I know very little about cars and stereo systems. I just got a car the other day, and it had a Kenwood head unit installed. Only problem is, it doesn't work. Some of the buttons are broken, rendering it useless. I was looking at getting a new head unit (probably JVC) and I was wondering if I would have to go through all of the wiring. Or would it be as simple as unplugging it from the other unit and plugging it into the new one? Details:1999 Ford EscortOld head unit: Kenwood KDC-MP628Possible new unit: JVC KD-S37
Jvc Car Stereo Wiring Harness
Each car has its own wire harness created for it on a custom-made basis. This is particularly true for after-market items such as stereos. The harness essentially connects two types of essential things between your stereo unit and the car itself: a. sound (RF) signals from the unit to your speakers; b. electrical power from your car's battery to the unit. Fortunately, at some point along the system, your speakers should accommodate the new stereo (provided that they are of sufficient wattage rating to handle the power specifications). And, of course, since 99.9% of cars run on 12-volt systems, the power supply can be connected easily to your new stereo unit. However, all of this said, you will likely need to purchase a new wiring harness in a way that directly interfaces between your stereo and the car's speaker and power systems. If you have a friend who is technically gifted, he or she may be able to install the new stereo for you without having to go out and buy an expensive harness. It's worth a try.
It will not be plug and play. Different companies use different pinouts for there harnesses. Even if you go with the same company they tend to change them over time so that might not even work. If you are lucky the previous one was installed with a vehicle harness adaptor so wiring in the new harness will be easy. If it was wired straight in it could be a little tricky as you may not have a lot of wire to work with.
You can keep the vehicle harness and just find a harness the fits it and hard wire the wires from the stereo deck to it. I just installed a stereo in my vehicle that came with a VW wiring harness, but I was putting it in a pontiac aztek. So I bought a GM harness off OKorder that fit the one in my vehicle, cut off the VW harness and hard wired the wires into the new harness. Works perfectly. One thing you do need to do is find a wiring harness for the vehicle harness, and one for the wires from your stereo deck and make sure each of the wires lines up with the wires in vehicles harness pins. Sounds like a lot more work than it is.
