Fellow Bians,

Hope you're all well today =)

I'm back in town after some nice country side road tripping with me better half and Zippy. And, I've picked up radio replacement for Zippy that has bluetooth, handsfree, flashcard reader, USB in and line in options. And it can play MP3 format digital music. I'm planning to put all of my usual music onto a 4GB flashcard and leave it in Zippy. I'll remove all the CDs. Hence, I'll feel more comfy when I leave Zippy top down while shopping =)

When I bought Zippy the original FIAT radio had already been replaced. The replacement radio is a little too modern looking and has terribly annoying skateboarding graphics appearing during playback. Also, my new radio is black with red lighted buttons. This matches well with Zippy's colour.

Anyway, the new stereo has two ISO-Block connections, an aerial connection, sterio line out (red and white) and handsfree microphone connection on the rear. I was hoping that one of you might well be able to direct me towards some "for dummies" instructions for replacing the radio and also offer some advice for the placement of the handsfree microphone component?

Cheers guys,

MeRv =D

Hey all,

I at least found this info:

http://www.fiatbarchetta.com/club/uk/ -> Technical -> Technical pages contents -> Installing GPS radio

Any other advice would be greatly appreciated. Like, should I disconnect the battery

Cheers,

MeRv =)

'ello again all!

I'm happy to report that I've managed to change the radio. It looks great and the microphone fits nicely to the dashboard behind the wiper stalk. I'll take some pics tomorrow and post them here. It was in fact a very easy job. I disconnected the battery as I noted that might be a good idea from Alan's signature. The rest was easy peesie. The car had the ISO A and B block connectors. The microphone cable was long enough to exit from behind the radio around the rear opening of the console on the drivers side.

However, I seem to have created a problem somewhere along the way. Seems the central locking is no longer working religiously.... So it's back to the research phase for this noob. For me it's "a different problem, a different day".

Yeps, seems I'm busy solving my own probs... which is good.

I did some searching through the archives and came accross a passage from Doc regarding the location of the central locking relay. He mentioned that it was on the passenger side under the dashboard and can be identified as a little yellow box. Luckily, I recalled after dropping a screw today, that I moved the passenger seat to the most forward position to get at the screw and noted that there was a wee yellow box under the seat. Hence, I went back out to the car after reading Docs statement and, funnily enough, after moving the seat back to its original position the remote central locking is working again. Go figure. :doh:


Anyway, I also took a picture of the new stereo. You can see the microphone on the dash behind the wiper stalk. Thankfully, in my opinion, it doesn't look too bad. What ya think??

merv said:

Yeps, seems I'm busy solving my own probs... which is good.

I did some searching through the archives and came accross a passage from Doc regarding the location of the central locking relay. He mentioned that it was on the passenger side under the dashboard and can be identified as a little yellow box. Luckily, I recalled after dropping a screw today, that I moved the passenger seat to the most forward position to get at the screw and noted that there was a wee yellow box under the seat. Hence, I went back out to the car after reading Docs statement and, funnily enough, after moving the seat back to its original position the remote central locking is working again. Go figure. :doh:


Anyway, I also took a picture of the new stereo. You can see the microphone on the dash behind the wiper stalk. Thankfully, in my opinion, it doesn't look too bad. What ya think??

Click to expand...

Looking good, just need to colour the surround silver.............

That looks pretty good to me!

I know what you mean about animated graphics on your old radio. My B had one of those in when I got it as well.

I've got a Sony head unit and CD changer in the glove box now.

The old radio was just too flash for me. Maybe I'm gettting old. I'm 40 on Saturday

Thanks for the support and feedback guys. I'm quite happy with the radio now, but I agree with LRB that the surround could be changed. I'm giving 1900 EUR to barchettaparts.com in the coming days, so I suppose a little more cash won't hurt

Banner, congrats on making it this far in life. May you have many more birthdays to come :slayer: And yeps, you're getting old alright... considering that you've got 10 years up on me and I already think that the darned radio was too modern for my taste.

Hey Banner - happy birthday for Saturday, you are only a couple of years ahead of me but I have to say I feel much older than 40 at the moment!!

Personally, i think that the only "replacement" radio the doesnt look out of place is a Becker.. mostly because of the ellipticals which reflect the rest of the B's flowing lines...
However, a Becker doesn't come cheap

LittleRedB said:

Hey Banner - happy birthday for Saturday, you are only a couple of years ahead of me but I have to say I feel much older than 40 at the moment!!

Click to expand...

I ain't saying a word

I can't remember 40 - my memory is not that good nowadays

Becker Grand Prix is on my shopping list, missed out on one for £80 about a month ago............

I just bought a Pioneer DEH-2020MP for my B (even though I swore that I'd never replace my cassette player ) - and my question is if it's safe to assume that I don't need to buy any adapter cable or similar to connect it?