Right, where to begin!
Firstly there is a how to thread already by Guy, Have a read . He paved the way with this retrofit, much respect mate.
Before I start with the thread, there are a few things to be aware of.
Firstly it is NOT possible to do this retrofit to a car that is fitted with a business head unit. If I need to tell you the differences between business and professional, you're probably better off paying someone else to do this install. To complete this install, you'll need a professional head unit, or sat nav installed.
Second, There were a limited run of Professional head units that have bluetooth and USB functionality built it. my advice on this is that if it doesn't have the bluetooth symbol on the sticker on top of it, it DOESN'T have bluetooth.
There were a few different professional head units. The first generation of Alpine made ones, which have 2 rubber knobs on them, these do NOT have built in bluetooth or USB.
The next version was the same essentially, with a few tweeks to the internals and the rubber knobs were replaced with better looking ones that had chrome rings on them. To look at, there are very few differences though. They are both called CD73 and when you look at the top, they have a big black heatsink at the 9 o'clock position.
Looks like this (image from google)
These CD73 units do NOT have bluetooth built in either! It's only the later built ones that have it, the design changed, the black heat sink is gone and the label on the top is different. If you're unsure as to which version you have, just remove the head unit and have a look at the top. The ones with bluetooth built in are few and far between, don't trust abn ebay seller that claims it's got it, unless you see the bluetooth sticker on the label, it doens't have it built in!
OK, so you've got this far. If your head unit doesn't have bluetooth and USB built in, here's where you go next. You can either replace it for one that down, they do pop up occasionally on ebay, or you can retrofit USB and then bluetooth with the addition of a box called a MULF. This is what I'll be doing in this guide.
Firstly there is a how to thread already by Guy, Have a read . He paved the way with this retrofit, much respect mate.
Before I start with the thread, there are a few things to be aware of.
Firstly it is NOT possible to do this retrofit to a car that is fitted with a business head unit. If I need to tell you the differences between business and professional, you're probably better off paying someone else to do this install. To complete this install, you'll need a professional head unit, or sat nav installed.
Second, There were a limited run of Professional head units that have bluetooth and USB functionality built it. my advice on this is that if it doesn't have the bluetooth symbol on the sticker on top of it, it DOESN'T have bluetooth.
There were a few different professional head units. The first generation of Alpine made ones, which have 2 rubber knobs on them, these do NOT have built in bluetooth or USB.
The next version was the same essentially, with a few tweeks to the internals and the rubber knobs were replaced with better looking ones that had chrome rings on them. To look at, there are very few differences though. They are both called CD73 and when you look at the top, they have a big black heatsink at the 9 o'clock position.
Looks like this (image from google)
These CD73 units do NOT have bluetooth built in either! It's only the later built ones that have it, the design changed, the black heat sink is gone and the label on the top is different. If you're unsure as to which version you have, just remove the head unit and have a look at the top. The ones with bluetooth built in are few and far between, don't trust abn ebay seller that claims it's got it, unless you see the bluetooth sticker on the label, it doens't have it built in!
OK, so you've got this far. If your head unit doesn't have bluetooth and USB built in, here's where you go next. You can either replace it for one that down, they do pop up occasionally on ebay, or you can retrofit USB and then bluetooth with the addition of a box called a MULF. This is what I'll be doing in this guide.