So are you ready to see this go away and get your fan/temp steering controls back?
Good! If you take a 1 to 10 scale where 1 is buckling your seatbelt and 10 is dropping the motor I would rate this a 3-4. As long as you have some basic knowledge of how to chase wires you'll be just fine.
This writeup will walk you through how to reinstall your stock radio while keeping your aftermarket radio. By doing this, here is what you will accomplish:
- "DATE NOT AVAILABLE" on your DIC will display the correct date.
- You will regain steering wheel controls of the HVAC panel; being of course the fan speed and temperature.
You'll need a few things to get started:
- Phillips Screwdriver/7mm Nutdriver
- Vice Grips/Water pump pliers
- Gloves
- Wire Strippers
- Flashlight
- Spare factory wiring harness
- Stock head unit
- In-Line splices/wire nuts (total of 14. I used 7 of each.)
- Extra wire (99% of installs will need this.)
- Electrical Tape
And the optional stuff:
- Male and female four-pin connector ends (I didn't use these.)
- Velcro- hook side only
- Socket set/wrenches (to undo negative battery terminal)
Once you have everything you're ready to go! Here's how you do it:
Step 1: Detatch the negative battery terminalMost owners know that our batteries are under the rear seat on the right side of the car. For those who don't, you get to the battery by going on either side of the car, grabbing the front edge of the rear seat, and pulling up. It may be a little stubborn especially if its your first time back there. Keep in mind the seat bottom has hooks in the back that go up behind the part of the seat that your back rests on. Once you have it loose, remove the bottom part of the rear seat from the car.
Once you have the seat out, simply disconnect the negative battery terminal. I used vice grips and gloves because they were insulated just to be safe but that's not necessary. As long as you don't grab both terminals it won't shock you because you aren't completing the circuit. Even if you did the internal resistance in your body would be too great... but better safe than sorry, right? ;D Once you get the cable undone set it aside where it won't find its way back to the terminals or the frame.
Step 2: Remove the proper panelsTo do this mod you will need to do some disassembly. Don't worry, its only a couple panels!
First, remove the face that both surrounds the radio and has the console vents on it. It may be stubborn; just pull it straight out. You may need to wiggle it a bit. It will look like this when done:
Next, go around to the passenger side and sit in the front seat. Move your feet to the left. Remove the panel that your feet just hit. It's underneath the dash itself to the left of the passenger's feet. Look toward the firewall- you have to pop it down so that it is loose from the plastic rod that sticks down from the dash. Now go to the other end of the panel. There are three connectors on the other side that are slid into the other panel. Use some elbow grease and pull them out.
Be careful, there is a wire connecting the panel you are trying to remove to the panel's twin on the driver's side of the car. You can remove it if you wish, but if you rotate and slide the panel up toward the ceiling you'll have enough room to work. If you remove it just be sure you know how it goes back together. I didn't remove mine, you don't need to work in that actual area much.
Step 3: Remove your aftermarket radioYou may have installed your radio yourself or you may have gotten it installed for you. It doesn't matter. I had mine done at Best Buy a few years ago before I was comfortable with wiring and I still didn't have a problem with this. My radio has three screws that need to be removed:
Your dash install kit may be different than mine. Just remove the screws needed to slide your aftermarket radio out of the dash. I used a phillips bit and my drill to get them out but I checked and a 7mm nutdriver would have worked as well.
Be careful when you're taking it out. There is a big cluster of wires back there and depending on the installer the whole assembly can be quite fragile. Just be gentle and keep an eye out for the wires snagging on anything back there.
Step 4: Locate and prepare factory harnessNow, locate the factory harness that is already attached to the car.
Be sure it is somewhat clear of the rest of the wires and that you have some space to work. You will need to splice into some wires from this connector.
Step 5: Prepare new harness that will connect to the stock radio under the dashNext we will prepare the new stock harness to be connected to the proper wires.
You will need a few (but not all) of the wires from this connector. In order to ensure that you have the correct ones take a look at the page of the service manual that describes this:
Full-res scans:
Page 1:
Page 2:
I would click the link for the full-res photo and print it out while you're doing this mod. It helped me quite a bit to have the FSM to reference to.
