xsara audio system?

dragon · 07-06-2009, 00:23

Does anyone know how hard it would be to change the Headunit in a 03 xsara desire and what extra kit i'd need to buy other than the headunit?

I don't want to make the mistake i made with my KA where i put a too powerfull headunit in and blew the stock speakers (I think i had the windows right down on a hot day and turned it up to drown the noise out on the motorway, it was a while ago)

The KA has an amp driving aftermarket speakers but I can't be bothered to rip it all out as it's a right PITA to rewire. (to lazy to take the door panels off)

From memory the stock cd-player in the xsara is standard DIN size, but I'd probably need to buy a wiring kit and then some kind of adaptor to make the stalk thing on the steering coloum work with a 3rd party HU.

Or perhaps if it's easier and costs about the same, I could get an Ipod/mp3 player adaptor or cd changer for the stock one?

Tbh I don't care for changing speakers and stuff thesedays but i prefer to have a larger selection of music available than just 1 cd holds without fumbling around looking for a certian disk so any help would be apprciated.

Xaccers · 07-06-2009, 02:24

AFAIK, your wiring is multiplex, so you'll need an adaptor, for the C5 it's £45 from your local main stealer, so I'd guess the xsara is the same.
Apparently you can get away without the facia adaptor, but it looks better with (see ebay).

dragon · 28-06-2009, 20:21

The stock HU was only playing cd's when it felt like it.

So I popped it out and had a look on the back, surprisingly there were 3 connectors, 2 of which were standard eurodin compatible and the 3rd was presumably for the stalk control and display.etc

I went down argos (wanted it instantly otherwise id have orderd online) and bought a sony Headunit popped it in the hole plugged the connectors in (leaving the 3rd one out) and it appears to work.

Only thing I had to do was swap the Yellow and the Red wires so that it didn't lose it's settings after I turned the car off (Sony manual suggests that if you have problems and helpfully they put in-line push fit connectors on the wires on the included sony > ISO harness to make it a doddle to do.)

I then set the auto off timer to kill the display 30s after the HU has been turned off so that it doesn't stay on and flatten the car battery.

Have to manually turn it off with the "off" button at the moment but that's only a minor inconvenience.
The cars display seems to still display informational messages and the time so it appears disconnecting the stock HU didn't prevent it from functioning properly.

I do need to get a stalk adaptor if I want the steering wheel controls to work, which I might do, although that costs almost half what I paid for the HU itself.