Hey guys,

I am looking to replace my cd player in my XTYPE to either a double din fixed screen dvd player or a single din pop up screen dvd player and replace a blown speaker in one of the back doors and I am just looking for advice based on your experience and knowledge.


I'd like to do the job myself however I am fairly new to doing this kind of work (only a couple of times on much more universal (easy) cars. I've read everything I can find online (this forum, other forums, youtube, etc) regarding putting in an after market radio into an X-Type. I am getting such mixed messages I am debating whether I could do it myself or if a shop could even do it for a reasonable amount of money.

Is it a fairly easy install? The things that have me tripped up (and forgive me because I do not know a lot about this) are whether a double din will always fit with due to other stuff behind the radio, fiber optics and how the car is wired. I've heard that in order to do it you'd need to rewire basically the whole car and add amps, etc. Also, I saw another member (dennis black) here who posted nice pictures of all he did and when he installed his head unit he had to do some wiring to the dimmer / light dial to the left of the steering wheel and also needed, he also had a stereo adapter and an antenna adapter which I am not familiar with. To be honest, these things would be over my head in respect to installing

Then with the speaker in the back door, I was just going to replace the broken one with an OEM speaker off of ebay, then I decided 2 new ones would cost similar if I could do the work myself. However, I didn't know if it would be as simple as removing the old speakers and installing the new ones. (basically connecting the wires with adaptors) or if there was some other main wiring issues that would need to be taken care of as well.

I was planning on going through crutchfield as I have used them in the past and they are always very helpful and send everything you need in respect to your vehicle (all wires, adapters, plugs, housing, etc.)

Can anybody give me any advice? I know questions like this are asked on this forum quite often so if there is anything I missed, just point me in the right direction.

Thanks so much in advance!!

 

Well, took off the back door panel to take a look at the blown speaker and low and behold just as many have said, I broke 2 or 3 of the plastic door clips. I was being very careful too. Now looks like I not only have to figure out how to install the headunit and speakers, I now have to buy and figure out how to install the door clips

 

tobia, replacing the radio can be easy, it can be hard. I see 2 things making the project easy or difficult for you. The easier question is how much you know about wiring? Are you someone that doesn't do a lot of wiring and find it difficult, something that knows what is going on, or are you someone that works with electricity A LOT??? Your electrical ability is going to be key.

The other thing that can stop things right in their tracks is whether you have to access the heat-A/C through the radio or if you have the buttons/panel above the radio. if they are integrated into the radio, then you are pretty much stuck as to retrofit things is going to be very costly and involve lots of rewiring (I have contemplated this and have decided against it and I work with electronics for a living).

As for fitting a radio, you are pretty much open to whatever you want. There is enough room to do what you are after unless you are getting some really deep radio.

 

Thanks a lot for your response. I am not an expert by any means but I have wired other car headunits without any problem.

My AC/heat is all controlled from the top portion of the unit (directly under the hazards) and is not controlled through the bottom two sections of radio

I am not going to be keeping the steering wheel controls and am not going to be using gps through the unit

 

I've thought about doing this myself as well. I have the stock cd player and speakers, and it's pretty decent but having mp3's would be nice, having louder speakers and more bass would be nice, having a touchscreen would be cool. I found some wiring kits for the x-type on ebay for around $40 if you haven't seen them. I don't think it would be any harder than any other stereo if you have experience. I have only wired one car stereo before and it was a cassette player. It honestly doesn't look that difficult but if you are going to be replacing all the speakers and stuff then it's going to get a little more complicated. What kind of stereo are you looking at? I found a touchscreen unit on Amazon for $150 but it had mixed reviews. I'm looking for something not super expensive but decent. I would like to get an amp and a subwoofer too but don't know much about all that stuff.

 

take a look here

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...s-info-102632/

 

The only thing that has me semi-worried is the fiber optics cable. I am not sure how this connects to the new in dash. If there is an adapter or what. I have no experience with the fiber optics, etc.

Also, it seems like the speakers in the door are very shallow so only oem speakers fit unless you make a custom housing, I believe. Which is out of my league.

I am looking at something like

Pioneer AVH-X1500DVD DVD receiver at Crutchfield.com

or

Soundstream VR-622HB DVD receiver at Crutchfield.com

The nice thing about cruthfield is that they send the housing and all the cables for your specific car to do the install for free. I used them on my first install ever with no knowledge on installing any type of car audio and it went flawlessly. I had to call them one time to help me with a wire question and their customer service is seriously top notch!

I think I am just going to go for it and try. If worse comes to worse, I will either take it to a shop if I cant figure it out or send the head unit back and revert to stock. I figure its worth a try

 

thanks a lot dennis black

I appreciate all your knowledge and generosity of sharing with detailed pictures. I have been through a lot of your posts tediously gaining tips. I am genuinely jealous of your mechanical know-how.