If you cannot see the pictures for some reason here is my attempt at the diagram:
---------------__[-]__------------------
----------------{ || }-----------------
E1---------------------------------- E16
[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
F1---------------------------------- F16
A majority of these wires will remain untapped as they are audio wires. ONLY THE ONES MENTIONED should be spliced into the factory harness. I have not tested to see what happens if you tap all the audio wires as well but it can't be anything good.
The following wires need to be separated (just bend the ones you don't need away from the ones you do need) and have the insulation stripped off the ends enough so that you can attach them to your spare wire with a wire nut or simply use an inline splice; the choice is yours.
You can put a wire nut on the end of the wires you don't use or just electrical tape the ends. The point is to simply cap them off.
Here are the wires you will need:
Clock Wires:
- E1- DARK GREEN - Diagnostic signal entertainment and comfort
- E5 - LIGHT GREEN - Remote radio control signal
- F4 - BROWN - Instrument panel lamp feed #2
- F5 - YELLOW - Instrument panel lamp feed tertiary
And the Power Wires:
- F1 - ORANGE - Fuse output: Battery
- F2 - YELLOW - Fuse output: Accessory
- E16 - BLACK/WHITE - Ground
Step 6: Attach your extra wire to the under-dash stock harness/attach to factory harness You will probably need some extra wire to be able to attach the two harnesses correctly. It's always a good idea to have some wire to play with so it's not so tight in there.
I used 14 gauge (NON-SOLID) wire for mine and it worked alright but smaller wire (aka a larger gauge wire) would have worked better. I will change this to the proper gauge if someone confirms it. I suspect 16 or 18 gauge will work best. Theoretically any wire would work within reason but larger wires will be harder to connect to smaller wires.
In order to eliminate confusion I would work with one wire at a time. Pick a wire. Once you get the extension wire solidly attached to the under-dash harness (A foot and a half or so is MORE than enough to attach it and be able to slide your under-dash radio out if needed) then go straight to attaching the other end to the factory harness.
To attach the wire to the factory harness I used inline splices. They're quick, easy, safe, and reliable. If you choose to use a four-pin connector for easy detatchment that's fine. All this will accomplish is being able to detatch the second factory harness quickly. You are already able to detatch the under-dash stock radio quickly so I didn't really see the point. Again, the choice is yours.
In-line splices aren't hard to figure out. You don't even need to strip the wire. You can see what they look like in this picture:
I know I used a couple of wire nuts here also. I ran out of in-line splices. Like I said, either one will work.
Each splicer will have two places for a wire to go. One side allows a wire to pass all the way though. You will lay the factory wire in this side. The other side is blocked at one end. You will lay the new wire on this side.
Once you have the wires placed in there, carefully close the top of the splice and hold it in place. It is easy for the wires to slip out.
Holding the splice tight with one hand, use your vice grips to clamp down on the entire splice top to bottom with the other hand. A metal "blade" inside the splice itself will go down into the wires and "tap" them for you. Be sure the top part of the splice that you folded over catches and stays tight on its own. Lightly pull on both wires to ensure they're secure. It isn't a bad idea to electrical tape these once you're sure your DIC is working again but don't do it until the end.
Repeat for each wire. When you're finished with all of them run through and be sure ALL connections are tight; both the ones at the factory harness and the extension wires for the under-dash radio.
Step 7: Reattach the stock radio under the dashThis step is very quick! You've done all the hard work already; simply connect the stock radio using the newly installed stock harness under the dash. Don't put it up under the dash quite yet, however.
AS A SIDE NOTE: The previous writeup had you tearing apart the stock radio before you put it under here. You DO NOT need to disassemble the radio. You can plug it into the new harness without touching one screw and slip it right under the dash. This way it's still intact if you want to put it back into your actual dash/sell it/take it out for any reason/etc. RCA99aurora and I have been doing it this way with no problems.
Step 8: Reattach the negative battery terminalReverse step 1, but don't reinstall the back seat just yet.
Step 9: Fire it up!You should be good to go! I purposefully asked you to not to put everything back together yet just in case something is wrong/you have a loose connection/etc. Just set your aftermarket radio aside carefully so that you have room to sit in the driver's seat and mess with the date functions a bit. My aftermarket HU ejects the CD when it is reconnected to power... don't ask me why. ;D Yours might do the same so be aware of this.
