I managed to get the new head unit in, though I had a couple of problems.

For one, the Pioneer head unit was bigger than the rectangluar space on the dash; meaning that it didn't fit in the car properly. I had to do some stanley knife modifications to get it to fit in, it fits alright now though.

Another problem I had is that there are too many wires in the dash now, and the head unit won't slide all the way back because the wires have nowhere to go. Has this ever happened to anyone else?

you need to carefully tuck the wires down to the back left and right so that they go down there when you push the headunit in. It may take some time but it will work.

You just have to mess around with the wires back there. There is plenty of space if you have bought a proper fiat fascia as you take out all the metal cage which gives you loads of room.

I've bought a proper Fiat fascia, I ordered it from the Fiat garage and they got it in this morning - my only question is, what metal cage? My car didn't have any metal cage when I took the stereo out.

you should be able to fit the wires in quite easily anyway, just take your time feeding the wires through.

Josh Bowe said:

I've bought a proper Fiat fascia, I ordered it from the Fiat garage and they got it in this morning - my only question is, what metal cage? My car didn't have any metal cage when I took the stereo out.

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The Fiat stereo attaches to a cage, when you come to remove it be warned theres an allen bolt right at the back, you will need a l o n g key and something to add a wee bit of leverage to break the seal.

Once the cage is gone you will have more room

udtrev said:

The Fiat stereo attaches to a cage, when you come to remove it be warned theres an allen bolt right at the back, you will need a l o n g key and something to add a wee bit of leverage to break the seal.

Once the cage is gone you will have more room

Click to expand...

I take it the cage is the black thing with an allen key bolt at either side? If I get rid of it what will my new head unit sit in?

The proper fiat fasicia shouldnt go on with the cage still there. You get a cage with aftermarkket headunits so put the fascia on then clip the cage in and bend the tabs back to secure it

The new stereo should lock into the facia, which you attach in the gaping hole that was there !

I chopped out the stereo in my Panda because of a lack of CD storage space, the glove pocket is too bloody far to reach safely when crawling along the M25.

I now have a sony with a usb slot

and ironically a pocket under the CD just right for storing CDs, trouble is I don't use the CD drive - 2gb pen drive 1, cd 0

punto_matt said:

The proper fiat fasicia shouldnt go on with the cage still there. You get a cage with aftermarkket headunits so put the fascia on then clip the cage in and bend the tabs back to secure it

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Alright, so I've done something wrong. I don't think my head unit came with a cage, I'll check tomorrow though.

Also I have another question, I want to hook the Punto's stock sub up to my current head unit; until I get a new one. But it doesn't look as if my head unit has the right connection, it has two pre-outs though.

Is there any way I can use the old sub, like with a connection converter or something?

Your headunit should have a little cage that comes with it that the stereo just slides into. The standard subwoofer should be in one of the ISO blocks anyway so it should still work with your headunit.

punto_matt said:

Your headunit should have a little cage that comes with it that the stereo just slides into. The standard subwoofer should be in one of the ISO blocks anyway so it should still work with your headunit.

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I'm not exactly sure what an ISO block is, but basically it doesn't fit into my current head unit anywhere. The sub cable has like a three piece head, and only one of the slots actually has something in it.

The problem is that I can't find anything that it'll fit into on my head unit.

Have you got a lead that plugs into the back of the headunit and then into the existing wiring blocks that are there?

I found a picture of my exact head unit, it looks like this:


The cable on the right connects up to the cable inside the Fiat Punto's dash, and then clicks into the big black slot that's kinda just off right from the center of the head unit.

I don't know if I've got an ISO block, but where would I put the sub lead? Like I said, the sub's lead is a 3 slot lead.

Yeah thats the iso block. the sub lead wont have anywhere to connect up to. but it should just be in the standard iso block so try it if you havent already

You can also see the cage around the headunit on that photo aswell

Still don't get it, I got another picture here. Hopefully it makes more sence.



The top CD player doesn't have a cage right? Meaning that the cage is still inside my Punto's dash yeah?

The sub plug wont go anywhere on the new headunit. The standard cage will still be in there if you havent unscrewed anything and pulled it out. The fiat fascia adapter should then screw into 2 of the holes that the original cage was fixed into. Then you can take the metal cage off your new headunit. Put that into the whole in the dash. Press the tabs down to fix it in place and then put the headunit in.

My Fiat fascia adapater was a click in one, and it just clicked into the space that was already there so I dunno... Should I still take the cage out?

Is there no way that I can get the sub to connect to the head unit? Like, even if it means buying an adapter or something?

I'll still be able to fit an aftermarket sub okay won't I?

This is what the fiat fascia adaptor should look like
http://www.partsworld-uk.com/shop/i...uct_info&cPath=7_386_775_1038&products_id=626

Just plug everything in that you can and see if it works or not. If it doesnt then theres nowt you can do.

Okay, looks life my local Fiat garage gave me the wrong part... Mine doesn't have the extended back part, instead it's just the front panel.

Oh and btw, I got a 2002 Fiat Punto; not the Grande model. Just in case that makes any difference to anything.

I guess I'm just gonna have to give up on it for now. Sounds like I got all the wrong parts and stuff, ah well. Can I install an aftermarket sub with the head unit I got?