth and you can change the colors of the lights to match your dash. It was such a huge difference that I will never go back to Bose. I am just waiting for a BluRay car stereo to come out!
Thanks again to the Wrathernaut for his help/guidance!

 

No reason for blu-ray when you can hook up hard drives full of HD movies to most headunits these days. More storage and easier browsing of the contents.

 

I didn't know they made little HD screens for these Double Dins! It might be time for a new HU!

 

The new Pioneer units and the slightly older AVH-P8400 have fairly high-res screens. Not 1920x1080 fullHD yet, but on a screen that small from the 3-4 foot distance, your eyes can't tell the difference.

 

in new to this forum and I have a 2006 6MT G35 coupe and my wife purchased the jdm double din kit and I'm looking at the Alpine INE-W927HD deck. It looks pretty tight but I'm so confused in terms of speakers and tweeters to choose from that will make it it sound awesome. I some some other posts on the wire diagrams with the current Bose amp but I want to get the bose amp out since it's a quality bottleneck and will limit my speaker selection. I also want to know what kind of tweeters I need to fit in the tight space from the OEM housing, please assist, thanks.

 

The OEM housing isn't tight space-wise. 1" tweeters fit easily, the only bit of complication is bending some metal (or bending up the OEM bracket) to hold them in place properly in the stock location.

If you're not averse to cutting the OEM tweeter panel, you can put just about anything on it.

 

get the double din, its well worth the money.

 

Ok, so a shop in my area is selling me a Metra 99-7605A dash kit for my '05 Coupe. This is the double-DIN model and I am planning on installing the Pioneer AVH-X2500BT. I heard in other forums that this dash kit is not a perfect fit with the Nav system. Is this true? Am I in trouble here??

By the way...keep it up guys....this is G35 heaven!

 

Nope, won't fit with factory nav without modification, I'm pretty sure that using a hacksaw to take off the top 1/8" of it and sanding it smooth will work just fine.