I am looking to do a few things to my B5 to make things a little easier for me. But I am a little confused about a few things and would appreciate some help.

First thing first:
Hardwiring my radar detector through the headliner. (I saw the DIY on audidiy.com but that is on a B6 and when I went to do it myself, it looked very different.)

Fender and headlamp modification to look like a B6.

Aftermarket head unit while keeping my Bose speakers and amplifier.

And last but not least, I need to replace my valve cover gaskets and the half moon seals because I am leaking almost a quart a day. (It's freaking me out)

edit: I realize that these are not all mods so forgive me for the title.

 

#1. put you what year and engine you have in your sig as to make it easier for others to identify parts and stuff.
#2. no idea bout anything except for the radio. metra parts 99-9105 dashkit, 70-1787 wiring harness, and 40vw53 for antenna adapter. you will also need the radio removal tools. you can get everything on ebay for fifty bucks. make sure you get metra parts too cause all other ones are ****. make sure the radio your putting in has at least two sets of rca outputs because the harness just plugs into those. if your running a sub you will need three sets of outputs. did i mention only get metra parts?

 

I think you have a bigger problem than valve cover gaskets...I don't think you could lose a quart a day even with a relatively bad leak there. But those gaskets are pretty cheap from www.purems.com.

There is no headlight/fender mod that makes you look like a B6.

Bose equipment and aftermarket are almost never compatible. You'll have to replace everything.

I don't know about the radar detector, but I'm pretty sure if you search around you'll find the answers you need.

 

If you want your car to look like to B6 then buy a B6. It would be cheaper than trying to adapt incompatible parts.

 

#1- dont run it through the headliner, it looks bad with regular radar detectors and they arent supposed to be mounted up high, so do what I did and run the wire down into the dash by the windshield and run it to the fusebox and hook it up to an empty fuse that turns off when the ingnition is off.
#2- never heard of a mod like that.. and cant imagine it to be easy at all and would require repainting the car or fenders.
#3- I wouldnt even put an aftermarket stereo in unless its a double din touch screen, otherwise just throw in a high-low convertor, amp and sub.
#4- is your car making alot of blue smoke? because I cant imagine a headgasket leaking that much oil..

tanrichguy- lol nice answer, dont be a dick

 

um.. how can it not be compatible? the harness plugs directly into the aftermarket radio via rca and sends the signal to the stock amp. dont see any problem with that...

as for the dude saying keep the stock radio, i completely agree. i am not a big fan of any cosmetic or audio modifications (well if it doesnt have bose than i could see the need) to our cars cause they are pretty awesome stock. I have a set of subs i have been wanting to install for a while and there is no way ill be putting in a aftermarket head unit. i would def use a line output conveter

 

+1. I tried replacing the stock head unit with an aftermarket (Sony) one in a Maxima and the Bose speakers sounded terrible compared to before.

 

maybe it depends on which year you have, which neither you (redline) nor the OP have mentioned, but i know my 98 stereo doesnt have RCA connections so you have to either get an adapter or cut the factory wiring.

 

Sorry for not mentioning it before, but I have a 98 B5 2.8L 30v. Thanks for all of the help.

And about the headlight modification, I thought that the car here had B6 headlights on a B5

https://www.audiforums.com/forum/sho...=128691&page=2

 

you only need an adapter for using subs with the factory radio. that adapter is called a line output converter. what you do is t-tap the factory speaker wires into the loc (line output converter) which converts the high level amplified signal to a low level rca output which you use for the sub amp input. as far as i know there is no factory radio that includes rca outputs. that is why there is such a thing as an loc. it converts a high level output ( aka an amplified speaker output from a radio) into a low level input (aka a sub amp input). if you just used the amplified speaker wires for an amp input it will cause a ton of distortion in sub or speaker (which will ultimately blow the coil). believe me, i only specialize in two areas; political science and vehical sound systems.