2008 PT Cruiser install

[jonnievoodoo]

Hello everyone, this is my 1st post on this site. 1st i would like to say thank u to everyone who shares info. i did a lot of reading before I bought the radio and you guys helped me make up my mind to buy the f700. Now I hope I can help someone else who might be thinking of doing the same with my same type of car. i went to pricegrabbers.com and found it for $370. not bad concidering I see this radio at BestBuy for almost $900.

 

1st If anyone told me what I would of had to do to get this radio in the car I might not of bought it!!My car only fits 1 & 1/2 din radios not 2 din. which also means there is no read adapter kit for my car as well. I could not find an correct wiring diagram either. It took me 3 days of staying up until 3am to get this thing to fit and work.

 

Let me say I do have some pic and I will post them asap. I bought 2 adapter kits the Scocshe and Metra kit. I also but both wiring adapters and both antenna kits for Scoshce and Metra. I actually used the Scosche install kit, the Metra antenna adapter and no wiring kit. None of the wiring kits work. I had to do it old school with a test light and track the speaker wires. I the main tools I used are a dremmel (let me say you will need the smallest dremmel you can find because there is very little room to work with), a test light, both types of screw drivers, a wire cutter/stripper and a hex for the four radio screws.

 

To take the dash panel off there is 1 screw each in the 2 center vents. You may need a flash light to see them. after you take them out you gently muscle off the panel starting at the bottom. Do not pull it all the way off because you will have to disconnect some wires. disconnect the clock wire on top and the power window controls. to take off the power window wire connector you must push the red slider on the right side of the connector all the way up. after that you squeeze the center of the connector and pull it at the same time. once u get those off you can lay the panel down but you will still have the ac/heating controls and the hazard wires still connected you can take those off by squeezing the wiring harness and pulling. There are 4 screws for the climate controls. In Dash pic 1 you will see what it looks like when you 1st take off the dash panel. In dash pic 2 you will see what it looks like after you cut out all plastic.

 

Remove the 4 hex screws for the radio and disconnect all the wiring and antenna. I had to use a dremmel to cut all the plastice from in back of the radio out. the center bar going across has a steel bat under the plastic so be careful. If you have never worked with a dremmel before be careful! you can easly cut things that shouldn't be cut. take your time and try to get what ever you can out of your way. know what you are going to do before you do it. once you get all the plastic out of the way you now have the steel bar. I tried cutting this thing with the dremmel. It didn't work and there were sparks so I stopped. I bent the bar down and back as much as i could and it work.

 

You will have to cut the center dash face panel. I was nervous doing this too!I used a measuring tape to figure how much off the top and sides. I did not cut the bottom because there is very little to cut. I put the dash over the face of the radio. Make sure it is centered. figure out how much to cut. Use the dremmel to cut what you have to. TAKE YOUR TIME AND KEEP YOU HANDS STEADY!

 

Once you did all that you now have to prepare your radio with the install kit. I recommend the Scosche kit that is suppose to be for the 2008 PT Cruiser single din. You use the 2 side attachment for the radio on each side. Cut the small parts that make an L section of the 2 small side bracing platic parts. You will see the original way it looks in pic 1 and how it will look in pic 2. Then you cut out the top and bottom thin plastic pcs from away from the sides of the one unit making 2 seperate sides. In the pic 3 you will see how I did it for the bottom. You must do the same for the bottom.

 

I will not have any pics after this point because I started to get pissed and aggravated. So I will try to explain it as much as possible.

 

Once you attach the 2 side bracing parts to the radio (I recommend you use 2 screws in each side for stablization), you will have to make an additional cut to the new sides you made when you cut the main adapter center pcs so you can slide the unit up. slide it about half way up. Screw it back in put the dash face panel back on. if it measure correct take a pencil and mark it. take it back out and noew you will have to crazy gule the side so they will stay put. make sure you do this right other wilse you might not get it to seperate if you need to!

 

All of that was the hard part of the installation. not is is time to wire it up. The radio wires are clearly labeld. Un hook the battery positive and cut the radio connector main radio connector. There is a smaller connector and that is for Sat radio. Do nott mess with that one you don't need it. the 2 red waire are you positives and the 2 balcks are both negatives. The rest of the wires are speaker wires. The speaker wires with the colored stripes on them are negatives. you will have to connect the radio and test them to figure which are which. don't worry if you cross the speaker wires it wont hurt anything just don't let the pos and neg touch anything else. You should be donee after that.

 

Now there is the problem of the center dash plate having the 2 cresent shapes on the sides where the nobes use to be. I think if you use some kind of material to frame the radio to cover it. i am think of using some label stock stickers putting something creative on it like my DJ name (Dj VooDoo) put you can use what ever you like to frame it out.

 

I have pictures but I don't know how to code them so i can show them on this post. once I figure it out I will let you know.

[Drunkenweasel]

Hey guy, hope all ends well with your install. I installed the AVIC-F700BT in my 206 Cruiser last month. I thought it was one of my easier installs. I admit I usually do some sort of major surgery when it comes to stereo installs.

 

Unless Chrysler change the wiring big time from 2006 to 2008 you should have been able to use the general late model wiring kit. all the speakers are there as is main power. just lighting and ignition you have to tap into.

 

I only cut out the raised nibs on the base the stock radio sat on. I didn't need to cut out the whole section. I just cut out a portion of the upper section below the a/c vents, and it all fit right in.

 

Then I just carefully filed out equal amounts top and bottom of the dash face and the system fit right in. I then also used the half circle parts from the install kit i bought. I also used the brackets out of the same install kit

 

I had always meant to take pics and document my progress, so I could post it. but as usual I got to lazy and impatient to do so. Maybe I should take some pics of what I can as to be a help to others.

[jonnievoodoo]

it is now installed and working great. The radio also forced me into buying an IPOD. I was never an Apple person, I had a Zune but there is just very little product support for the Zune and I wanted to be able to use the voice controls for the music on my radio. The interface is nice.

 

I forgot to post a end pic of how it looks, I still need to frame it out to make it look professional. The radio is well worth it though.

[grigsby]

I will also be installing a double din stereo in my '08 Caliber. It looks like you and I have the same factory stereo cutout. My solution was to pick up an '09 dash bezel that accomodates the Chrysler MyGig stereo as it has a double din opening.

 

You may see if an '09 Cruiser bezel will do the same for you. Unless of course you like your half-moon holes