I finally got around to replacing my HU with a pioneer 6800mp. I know it's not as fancy as the double-din touchscreen nav things a lot of you like to install, but I am happy with what I have. I also got the pioneer ipod adapter so I can finally get rid of my crappy old cd's that I've been carrying around. I did the install myself, and I'm pretty happy with it. The fit could be a little better, but it's ok for now. The system will be ok until I have the money to put in some good speakers and amps. For now I'm happy with my new toy, and I just wanted to thank everyone on the forum for constantly posting about your installs and what you think about your equipment. It provided me with a lot of information to help pick my HU and do my install.

I'm sure someone will ask for pics, but I'm not going to take any until I fix my fitting problem with the little tray thing I bought to put under the HU. Right now I admit it looks bad, but I really don't care. I'm not driving a show car, so I'll fix it when I'm not so busy. Thanks again everyone!

 

can you tell the sound difference?? (Quality $ Quantity)
I got Alpine CDA-9857 for christmas

didn't install yet due to harness and dash kit

going to install when dask kit comes.

 

Yes, I can definitely hear a difference, and it was worth the money. I picked the HU because it has the best EQ functionality for the price, which really makes a big difference since I had almost no control over that with the stock Bose HU. I need to actually set up my custom EQ so I can get it to sound even better, but it sounds great out of the box.

rkd350z, I take it you're going to do the install yourself since you're waiting for a part to come in?

 

How hard was the install?

 

It wasn't too bad, except for a few issues that popped up. I had some difficulty getting the center console out because of clearances with the temp controller box below the HU. Also, some of the screws holding the stock HU to the mounting brackets were screwed down very tightly and also made of soft metal, so they stripped without much force. Fortunately, I was able to remove the mounting brackets without any issues, so I just had to file a groove into the stripped screws to get a grip on them and remove them.

When I finally mounted the new HU, it didn't mount evenly with the center console, so I had to drill new holes in the mounting brackets to move the HU farther forward. Ok, so after I wrote all that I realize it wasn't so easy, but it was possible to do, and it makes me happy, so it was worth the trouble.

If I had to give advice to someone who was about to do their own install, I'd recommend removing the white temp controller box before attempting to remove the center console. It has 2 screw holding it down and 3 plugs in the back. Oh, and if you have stock navigation ('03), there are no extra screws to remove below the keypad, just the 6 screws behind the temp control panel and an extra plug to be removed behind the keypad going to the nav computer.

 

Yes I'm going DIY hopfully next week.