Car stereo head unit install for 2001 CE. Questions.
I'm looking at upgrading my stock car stereo to some reasonable Pioneer stuff from BB, FS or Canadian Tire up here in Canada. Probably get four new 6.5" speakers and a head unit. What I'm not sure about is the installing of the head unit. I've installed stereo's in older cars and it was somewhat straight-forward, but...I'm not so sure it'll be as easy with the Corolla. When I went to one website, it suggested the size for my vehilce was double-din. I just want a regular CD/RW/MP3/WAV etc head unit. Can I remove the stock CD head unit and simply put an aftermarket unit in it's place?
This Corolla is rather straightforward. The top panel by the center vents pops out (using gentle prying with something thin and stiff but not sharp, like a dinner knife) -- it's held in by clips. That holds a single-DIN unit, held in with standard ISO 7736 brackets (that use four screws to attach them to the interior frame of the car). (There will also be a cable harness for the clock and hazard button, but those can unclip too.)
Below that there is space for a double-DIN unit. (By default these Corollas use that as a storage pocket with a door that folds out.) The dash panel around that also pops out in the same way, but you'll have to use the shifter override -- a button hidden under a little tab (that also pops out) in the top-left corner of the shifter area. With the car off and the emergency brake engaged, press the button and shift back to L.
Now you can pry the panel off; with it will come the ashtray and the cigarette lighter. There will be a wire for the lightbulb for the ashtray, which will pop out with some twisting and pulling. There will also be a harness for powering the cigarette lighter, which will pull out. Then you can access the brackets for those DIN slots/pockets in the same way.
I would also like to point out that the Sony MEX-BT5700U is available for purchase as of yesterday. It not only supports Bluetooth handsfree and A2DP (music streaming), but even AVRCP 1.3, which means not only navigating your music through the head unit, but having the ID3 track information displayed on the head unit.
It also has selectable colors for green, red, or blue, to better match your interior lighting (which I'm assuming is green).
I should add that it's important that you buy a head unit without (or with a removable) trim ring. There's not enough space for a trim ring in these DIN slots in the 8th Gen Corollas.
(Again, I recommend the Sony Xplod series, particularly the MEX-B5700U, because they have removable trim rings.)
I used to have my reservations about Sony and their Xplod headunits
The only complaint I've heard people make about the Sony Xplod head units is that they think the built-in amplifier is weak. My opinion is if this bothers you that much, you'd use the pre-outs and a dedicated amplifier anyway. (However, with 2-ohm Infinity 6.5" speakers, I think the built-in amp puts out more than enough volume without noticeable distortion. It's a low-cost low-effort solution to use the factory wiring and only change the head unit and speakers in an 8th Gen Corolla.)
Sony, by far, has the best Bluetooth compatibility, and that's been a total deal-maker for me.
Also, the price is very right for the lower tier MEX-BT2600 / BT3600 / BT3700 models; $150 or less. I only wish the Bluetooth models didn't use a blue color scheme; who seriously has blue dashboard lighting? But that's solved with the premium MEX-BT5700U, which offers selectable blue/red/green.
FS has the Sony 3700...otherwise, they are all other models...
I don't really need iPod anything, as I don't have an iPod. I just wish I could connect a huge HDD with songs and go. I'm ok with MP3's but would rather have lossless. A huge 500-1.5TB HDD would have more than enough room for .wav redbook cd quality songs in huge storage size.
A huge 500-1.5TB HDD would have more than enough room for .wav redbook cd quality songs in huge storage size.
Vibrations and bumps in a car will b0rk your 3.5" hard drive very quickly. Even 2.5" hard drives, with vibration protection (meant for laptops) tend to die rather quickly in a car environment. (Doubly so if you leave it in the car -- in the heat and cold.)
Also, will you have such an audiophile soundsystem to appreciate the difference between MP3 (or AAC) and lossless / WAV in your car? If not, the bottleneck for quality will be your speakers / amp, not the source files.
My opinion on pragmatism says that either you should get an 8GB USB stick (e.g. Imation Atom, $35 USD) to plug into the USB port of these head units, or put a 16GB MicroSD card in your Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone and listen to music stored there through Bluetooth A2DP.
Vibrations and bumps in a car will b0rk your 3.5" hard drive very quickly. Even 2.5" hard drives, with vibration protection (meant for laptops) tend to die rather quickly in a car environment. (Doubly so if you leave it in the car -- in the heat and cold.)
Also, will you have such an audiophile soundsystem to appreciate the difference between MP3 (or AAC) and lossless / WAV in your car? If not, the bottleneck for quality will be your speakers / amp, not the source files.
My opinion on pragmatism says that either you should get an 8GB USB stick (e.g. Imation Atom, $35 USD) to plug into the USB port of these head units, or put a 16GB MicroSD card in your Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone and listen to music stored there through Bluetooth A2DP.
Fair enough. Just getting a little anal on sound quality. I suppose if I use a good mp3 decoder I should be ok. Still, it would be cool to have dual-layer dvd's with .wav files, or a Blu-Ray disc with same...but anyhow..I have no problem with burning MP3's to CDRW's either.
I'm looking at Can Tire or Future Shop because zero interest no payments for 6 months.
I'll check to be sure before buying, but I would assume they are all pretty much anti-theft removable faceplates, right? Is this trim and the Corolla dash all ok with this?
The front factory speaker grilles look kinda dense, like they block lot's of sound, at least that's how they look in my 01 Corolla CE. Are there ways of mounting them with something else as the grille? Would I have to cut out the space in the door panel? It would be nice not to advertise the fact that there are decent speakers in there.
I was thinking of getting two sets of these Infinity speakers, one for the front,
and one for the back (Infinity Kappa 6 1/2" 2-Way Car Speaker (62.9I)):
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