How To Install A Car Radio

By: Nick Blair

Break Studios Contributing Writer

There are many reasons you may need to know how to install a car radio. Whether you have a damaged radio, or just an outdated one, the process is generally the same to install the radio in the car. It is a fairly simple process if you have worked with wiring before.

What You'll Need:

New radio (make sure it is compatible with your ride!)
Screwdriver (Philips or flat head depending on what screws are used)
Electric tape
Wire cutters
Wire strippers
Wiring harness (make sure it fits your radio)

Start by removing the negative wire from you cars battery. This will assure that there is not power going to the wiring in the car and will ensure that there are no electrical accidents.
Now remove the dash panel from the area cover above the radio. Use the flathead screwdriver to pry off the dash panel because this is essential to remove the old car radio unit. Make sure to not bend the panel when you take it off because it could possibly not
Next, remove the old radio unit by unscrewing it from the slot. Make sure to put the screws in a safe place so you can keep them with the head car radio unit. Also make sure to not rip the radio out because remember the wires are still attached!
If there are no screws on the radio, then you it should be removed by sliding it out of the slot. There are special tools made that go into the crevices and allow you to pull it out, but you should be able to work it out with the flat head screwdriver if your patient!
Not cut the wires holding the original car radio in. Make sure not to cut it back to far as this could make it harder to put another car radio in.
Now strip the wires back about two inches. Make sure not to go too far past this as you don’t want a lot of exposed wire.
Now take the harness and connect the wires that are fed from the car into it. It may or may not be color coded, but there should be two rectangle shaped boxes and one will not fit into the other, so using the process of elimination, put them in.
Now connect the opposite side of the harness to the wires in the radio. It should be the same case with the rectangular boxes.
If your new car radio has a specially made metal slot, then slide it into the car slot. Most of these have tabs on all four sides to secure into the slot by pushing them down tightly into the area of the slot.
Now slide the new car radio unit into the specifically made metal slot. It should just slide into the metal slot and lock into place.
Lock your dash panel back into place. It also should just lock into place with a little bit of pressure!