I have a 1990 townace that came with no radio/tape.
I just want something simple that fits and can be fitted easily. Can anyone point me in the right direction, where can I get an origimnal or is there something on the maket that would do the job, pros and cons of options. THANKS Kay.
- (#9512) Kay Board, 7 Jul 03 12:24
depends what you want to spend for in car entertainment.
wiring a radio in providing the loom is already in place is pretty straight forward as you just need to buy a toyota radio loom from halfords or les smith car shop. then just make sure the radio that you intend to fit has either a removable frame or fits the slot there wiht no modification.
also make sure that your radio you are buying doesn't have too much output to start with thats unless you want to replace your speakers. normally it states on the box something like 2 x 50w or 4 x 40w (number of channels and amount of power per channel). not being a complete whiz on radio's i can tell you that standard speakers on these models do not support full volume at 40w or 50w.
some one is bound to read this and state that they do but the question needs to be asked for how long have they done this for because it will work but then the sound will state going fuzzy in one of the speakers which means the cone has popped and the speaker needs replacing.
i have a sony radio cassette unit in mine and it works very well. i even managed to pickup a handy little device for a cd/mp3 walkman player i have which allows the unit to play cd's in the car without the need for a cd unit to be fitted. its not a plug in tape but a small transmitter that plugs into the headphone jack and tunes into a frequency range between 87.9 and 89.0mhz. its not that powerful and will not interfere with those radio 2 fans who are behind you or next to you.
hth
hth
- (#10392) Russ, 25 Aug 03 18:57
Good advice ref adaptor cables. Alas Les Smith are no more, went into administration a few weeks ago. Around 20 branches have now become part of Motorworld, the rest have a very uncertain future!!
Regards Rob.
- (#10456) Rob Drinkwater, 26 Aug 03 15:48
>Then just make sure the radio that you intend to fit
>has either a removable frame or fits the slot there
>wiht no modification.
If you are carefull it is possible to do a neat job of modifying the opening to fit a larger stereo than would normally fit, Remove the black plastic fasia and fit the stereo first. I used a hot gas knife (available from Maplins stores as part of a gas soldering kit) But you could just use a low wattage soldering iron. Get some smallish strips of metal with straight edges and lengths to suit the size of the opening (i.e. a short bit for the sides and a longer bit for top and bottom they only need to be about 2mm thick, larger B&Q's do strip steel that can be cut to length) and guide the hot knife or iron along these to melt the plastic in a perfectly straight line then carefully trim off the melted stuff with a SHARP knife (a scalpel and/or stanley knife with NEW blades) or you could trim with a dremel if you have a steady hand. Take it easy, remove a bit at a time evenly all round then test fit the the facia until it fits neatly over the radio, do NOT be tempted to cut or melt the plastic freehand, you'll just end up with a horrible wavy line. I did my fit a while ago and have a feeling I may have had to cut/modify some bits of plastic behind the facia as well but I'm not sure about that and I'm not going to take the Stereo out to check! If you do screw up, some black sealant neatly smoothed round should sort things out. The whole fit using an adapter loom only took about an hour and it's definatly worthwile. Oh I also upgraded the door speakers which is fairly straightforward but you may have to get creative with mounting clamps if your speakers are a different shape or size to the originals.
- (#10457) Martin King, 28 Aug 03 4:53