i bought a pioneer single din radio with the flip up screen for dirt cheap off a friend of mine. im looking to install it in the xk8 but i heard some aftermarket parts to work with stock parts. i was never able to find the answer i was looking for while searching through the forum so i figured id just come out and ask.

would an aftermarket face work with the stock amp?

im not looking to do a big system in the car. the one it has suites me fine. and i dont care about the steering controls or the 6 cd changer because its broken anyway.

 

I have made them work before with no problems, the only issue I had was with the ones the screen that comes out (7" screen), you really had to make sure you was not in Park when you switched it on

 

lmao ill make sure that wont happen. i went to a place that wanted to charge me $250 to install it because they needed to make a custom faceplate. i thought that was high till i went somewhere else and they wanted 500. i just wasnt sure if it would work and i didnt want to pay all that money to install it and be stuck with no radio until i bought an amp.

 

Hi, any good hi end audio shop can make it work, if you are handy you can to, I installed an Alpine in my XJR, with the Harmon Cardon system, and kept my stock amp and speakers, If i remember right, i had to put an impedance matching transformer from the Alpine to the amp input, the amps power on, trigger wire worked fine with the Alpine. If thats is of any help.. Chris

 

i know nothing about wiring lol. mechanical work im excellent with but when you start talking about wiring i get brain dead. any reputable shop ive been to says its an incredibly hard job and they wants 500 and up. i know it isnt that hard but people are trying to play me stupid. ill try a few more shops and see what price i can get but the cheapest so far is 250 which i think its still high to install a radio only

 

I charged the guy £100 to do it which I guess equates to around $150(ish)

 

Hey XKRacer,
Can you tell me how you made this work? I have a 2002 jaguar XKR with the Alpine premium system. All I want to do is replace the stock deck with a aftermarket deck, I want to leave everything else stock, I dont plan on using the cd changer anymore so I dont need that to work. I just need to know how to make the stock amplifier work with the aftermarket deck? I live in canada so I obviously couldnt bring it to your shop.

Thanks!

 

I'll try to answer ya vinnie, xkracer will correct me if I'm wrong in any way, form, or fashion.

First, I hope you don't have the navigation, because as soon as you break the loop between CD changer, NAV and the OEM head unit, you will lose the ability to operate the NAV...however, the screen will be functional...ie, you'll get the leaper or clock, whichever version of the software you have) I tried this initially, and if i wanted to change the daylight savings time twice a year, I had to get the old head unit out and connect it up (I patched some connectors to reach outside the center console just for this reason) in order to access any navigation menus, including the time settings. PITA!

Assuming you don't have nav, the setup is very similar to what you are trying to install.You'll have to get the electrical schematic for your 2002, its laid out VERY nicely in PDF form on the jaguar technical information system CD, you can get on ebay, download from here (look in our FAQ thread in the xk8-xkr subforum) or on gus's page, link's to his page are also in the FAQ thread.

The new head unit will have pre-amp outputs, now they are RCA so you'll either have to cut them apart to solder directly to the wiring, or find the correct leads going to the amp and create/fabricate an RCA connection onto them to pair up with the new deck. There will be L-front, R-front, L-rear, R-rear and a subwoofer lead to find (if its a coupe) and a L-front, R-front and subwoofer lead (if its a vert) as well as the remote power lead. Other than that, there isn't much to it. Faceplate is the one that requires the most attention, since it is visual to the project, and the color/texture takes awhile to match.

 

Thanks alot h20boy! and yes I have the setup without the nav system. So I will definently give this a try and hopefully all goes well.

Thanks!