Original (Japanese) equipment ...

[admin]

The Japanese units that come as original equipment in ALL Japanese imports, including the Honda Stepwagon / Stepwgn, border on next to useless in the UK - the radio will ONLY tune in to Radio 2 (no bad thing, some might say!) and any Sat-Nav kit is unusable and CAN'T be easily or cheaply converted to work in the UK.

So - what can you do about it?

The cheapest solution is to buy a 'radio band expander' - easily available on the net (eg ebay) for a few quid - they vary in quality but will change the frequency range of the RADIO ONLY to UK bands HOWEVER!!! The frequency display on the radio itself WON'T match the frequency that you're tuned to The band expander simply plugs inline between the radio and the aerial with a live feed off the radio.

Next option - you need to buy a new unit - these days, reasonably good quality units are available under £100, but the sky's pretty much the limit, depending on what you want to install. One thing you WILL need though is a wiring adapter - an ISO lead - not expensive and available from any high-street motor parts store (eg Halfords) - I'll try to dig out the reference.

VR3 do some quite nice replacement units at a good price.

What we need here now is details of how to replace the original unit with your new one ...

Then - the difficult part - deciding how much you're going to spend on that new unit!

[Rob]

So how do you get the factory-fitted Sony radio out? - I obviously don't want to destroy my dashboard with hamfisted experimentation. Anyone done this successfully?

Thanks

Rob

[Vantastic]

I just managed to release the fascia panel around the radio/DVD and it popped off fine - used a small thin flat screwdriver. The radio unit was screwed to the dashboard using 4 philips screws.

I have also checked the wiring colours and found they matched the same year CRV wiring harness (see below for 2002 RF3 Stepwagon):

Radio Constant 12V+ Wire: White/Red
Radio Switched Ignition 12V+ Wire: Yellow/Red or Yellow/Green
Radio Ground Wire: Black
Radio Illumination Dimmer Wire: Red/Black

Radio Antenna Trigger Wire: N/A
Radio Amplifier Turn On Wire: N/A
Front Speaker Size: N/A
Front Speaker Location: N/A

Left Front Speaker Wire (+): Green/Black
Left Front Speaker Wire (-): Light Green
Right Front Speaker Wire (+): Green/Yellow
Right Front Speaker Wire (-): Gray/Red

Rear Speaker Size: N/A
Rear Speaker Location: N/A

Left Rear Speaker Wire (+): Blue/White
Left Rear Speaker Wire (-): Blue/Black
Right Rear Speaker Wire (+): Pink
Right Rear Speaker Wire (-): Blue/Yellow

Now the hard bit....
Has anyone found a suitable way to fit a DIN sized radio into the double DIN height opening?

[Vantastic]

UPDATE: I sourced a general DIN fitting (plasitc box) from Halfords and reused the mounting plates from the 2 x DIN DVD/TV/SatNAV box that was originally fitted - quite straight forward and a neat solution. So now I have a standard Sony CD / Radio (1 x DIN size) and a CD storage box underneath that takes 2 CD boxes. All neatly finished off with the original surround fitting. I need to sort out a new aerial though so we don't have radio at the moment.

Any suggestions re better aerials?

[Vantastic]

The other piece of the jigsaw you need is the ISO pin layouts.

They can be found here: http://www.tehnomagazin.com/Auto-radio-car-connector/ISO-konektor.htm

I decided to connect the radio directly into the Honda connector rather than convert to ISO connectors as we will keep this radio for a long time. You might wish to convert the Honda wiring loom to a ISO output. However to do this you need to buy a female ISO connector set which are available from Halfords. You might find one for the Honda CRV which would be a good starting point.

Good luck and let us know how you get on!

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