How i install car stereo in sonata
I have a 2004 Sonata and I'm currently in the process of installing a new stereo system. It's really easy to remove the original radio, you just have to remove the wooden panel face plate that surrounds the radio and air vents.
There are two notches that pretty much lock the face plate on. Right above the ash tray and the bottom of the wooden panel face plate, there's a tiny notch that you can push up on. There's another one that's hidden right above the cigarette lighter. Just push a flat-blade screw driver into both notches and gently push up. Once you lift that up, slowly pull it towards you, and keep prying it open starting from the bottom and moving towards the top. Make sure you pull on it carefully since the air vent ducts and wiring for the fan controls are attached to the face plate. I didn't have to remove the wiring for the fan controls, since I was able to easily move the entire face plate out of the way.
There are four screws that hold the radio in place. Keep in mind, these are screwed in by some machine, so I'd recommend using a power screw driving so you don't end up stripping the screws. Once you remove the four screws you can easily slide out the radio and unplug the wiring harness and antenna.
I searched a lot of places for a converter that would fit directly from the wiring harness in the car to the plug in my new radio, but to no avail. I'm at the point now that I'm going to cut off the original harness in the car and splice the wires, and connect them to the new radio's wires using a crimper. It's really not that hard, but I wanted to avoid cutting and splicing since I previously thought you would lose a lot of sound quality. It turns out, I spoke with several people who did the same thing, and as long as you crimp the wires together properly, you really don't lose out on the sound quality. It's a fairly easy task since all the wires are color-coded, so just match the wires, splice just enough for it to fit inside the caps, and crimp them together.
Then just plug in the adapter into your new radio, screw it in, and you're good to go! I wish there were more adapters out there, but it looks like more and more cars are changing their wiring harnesses, probably to discourage us do-it-yourselfers and pay some insane amount of money to some chump in a dealership garage. Don't be discouraged though! It's really not that hard!
×