Hi all

I am thinking of putting a CD player in my car (still have the original radio) nothing fancy though... Anyone done this before? I imagine one has to cut the silver plastic surround to allow a new unit to fit? Wire conversions/adaptors necessary? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Incidentally, while we're on the topic of radios, mine has alternator interference. Upon taking the alternator off, I noticed that there was a cylindrical item missing off the front, apparently it cancels the interference out. Are these readily available? Any specs of sorts I need to follow? Looks like it just screws on the front... Many thanks for any help.

 

Being an '82 is your radio the older style with two shafts? Or is it the later "DIN" style?

I suspect is the older two-shaft style and yeas the opening will need to be cut to fit a modern DIN-size radio/CD player. That silver face plate is a very thin and fragile piece of aluminum. Very easy to hopelessly distort when trying to cut. You'll need some very sharp snips of some sort

I'm not aware of any harness adapters for old Jags (others might chime in) so you'll probably just have to adapt/cut/splice the wiring....which is no big deal.


Probably a condenser. Quite common but some here with better electronics knowledge might be able to advise on a specific type or electrical 'value'

Cheers
DD

 

Nathan: yes, you can add a trunk-mounted CD changer of the FM Modulation type ( I did this in several of these cars). The CD then plays through the the radio unit and speakers already in your car. I always found the sound to be very good, but I used a Pioneer CD changer. The advantage with these units is that you are adding, not butchering; there is no visible change within the cabin and the CD changer is controlled by a small hand-held remote that can sit in the console cubby.
I would never consider installing a non-standard radio unit in the dash/console. It always looks very wrong. But for others, that is unimportant.

 

2 shafts sounds right, volume and tuning.

Thanks Doug, any values of any sorts are what I'm looking for, or maybe one off a scrap car?

As for the silver plate, trust me, I know where you're coming from!

 

Brilliant! Thanks Gregory. Yes the cosmetics were worrying me, I don't fancy getting rid of the old one, I'm quite fond of keeping things original. I like the idea of what you've mentioned, is it an easy job to set up? I'd like to keep it as original as possible.

 

How true.

I haven't been in the market for an aftermarket radio in years so things might've changed but last time I looked it was very difficult to find an aftermarket radio that looks right in a Jaguar or similar car. The trend is towards very glitzy looks and "Tokyo At Night" displays with flashing multi-color effects. Then you have scads of miniscule buttons with too-tiny-to-read labels, 'pull down' style screens/menus for making adjustments, etc. Strictly for teenagers in my opinion.

Yuck!

The only exceptions were a couple of very high end and very expensive models.

If anyone knows of some reasonably priced 'made for adults' choices, please speak up.

Cheers
DD

 

Heh heh. I had totally forgotten about the remote CD players even though I owned a few, ages ago. Time flies . yes, a perfectly good solution

The technical aspect is simple. The remote mounted CD player transmits via the antenna cable and your existing radio receives the transmission on xxx-designated FM frequency. Installation is mostly simple: mounting the unit, power and ground electrical hook-ups. The antenna cable aspect (lengths, routing) can be a minor challenge, depending on how/where you mount the unit.

Cheers
DD

 

Ha! Yes I'm certainly not a fan of the "Tokyo at night" look, would absolutely ruin everything. As for the "made for adults" option Doug, I'm going with Gregory's suggestion, I had never heard of songs from a CD being transmitted to a cassette player wirelessly, only USB's and memory cards etc, all to my distaste as well...

 

I found the Alpine range to be quite good for this purpose. We standardised on these in all our cars, just went slightly up range for steering wheel controls in my wifes cars. They are basic black, the display can be set back to just time/track/freq. They suit the black XJ6 panel quite well and have a simple look so not garishly out of place in an 80s car. FWIW.

 

Audio is not my strong suite. nut I've made several installs.
from crude and primitive to not too bad. Most worked fine. One was an abject failure!!!


It started in 55. My employer provided base model cars. A recent allowance of heaters was called "progressive"!! Conservative old line insurance company !


New cars had just started appearing with 12 volts. So, the used radios at a price were 6 volts. Adding them was 'tacitly" approved.
Leave the speakers and antenna in place when traded in... We underslung the units. Mine was a sleek one from a defunct older Hudson. Resistors for 12 to 6 sorta worked, but got hot...
My inelegant but workable was a center tap on the battery!!!


Decades later, the one in my 85 Ford F150 went defunct. Slick, I got a very late model take out from a Taurus. Neatly fitted the dash. Harness compatible. All well, but zilch, no lights or noise. Dark !!
Little did I realize it needed a security code to revive it. Junked in a pique. Off to the parts store. Audivox or similar. Fifty bucks. Basic install. Looked decent. worked great....


Presently, the Jaguar unit, a bit ancient, uses cassettes. does just fine. Only complaints. Teen buttons and mounted too low. I think it and the trip computer should swap slots!!! Mebbe???


The Jeep has one with a lot of frills. Seek and scan to tune a bit fussy. Toggle for highs nd lows look good, for my ears, naah, just centered them all. Last year of the cassette units, I think, next year went to CD's.


The idea of sending audio from the boot via the antenna cable
is so logical as to never have occurred to me!!!!


Audio from the air waves or the player, the radio cares not one whit!!!!


Carl.

 

Mine is an aftermarket market unit, its tiny, only about 3 inches deep, no cd player most of my music is on ipod, so i got a compatible player. Oh yeah and i can do the tokyo at night thing or set it a single color, i set it to green to march trip computer. Looks nice and works great, i have a post on here about it somewhere, easy to find on pc, not so much on phone!

 

Doug is correct - it is quite straightforward but I always had the stereo shop where I bought the CD unit do the installation. I used one of the ashtrays to hold the CD controller (the wire coming up through the bottom); it fit perfectly so that with the ashtray closed there was absolutely no indicatation in the cabin of any alteration. Since the CD modulation unit uses the FM function of the radio (on an unused frequency) it also uses the existing aerial.
No matter how "low key" a modern radio unit is, it is out of sync with the Series III interior, in my opinion. One note, though. The very last Series III V12 cars used a remote CD changer and an upgraded FM head unit in the dash - everything was controlled there - this system was also an Alpine system, factory installed. The first photo below shows a 1987 V12 VDP with the FM modulation CD changer in the trunk. You can see that there is no sign of it in the cabin. The second photo shows the trunk of a 1992 V12 VDP and the mounting location for the CD unit - whether factory installed or an aftermarket FM modulation unit. The third shows the 1992 Alpine head unit that controls the CD changer in the trunk as well as all radio functions.

 

I did a lot pf research on this subject - replacing the stock radio in my 86 XJ6.
Looked at a lot of "head units" yep... Tokyo at night ...then I found a new Nakamichi CD 400 Perfect !! Looks like a sophisticated stock unit. Only complaint I have is,.. I do not do enough "adjusting " and every so often I have to fish up the owners manual to get the answer to whatever it is I want to do. (even made a copy of the manual just in case I should lose the original - I would certainly be screwed.) Need a pilots license to use the thing. But coupled with a Sub woofer thatt sits on the rear parcel shelf and has a 10 inch speaker aimed at the inside of the rear window...bounces the bass around the car pretty well and helps the little speakers in the doors. I like it. Very tuneable. using the hard wired controller I keep in the frony cubby