Put the key in the ignition and turn it to "run." Sometimes it takes a couple minutes for the date to show up so be patient.
If it DOES NOT work after a few minutes and/or you have problems with the HVAC panel on the dash itself then you need to re-check your wires. Be sure to detatch the negative battery terminal before you dig into the dash wiring.
I ran into a couple problems here because I didn't have a writeup to follow.
- The "temp" display read "--". This is before I connected power (the fuse output wires) and ground. One of the four other wires was loose which contributed to this problem.
- My HVAC controls were be sluggish and took a while to respond. All four non-power wires were tight but I hadn't connected power and ground yet.
Both of these issues were fixed once all seven wires were tight and connected properly.
Once it shows up you know that you've done all the wiring correctly. Congratulations! Mine popped up as "Friday December 10" before I set the date. I don't know how random this is but it can be adjusted in the DIC.
Test the HVAC controls on the dash to be sure they are working properly, then test the fan and temp controls on your steering wheel. As mentioned in the first post I spent four long years without my steering controls. It was awesome to have them back again.
Take a few minutes to appreciate what you've just accomplished. Not many owners out there have done this and if you paid someone at your local audio installer to figure it out it would cost you a pretty penny. Once again, Congrats!
Step 10: Install and set the time on the stock unitIf you wish, you can stick the hook side of a piece of Velcro to the bottom of your stock unit to help it remain secure. I would recommend it.
Once your radio is secured (if you chose to do so) and the ignition is still in "run" you can set the time. Your manual will give you a full step-by-step of how do to this, but here's my version:
See the "HR/MN" buttons toward the top left? Hold the "HR" button until the hour changes. While you are changing the time a little "A" or "P" can be seen in the lower right part of the display representing AM or PM of course. It will go away when the time is set.
Go to the correct time using the HR/MN buttons. If you don't press any buttons for a few seconds it will set the time and continue on like it should.
Now go up to the DIC. Choose "DATE" of course and hold "RESET" until it displays this:
Using the buttons (note that most buttons have both a function and a number corresponding to it) enter the correct month and press "ENTER"
It will then display this:
Enter the correct day of the month in the same method.
Finally it will display this:
Finally, enter the year in the same method and you're set!
AS A SIDE NOTE: There have been some reports that the actual "date" on the DIC will only change 24 hours from when you set it. In other words you would have to set the time at midnight for it to change properly.
I HAVE NOT FOUND THIS TO BE TRUE. I completed the project at 4pm on a Sunday afternoon. I set the date on the clock, set the date on the DIC, and never had a problem with the date changing at the wrong time.
I set the time on the radio and the date on the DIC again yesterday at 5:30pm. I was driving around midnight last night (Saturday the 16th) so I checked to be sure. It clicked over to "SUN OCTOBER 17" at 11:59am because the stock radio under the dash was a few seconds faster than my Blackberry.
I'm not sure why this is. Maybe we can narrow it down with some feedback. Here's some info that may help us narrow down the cause:
I have a 1996 Autobahn. I used my stock radio as the one under the dash. I have the Bose system. Since I have the CD changer in the trunk the stock radio has only the tape deck internally. This may be because of the Bose radio, because of something different with the 96 model, etc. I'm not sure. I'll edit this part of the how-to as we find out more.
It doesn't really matter either way. If your date changes at the wrong time then try setting the time and date at midnight to see if that clears it up.
Step 11: CleanupAll that is left is to button everything back up! Make sure everything is working as it should and put it all back together.
- Tape off the splices and/or wire nuts that you used with electrical tape.
- Reinstall your aftermarket radio. Be careful of all the wires back there to ensure they don't disconnect or anything of the sort.
- Be sure your stock radio is secure underneath the dash and reinstall the front passenger's kick panel.
- Make sure your negative battery cable is tight on the terminal and reinstall the back seat.
- Reattach the dash face for your radio and console vents.
I will update this post as questions arise and are answered. I'm open to edits as well, if you believe something is incorrect/could use more detail/etc. please let me know. If you have a specific problem or question about this mod then feel free to send me a PM, but please post it here also. Chances are someone else will have the same question that you do!
There you have it. Happy wiring, everyone!
