HOW-TO: make all the stock SVT stuff work with aftermarket radio!

[hurtinfocus]

ok, so I took this on and tried referencing a bunch of how-to's on here, but everyone's SUCK. None of them outlined all of the issues you will run into so I decided to make one as complete as I could. I chose the JVC KW-XR810. I wanted iPod connectivity, Bluetooth, and the ability to retain the factory subwoofer and steering wheel controls. I am WAY MORE than happy with this radio. If it were not for all the issues of tracing wires and looking up wiring schematics this could have been finished in about 2-3hrs time. mine took 6hrs.


DISCLAIMER: this is REALLY hard to write in a specific order, so bear with me....it's going to jump around alot.


OK! lets start with some things you will need:

This is the Axxess ASWC system for adapting the factory steering wheel controls.


it has a ton of wires on it, but you only use ONE haha. I'll get to that later.

antenna adaptor


wiring harness adaptor


ok, so I ordered this kit on someone else's how-to recommendation, but it is WRONG.
wiring harness part#: Scosche FDK11B


however, it proved to be a perfect donor for some important wiring parts. so actually, I reccomend purchasing it haha.

SO on to what you need to do. the wiring harness adaptor is color coded and match the harness on whatever radio you choose. solder those two up....EXCEPT for the remote blue/white wire, and the red and black wires(switched power and ground). before you solder the red and black, strip the ends of the black and red wires from the ASWC, you are going to solder these in all together. (still don't solder the black at this point, we have to add a fourth wire to the bunch of ground wires.)

Now, you have a third wiring connector in your dash and it looks like this:


this is where that wrong connector comes in handy. get a hammer (seriously).


the plastic connector is useless, but the wires having nice connector pins on the ends is perfect. quick way to cannabalize this is set it down on the concrete and smash the heck out of the plastic until you are left with only the wires. Take ONE of the blue/white wires and solder it to the new radio's matching wire. This is going to go into that third connector from the dash. The rest wou'll know what to do with after the next few directions.

on the top right you have 5 pins there. THESE are important. The way these pin-out is as follows:

starting from the top right working toward the top middle
black/grey: put the black pin end from one of the RCA wires that came from the smashed connector

white/black: put the colored pin from the same RCA wire-end here. If you chose to use the white RCA wire, this will be the white pinned wire, if you chose red, the pinned wire will also be red.

brown/yellow: this wire is going to be grounded, so use one of your blue/white pinned wire from the smashed connector and plug it in here, and add some wire to it and solder that in with your other three ground wires we have collected.

white/black(I know, two of the same....wierd, which is why I am working in order from top right inward to top left in order) this wire is the connector for the steering wheel controls. connect the white with green tracer wire from the ASWC....I used a wiring connector I had from a wiring kit because we have run out of usable pinned wires from the smashed connector.

white/red: this is the remote turn on for the factory amplifier. This is where the blue/white wire goes from the new radio....you should have soldered your other blue/white pinned wire from the smashed connector to the radio's harness....so just pluc that pin in here and your done with this. Tape up the pinned wires so that they don't touch each other and can't get yanked out of the factory harness.

moving on..... the ASWC also has a wire that looks like a headphone jack. the JVC unit has a place to plug this in, it is what completes the adaptor wiring for the factory controls to work.

this particular radio came with a really nice microphone setup that is used for the bluetooth, so I ran this through the dash, up the pillar, and mounted the Mic here:

I REALLY REALLY like the cleanliness of this spot, and its up nice and high so it's easy to catch what you're saying without taking you're eyes off the road.

this JVC unit has two USB ports, one is on the back, I wired my iPod cord to this. I took the ashtray out, and heated up the the pull-tab thing on it and mashed it flat so I could mount an iPod holder to it. I dremeled a spot underneath the pull tab to put the USB wire through liks so:


ALMOST DONE! so, you need a Double DIN install kit, remove the mounting baskets and all that jazz and put the install kit on like so:



I also figured out thanks to someone else's how-to that once mount the radio, it doesnt come back out without trashing the dash. so remove the four screws that hide behind the radio so next time you have to remove it you just yank the whole surround and remove the radio from the back without trashing the surround.


trim all the excess plastic around the radio hole on the surround so the radio actually fits through. you also have to trim some of the inside-dash plastic. at this point, you will be done. follow the directions on the ASWC to program the steering wheel controls before you throw everything back in the dash.

YOU'RE DONE!

should look something like this!



any questions, ask....I hope I got it all.

[Sponsor]

[johnkos]

Looks nice but what really caught my eye was your ipod mount. I have an iphone holder that is suckered to the windshield. Yours is much cleaner. How is it attached?

[hurtinfocus]

Originally Posted by johnkos

Looks nice but what really caught my eye was your ipod mount. I have an iphone holder that is suckered to the windshield. Yours is much cleaner. How is it attached?

self-tapping sheet metal screws through the back of the ashtray. the holder is a cheapy from walgreens and the ashtrays are like $1 at the junkyard and pretty plentiful. I didnt feel bad about it haha

[ScreamnYellow03]

This is the EXACT same stereo I was lookin' at buying. How is it working out? Sound good? Nice write up too man. Thanks!

[hurtinfocus]

Originally Posted by ScreamnYellow03

This is the EXACT same stereo I was lookin' at buying. How is it working out? Sound good? Nice write up too man. Thanks!

In all honesty, I LOVE this stereo. When I was considering going to something aftermarket, the biggest thing that bothered me with numerous of the other double DIN options is that they are all very "orthagonal" for lack of a better term. Most of them (especially touchscreen/nav units) are super boxy/square and with a contoured dash like the focus they all fit like and look like complete donkey dick.

I figured since I have a smartphone with bluetooth and nav on it, I could simply bluetooth or aux-in the phone for those when necessary. The JVC unit here has a TON of awesome features. I havent even begun to find all the capabilities and mess with them.

by the way, you can design your own colors for day mode and night mode.....turning on your headlights automatically switches the color to night mode. It's pretty slick

[Brichter14]

Great write up. I am going to duplicate this cuz I love my svt controls but miss pandora.

[qweesy]

very nice thank you for the write up and pics

[hurtinfocus]

glad people are still finding it useful two years after I wrote it lol

[Brichter14]

Does the preset selection button on the svt controls change presets on that head unit?

[hurtinfocus]

Originally Posted by Brichter14

Does the preset selection button on the svt controls change presets on that head unit?

I don't actually know the answer to that, because when I installed this I ended up having bought the wrong antenna adaptor....and since I actually HATE local radio, I've never used AM/FM.....its ALWAYS running my ipod through the rear USB connection (which is AWESOME)......the preset button lets me skip through songs from the steering wheel....which is SUPER effective when I have the ipod on shuffle to skip songs I don't feel like hearing at the moment they come on....