I just picked up an 03 6MT coupe that already has a JVC radio in it, and as well as an amp in the trunk. No sub though, so I'm guessing it's powering the door speakers but I'll double check later on today (It is a Bose equipped car.) It also came included with the illustrious alternator whine, so either the amp isn't grounded correctly or the HU isn't. I'm hoping one of you can show me a picture of the correct place to ground to for both, so I can at least fix that.

It has the JDM AC controls so that's good, and the steering wheel buttons still work so I would imagine there is a PAC harness or something back there as well. I want to upgrade to the 07 steering wheel, those come with a voice command buttons. Can I use the existing module for steering wheel controls and get it to work with the 07 wheel?

Backup camera also included, those are typically universal, right? Simple RCA jack into the next radio?

I'm thinking that since it already has an aftermarket HU, swapping to a newer one should be as simple as disconnecting (hopefully easy) the JVC harness and installing the new one for whichever radio I decide to go with. But I'd like to what I should look for in the current install to make sure it was done properly for an easy transition to the next radio.

 

See the sticky here for the double din installation guide.

 

Seatbelt anchors make great grounds if you scrape the paint to bare metal under them.

The button labels on the steering wheel don't matter to the function the radio sees, so "voice command button" is just seen as steering wheel button #3. The same positioned button on your '03 wheel sends the same button press signal. You're not going to gain any new functionality there. You have to reprogram the steering wheel adapter to make it do something different. Depending on which steering wheel adapter you have, it can be a simple as plugging your android phone into it with a USB OTG cable and firing up the app.

Backup cameras are universal, so yes, just connect the RCA and the reverse signal wire to the new radio. Depending on the radio, you may need to swap the polarity setting in the radio setup for it to turn on correctly.

You'll have to cut the wires (or remove crimps, depending on install method) from where the old radio's harness connects to the adapter harness, just follow the wiring chart in the main DDin install guide.

 

Thanks for the tips. I'm assuming that the whine is coming from the amp, since likely the HU is grounded through the harness and that should be ok, so I'll check where it's grounded and hopefully find a better spot for it.

For the steering wheel controls, I guess my real concern was with newer wheels having additional buttons (voice commands, etc) are there additional wires needed for those few extra buttons, or do they still interface with the existing harness? If no extra wires are needed, then from what I gather I can simply "train" the PAC controller to complete an action with the button presses.

I've done quite a few stereo installs over the years in my previous cars, but I've always done installs on cars that had the OEM radio where it's easy to find pictures/diagrams of the OEM harnesses, hopefully the install on this one was done correctly and easy to "undo" if needed.

 

03 coupes and 07 coupes both have 6 steering wheel audio control buttons. There's no additional buttons in an 07 coupe.

 

Some of the wheels I've seen have two or three extra buttons for voice commands and answering and ending phone calls. Those are the wheels I'm looking at mostly. Of course I was under the impression that they would fit, am I wrong there?

 

Then you're not looking at 2007 G35 coupe steering wheels.

This is a 2007 G35 SEDAN steering wheel with extra buttons.

 

Oops yes you are correct that is the style I was looking at.

 

The audio control parts are still just an A and B wire with ground, but return different voltages along them than the 03-06, but so long as the steering wheel adapter was set for a 2007 G35 Sedan, would work fine. The voice buttons, however go through a different harness to the phone adapter, not the radio. With enough work, you could probably get resistors in there and probably have the steering wheel emulate a different car that does have 9+ different buttons on the steering wheel that it could read and then you just use a steering wheel adapter programmed for THAT car, but that's clearly above the scope of what you're doing.

 

Gotcha. So if I want that steering wheel I'll just have to live with buttons that do nothing.

 

Or just get one from a trim level that didn't have the voice controls.

 

Didn't know that was an option. I've only had my G for a few days now and haven't owned a Nissan since 2004, still learning the year over year model changes and options.

Most of the wheels I've found on eBay had some sort of voice command button, but I'll keep looking. I need to sell my other car first before I can start sinking money into this one.

Thank you!

 

I was able to find the source of the ground loop whine. Should be an easy fix with some proper terminals and moving the ground literally inches away to those bolts.