Technical New 500 Owner - headunit upgrade advice

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Technical New 500 Owner - headunit upgrade advice

500Partner

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Hi guys,

Looking for some help - we recently acquired a 2015 Fiat 500 Pop Star for my other half.

We settled for a lower spec head unit with the plan of upgrading it ourselves.

The car came with the very basic model head unit - MP3 CD player, there’s also no steering wheel controls.

The desired outcome is to install a new head unit (preferably a Stock Fiat 500 unit rather than a third party alternative) with the larger format screen and hopefully Sat Nav and if possible/an option DAB. Note that we have no desire to upgrade the steering wheel, so losing out on those controls is fine.

Looking online I was able to source various head units, mostly second hand (I’m aware we’d probably need to contact the dealership to get the code to get it up and running). Anyway, to cut a long story short I’ve ended up running up a list of questions prior to making a purchase, that I’m hoping you guys can help with.

1. All the head units I’ve found are mostly the same shape and size from what I can gather, regardless of the year of manufacture. Do all Fiat 500 headunits fit in any Fiat 500? Or have there been internal refreshes that make this not possible?

2. A bit of a follow up question on the above, even if they do fit, will there be any changes to connection types (cables) that may prove to be a hurdle? I’m aware that for DAB and even Bluetooth there may be additional connections and receivers/aerials I may need to install but that’s not a worry.

3. The current head unit, is only half the height of the larger screen headunits, and where the rest of these larger headunits go, there are currently some air vents for the heating/air con. (See attached photo). To install the new headunits I’m guessing I’d need to remove these vents? Do they just need capping off? Or can you buy a new dashboard facia that includes newly position vents and it’s just a case of re-routing the existing pipe work to these).

4. Just any other potential issues I should be aware of?

Cheers in advance guys, much appreciated!
 

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My personal advice
Buy a aftermarket radio with dab and Bluetooth built in this solves most issues.
Use a adapter plate easily available to fit, no issues with the vents.
Use your phone as a Sat nav(voice comes through speakers even with music) you'll struggle to get a large touch screen I think.
Possible hurdle you'll need to run a constant live feed wire, you may loose the dash display for the radio station read out.
 
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IMG_1541.JPG just a little piccy of what I have done “myself” I went for a pioneer dab/Bluetooth various places inc Halfords do kits for fiat most online only ... I got my kit on eBay .yes the vents above just pull out but there is some cutting to do to the actual vent behind to enable a double din installation it’s a bit tricky to do as not much space got plenty of bruises on my knuckles [emoji23] as for radio codes I used an online service cost me about £10 but the code worked fine
 
Also you can get the cables online but I’m not sure what ones as I bought a kit and they came with the facia as in pic ... if you were to go for a new double din unit it should come with a suitable cable that will plug [emoji366] into the cars existing connections for the stereo system as for the vents after I cut the plastic “tubings” behind the actual vent facia into an L shape my facia came with side caps and tubing that directs the air flow to the correct direction... hope this helps you .... I did have factory instructions that came with the kit but I did most of it following my own instinct [emoji23]
 
That's a really neat upgrade (y)

Has got me looking into this myself but used Fiat's own 500 dab units are for face lift vehicles (at least that's the one's I've found so far). Does that mean pre-face lift cars don't support double din units?
 
Well yeah I suppose mine is an 09 single din with air vents at the top the kit I bought enabled me to change the direction of the vents but there is some cutting to do to the vent ducts..... thus enabling double din installation!face lift models are no doubt modified for double din what I don’t like about face lift models is a lot of functionality has been moved from the speedo screen to the radio screen! So I’m not sure how it’s possible to swap out the stereo as most units won’t support the functions moved over!?! Not sure but don’t see how
 
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