R32 Gtr Headunit Replacement

[Wyseman]

I've just replaced the factory headunit in my 32 GT-R.

The whole process took me about 1.5 hours but this included a lot of stopping to take photos.

To complete this job, you'll need the following:

1x Phillips Head Screwdriver

1x Flat Screwdriver

1x AP348A "Nissan Double Diversity" Antenna Adaptor Lead (Make Sure this is the 348A, not the 348B lead). Autobarn had this in stock.

1x New head unit

1x Nissan 87-94 Wiring Harness (ordered through Autobarn, took 2 days to arrive)

I used the APP0121 harness because I was connecting to a stereo with an ISO connector. If you go to the Aerpro website and choose Nissan, 1989, and Patrol GQ (same harness as skyline), they have harness to fit alpine, kenwood, sony, jvc, pioneer, clarion, panasonic etc. directly to the factory plugs. If your new stereo came with a harness attached, you can use the AP7551 instead and just wire it to the one supplied with the stereo. It is a lot easier and more professional than hacking off the factory plugs and trying to solder behind the dash.

The AP348A antenna adaptor is to connect an aftermarket headunit to the factory antenna,

The AP348B antenna adaptor is to use the factory headunit with an aftermarket antenna (why would you want to do this?).

Autobarn had both in stock and I picked up the wrong one first time around. Make sure it says AP348A on the top right of the box.

Next thing you'll need is an R32 with a Factory Stereo.

First thing you need to do is remove the Ashtray.. Just open the lid and pull.

Next thing to do is to undo the two screws holding in the console.

Next step is to unclip the console trim, it has a few places it's clipped down. I found that if you get a screwdriver under the back, you can get your fingers in and lift around the rest of it.

Keep working around the clips on the whole plastic trim.

It was about here I realised the gear boot is connected to the trim, Also remove the gearknob. Mine just unscrewed, I assume they're all the same.

When the trim comes away, be careful as there are still wires connected to the Cigarette lighter socket. By the looks of mine, someone has stolen power from here for another turbo-related accessory that's mounted under the dash.

To remove these wires, just pull both plugs off (Carefully). There is a two-wire plug (+ve & earth) for the lighter and a single wire for the light in the socket.

It's important to be careful removing these wires as the single-pin one for the light is fragile and may break.

This is the back of the Lighter socket with the light pin missing.

With the trim removed, you can now undo the 4 screws holding in the DIN cage.

At this point, the trim over the Aircon controls came off, so I put it to one side while I played with the stereo.

You can now pull out the cage, be careful not to stretch the wires behind too far, the top mounts of the cage had to be carefully eased past the centre gauge cluster to avoid damaging things.

Now that the cage is free, you can remove the stereo by removing the 4 screws holding it to the cage. There is 2 on either side.

When all 4 screws are removed, the headunit should drop free of the cage.

Continued in next post...

[Wyseman]

You can put the cage back into the dash while you do the stereo wiring. The factory stereo in the GT-R has 3 connectors, two white-ish coloured ones that are used for power / speakers and one black one that is used to connect to the dash radio controls. There is also an antenna connection on the back of the stereo.

Back of the old factory stereo with the plugs removed.

The Nissan areial plug has 2 pins on it, it also has a clip on the side that you have to squeeze to remove the plug.

The Double diversity adapter (Aerpro AP348A) has a socket for the 2 pins, it also has a clip on the side to match up with the one on the aerial lead.

When they're pushed together, the clip locks them.

Next you need the Aerpro APP0121 (Nissan - ISO adapter) or silimar. I only used this because the headunit I was installing had an ISO connector. Plus I didn't want to cut any wires if I didn't have to. This new loom connects directly to the Nissan stereo plugs. The black connector to the remote dash buttons is not used.

New headunit with adapter harness ready to plug in.

Harness and aerial plugged into the new head unit.

It's at this point that I usually test a new stereo before screwing anything back together, saves a lot of work if you've done something wrong.... It powered up and there was static in the speakers (No radio reception in the garage I park in) so I assume it's all working.

