Replacing HK stereo in disco 2

Hi all

After looking at a parrot unit, decided I would rather just put in an aftermarket unit, just put a decent JVC in the wifes car that has built in Bluetooth for the phone and a iPod input.

Has anyone successfully put in a head unit and managed to keep the Harmon kardon working?

Ideally I would like to keep the steering wheel remote working too.

I am watching this with intrerest.I asked the question some time ago and got no reponse. I want to pull out the Becker head unit and put a better unit in. Pioneer do one with a motorized sat nav screen etc. I have contacted them direct and they were less than positive about keeping use of the steering wheel controls. Then we got on to the speakers. They were again " Unsure" if the HK speakers would work with any other unit. Then we got onto DIN 1 and DIN 2. I had no idea. Its just a head unit. ( apparantly not). I even tried Becker. I thought I would as a last resort upgrade it. Even Becker in Holland didnt know. I sent them phoographs serial no. etc. They were keen to sell me a new system 890 quid for the head unit. But were " Not so sure" if the steering wheel controls would work, or even if it would fit. (Back to DIN 1 and DIN2 again). So good luck. Paul.

I havent done it but looked into replacing the HK head unit and cd changer on my 1999 ES. I found this for sale for the steering wheel controls

ICT 29-620 steering/stalk control adaptor Steering Control Adaptor - Car Audio D

It is quite expensive at £39 (for both parts) and I think the head unit you buy has to have an output for steering wheel controls on it.
I also found out that the wiring in the car is standard so an after market unit fit straight in without any adapters (although I cannot confirm this).

That does look like it, will give them a bell.
Autoleads do a similar item, for about the same cost, just wanted to see if anyone had actually done it.
Not bothered about the disc changer tbh, that's what the iPod is for.
In fact if I get it all working the oem unit will go on fleabay

What I'm going to try is this:

I want a standard ish head unit, which doesn't expect an in-line amplifier, so the levels will be WAY too high. It does however, have twin phono outputs which are able to drive an amp. I will remove the amp input wires (speakers) from the standard plug, fit phono sockets to the end of them and then connect them to the line out outputs on the back of my new stereo. So that way, the inline amp will receive the correct level outputs from the stereo.

Will still need some kind of adaptor harness to make the steering controls work, but hey...

David

David Pye said:

What I'm going to try is this:

I want a standard ish head unit, which doesn't expect an in-line amplifier, so the levels will be WAY too high. It does however, have twin phono outputs which are able to drive an amp. I will remove the amp input wires (speakers) from the standard plug, fit phono sockets to the end of them and then connect them to the line out outputs on the back of my new stereo. So that way, the inline amp will receive the correct level outputs from the stereo.

Will still need some kind of adaptor harness to make the steering controls work, but hey...

David

Click to expand...

AFAIK the standard HK amp takes line level inputs so any standard head unit will fit without modifying the harness. As I said I haven't fitted a new stereo yet but that is what I have learnt from the research I have done.

My brief experiment with a Parrot hands free kit implies that isn't the case :-(

I fitted one, and whenever the handsfree kit was working, it nearly ruptured my ears with the volume, even when it was set to its lowest setting on the parrot.

Therefore, I concluded that the HK stereo outputs line level via its' speaker outputs to drive the inline amp, hence what I said about butchering the 'speaker' wires from the harness into phono plugs and connecting them to the line level outputs on the new stereo...