I recently decided to replace the stock stereo in my 2007 Nissan Versa S to bring the added luxury of using my iPod, USB thumbnail drive, MP3 CD, or pretty much anything else that can hold music in most formats. After a bit of research, I decided on a Sony CDX-GT610Ui receiver purchased from Crutchfield.
I wasn’t able to find much specific information online about the Versa and this particular radio, so I’m going to list out some of the things we came across during the installation.
Keep track of those wires
The wiring color guides I found online were actually wrong. I’m not sure if it was due to a change in wiring from Nissan… most of the colors were right, but a few were off, and to make matters worse, some of the wires used by the factory are pretty much identical. We were able to figure it out, but I would caution the DIY installer to keep close track of which wires were which. We spliced them into the Sony wiring harness that came with the stereo, and I’ll include a wiring chart a little later to help if you’re going to be splicing them yourself.
Don’t forget the ground
The stock stereo receives ground from a thin black ground wire, but also from the metal frame holding the stereo in place. If you’re installing a single-DIN stereo using the plastic double-DIN adapter, you’re going to need to secure the black ground wire from the wiring harness to something metal. It has an eyelet at the end of it, so we secured it under the top left screw holding the double-DIN adapter in place. Without proper ground, the stereo face would just blink… no clock, no controls, no nothing, so if you find yourself in this predicament, check to make sure you’ve got the ground secured.
Get an antenna adapter
As of this writing, I’m currently rolling around without the ability to listen to the radio. The Sony stereo uses the old-fashioned Motorola type antenna connector, but the new, high-tech Versa uses a fancy clip-type connector. The easiest way to remedy this is to track down an adapter online, which will save you tons of time in trying to splice together something. The adapter you’re looking for can be found here on Ebay, but you can find them elsewhere if you Google it.
All in all the installation was pretty seamless. It’s extremely easy to take off the center unit, take out the stereo, and splice the wires, but you just need to be careful to keep track of what’s what. So far, the new receiver is giving much better sound than the stock unit, and it’s played pretty much everything I’ve thrown at it. I’ll do a more in-depth review once I use the stereo a bit more, but until then, I hope this post helps those going down the DIY installation path.
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