bivron

Top man, thanks, gonna give it a go this weekend :) I think the front will be ok tempararily, you shouldnt damage them at least. The backs were a definate tho. It is easy, just 6-8 hours of back breaking labour. Im in the middle of building my base box now, these jobs are never finished :) ←

Thanks for the reply,you make it sound so easy :D I have just got some new back speakers, do i have to get new ones or will the fronts be ok for the time being? Trying not to spend too much cash im ment to be saving for my 3 1/2 week jaunt to OZ in october :D If i need the fronts, can anyone recommend a good sounding reasonable priced set? You definately need to change the back ones, the fronts you should really change too. Changing the speakers probably means new wiring too. The whole thing is pretty straight forward. You are gonna need to make mdf pannels cut to the shape of the factory standard speakers outa 6mm mdf. This is so you can mount the new ones in the holes, two tear drop shaped ones for the front, 2 big ovals for the back. Probably best to get composite front speakers not components, i got components and the tweeters were a bitch to get in the space allowed in the factory standard tweeter covers. running the wiring is easy from back to front, there is a guide here somewhere to take out the back seats and front door cards. run the new speaker wire up the passenger side of the car then the door speakers you need to run the wire through that flexi grommet thing. I unplugged all the door connectors from inside the car and pulled em out so i could feed the new wires through easy, all straight forward again. Run the wires either behind the glovebox or under the carpet to the center console. Solder em into an iso connector or the alpine one that came with the head unit. Piggy back the power, earth and ignition on. Keep all the old speakers, that way when you sell the car you can just plonk everything back into the car and plug the old head unit wire straight back in :) This hole job took me about 6 hours including the cutting of the mounts etc. But I done this sort of thing on more cars than i care to count :) Its good fun tho, start on saturday morning and you should be done sunday night :) ←

was gonna try and keep the front speakers and maybe change the backs as i;ve read there quite tricky to get to work properly with the new unit. I dont really want to put an amp/sub in just yet as the missus took a lot of convincing on the new head unit :duh: and she needs as much space in the boot for all her bleedin shopping.

Ello all, I'm reasonably new to these forums but have found the information provided very usefull. My problem is that i have been given an alpine head unit with the ipod adaptor for my birthday following the death of the radio on my factory installed system. After extensively thumbing thorugh these pages i have decided that to try and install my gear myself into my is200 se (99) would be suicidal so im looking for a recommended installer in the kent area, preferably north kent ( bluewater area). I had a quote from a shop in orpington and was quoted £150 + vat and maybe even more if the job went on longer than anticipated. Is this about standard or is the bloke trying to rip my balls off :duh: Whilst playing about with the old unit i have removed the factory installed amp and head unit and installed the new facia so surely half the job done or am i dreaming lol. Any recommendation would be greatly appreciated. Paul

Hiya im new here so hello every1. i've read with increasing horror the stories of trying to install a new head unit into the is200 se so seeing your post gave me hope :) , i already got the head unit and ipod adaptor for me birthday and its just sitting here gathering dust, where did ya get your install done and what did it cost as ive just had a quote from some place in orpington £150 + vat and he said it might even cost more . I'm in north kent and as i've taken the Factory installed unit out im desperate to get some sounds back into the car.