The new headunit can now be attached to the factory DIN cage with the same screws that came out of the stock one. As there were multiple holes to choose from, I picked the one that made the front of the face line up as closely as possible with the aircon controls. There was only one screw hole that lined up on each side, so only one screw per side is used to attach the headunit.

The cage can now be re-inserted into the dash, carefully making sure that the top of the brackets doesn't damage the gauge cluster.

The 4 screws that hold the cage can now be put back.

When i was inserting the cage, it got caught on the drivers side dash. It wouldn't go in and it took me ages to figure out why.

Replace the trim over the Aircon controls. With this in place, i couldn't get the surround on the new stereo. I'll have to cut it down at a later stage. Luckily the headunit doesn't look too bad without the surround.

Next you can put back on the console panel and replace the screws in the ashtray opening.

And finally you can re-attach the gearknob and put the ashtray back in.

All Done!

I know there are a few other DIY's and howto's for R32 radio replacements, I had trouble figuring out a few bits from the descriptions I read. I hope the pictures help someone else!

[raz0r$harP.UK]

Fantastic work. I'm going to sticky this. Thanks for taking the time to document this =)

[hojak]

Kickass diy write up James. Cleared alot up for me with those pics. Cheers man

[RRB20ASH]

Great work on this thread. This helped me a lot with my installation.. Thanks....

[pipster11]

sorry dig up an old thread but does this work on just gtr's or will it go into a gtst?

just want to clarify before i order one as it seems much better than hacking the old wiring to pieces

[GT-R 32]

Awesome steps man, cheers, very easy to understand

[micwhitt]

Sweet thanx for that info.

[Cplus]

great site in general for wiring if you don't have stock wiring still (ie: someone else has butchered it before you)....

and for nissan's specifically

http://www.installdr.com/Harnesses/Nissan-Wiring.pdf

don't foget to give 12V to the aerial also, it's a single plug with a black/red stripe wire - your radio reception will be arse without it!

[Jawssh]

Ah, now i can replace my climate control unit

Installed a headunit over the weekend, this DIY helped alot!

Thanks !

[evilr32]

f*kn legend i just done this in my car very good help

[lwells]

A very useful guide. Thanks. I would add a few things having just tried to install an Alpine deck into my R32 GT-R

Contrary to what Aerpro may claim, their harness system is not plug and play. I found that I need to move at least one of the pins on the Aerpro Nissan harness and a number of things were missing from Aerpro's Alpine harness. I needed a crimping tool and some plugs to connect a few wires (12v battery line and the 12v antenna from memory). I ended up buying a third spare harness that I cut apart for the pins. It would have been simpler to just wire it straight in, but I do like the convenience of being able to unplug the new head unit easily (and being able to stick the original back in if I need to). For what its worth, I found that the Install Doctor wiring guide linked earlier had all the pin placements right, but some of the wire colours wrong.

The other irritation is that my Alpine unit is ever so slightly smaller than the OEM unit, so there is now a small gap between the cluster surround and the headunit. Has anyone found a solution for this? I searched the forums and the only decent suggestion was some black foam. Has anyone tried DIN spacers like so?:

http://www.dnaaudio.com.au/dtr-600-din-trim-rings-set-of-4

Thanks again for the guide.

[Chris Rogers]

recess the unit into the dash. thats pretty much how I have done 90% of them.

[TTFreak]

Thanks to your photos and instructions, I removed my original unit and replaced with a perfectly fitting new head unit in under 45 mins, without breaking anything! Cheers mate...

[vonzilla]

Do you still have the factory deck? If so, does it still work, and would you be interested in parting with it?

[GTR26E]

Very helpful Thank you

[Ians26]

Great write up! Thanks for the help!

[MoMnDadGTR]

old post but great write up just what I needed to complete my install while I replaced my g sensor at same time. thanks again boys.

[Turgidtier]

Thanks for the post, I also plan on replacing the headunit on my 32 GT-R, this will really help me a lot.