Touchscreen Stereo

My mom often gawks at how my new car shows my iPhone on the screen like as if it’s a big iPad. Or, how I can text somebody back by talking to Siri. I don’t know if that means she would actually want that for herself, but it does mean that I want that for her. Also, I kind of want it for me. Driving a car that has only FM radio tests your patience.

I found a decent but not too fancy touchscreen unit from Crutchfield and had it shipped to me with all the parts necessary to install it.

The boss!

Then I pulled apart the dashboard, ripped out the old dusty one, and got to hooking up the wires...

Old dusty

Mess-o-wires

This is where it looks like I know how to wire stuff, I don’t. I paid extra for Crutchfield to pre-wire everything and send me a plug-and-play adapter with it. But, bam!

I also had to run this microphone somewhere nearby so mom can drive to the dollar store and call me to fix her computer at the same time.

Success!

And we’re installed, but we aren’t done yet. The stereo came with two free rear speakers, and anything is better than what’s in here already. The audio in this car sounds like a tin can and string phone.

So, just one more step…

Old dusty

There that looks better.

And we’re functional! I actually hooked these things up without ruining everything. Go me.

Feeling confident, I also attempted to hook up a rear camera to this thing because this monster could really use one when going in reverse. I spent hours running the video wire all the way to the back of the car, then trying to find the right wire to tap into so that it turns on automatically when you put the car in reverse. Didn’t find it. Then realized that I still needed to drill a hole in the rear hatch door to install the camera into. Gave up.

Camera is sitting in a closet. No pictures were taken during this episode. Just gonna try and forget that part happened.