Replacing a standard car radio – what nuances should a car owner pay attention to?

Nuances of replacing a standard radio that you should pay attention to before buying a new car radio and ordering its installation in Kyiv. Depending on the brand, model and year of your car, there may be different criteria for choosing, buying, installing and connecting a car radio. And the diagonal size of the radio screen, its installation size, and so on are also important. Let’s figure it out.

When we started our way in car audio, everything was simple – most cars did not even have a banal basic 1-din radio, not to mention complex solutions such as CAN-Bus, climate control, cameras or all-round viewing systems, buttons on the steering wheel, and so on. There were no standard speakers and complex audio systems with more than 16 speakers and time delays. And if earlier we talked about a simple installation of a radio, now we are talking about an extended one – taking into account .

Nuances of replacing a standard radio

What factory solutions can affect/complicate the installation of a new car radio instead of the standard one? Here is the main list:

  • Buttons on the steering wheel
  • Rear view camera
  • Climate control
  • CAN-Bus bus
  • Navigation
CarPlay radio for Opel Insignia

How to Keep Steering Wheel Buttons Working After Replacing Your Car Radio

The first thing that owners of modern cars encountered until recently was the impossibility of controlling a new car radio with the factory buttons on the steering wheel. Specific adapters were required to “make friends” between the buttons and the radio. An entire industry appeared offering a variety of adapters for connecting to the standard wiring.

In recent years, Chinese radios have been most often purchased and installed in Ukraine, which include the necessary adapters to maintain the operation of the standard steering wheel buttons. Sometimes you have to buy such a connector separately.

The nuance of replacing the standard radio is the fact that the steering wheel button adapters have different connectors – for brand radios (Pioneer, Alpine, JVC) and for Chinese radios, the connectors have a different shape and a different number of pins. In the photo on the left and right, you can see the difference in connectors:

Synchronization with factory CAN-Bus

To successfully synchronize a new radio, you may need a special interface that connects to the CAN-Bus bus. These adapters provide data exchange between the radio and other vehicle systems, such as steering wheel control and information displays.

After installation, check the settings of the radio. It may be necessary to perform diagnostics of the system for the correct operation of all functions related to CAN-Bus. This is an important point – we often encounter the fact that after installing and connecting a new device, everything works incorrectly, and all this is due to incorrect settings of the adapter. We have eaten a dog on connecting radios of any configuration in cars of any complexity. We have many recommendations for setting up the CAN-Bus bus on Chinese radios.

Keeping the factory rear view camera working

Another nuance of replacing the standard radio is preserving the operation of the factory rear view camera. That is, the standard camera will work in any case, but the image from the camera will not be displayed without an additional adapter, which means the camera becomes useless. What to do? Connect a special adapter that preserves the operation of the standard camera with a non-standard radio.

Some installers may use their own home-made methods to connect the factory rearview camera to the new car radio, but we like elegant solutions that guarantee the safe operation of all the car’s electrics. For example, here is an adapter for Nissan cars that have a camera installed by the manufacturer, and which will work with any car radio from any manufacturer if you connect this adapter:

Climate control

Before purchasing a new car radio, make sure it is compatible with your car’s climate control system. Some models may support climate control functions via interfaces such as CAN bus.

In case the new radio does not support integration with climate control, consider using adapters. These devices can provide communication between the radio and the climate system, preserving all functions.

When installing a new radio, follow the instructions carefully. Pay attention to the wires responsible for climate control to avoid damage and preserve all original functions.

Fortunately, manufacturers of Chinese radios have taken care to ensure that the image with information from the factory climate control is displayed on the screen of the new radio – this works due to adapters that are usually included in the kit. Most often, owners of VW cars encounter this nuance. Here is what the image with information from the factory climate control of the VW Tiguan may look like: