Hi,
Having recently acquired the K11 Inspiration I’ve set about doing a couple of jobs.
I saw Stuart Wood (stuartwood89) fitted a black surround round the heater controls and quite liked it. The temperature knob was broken and clicked when turned hot/cold so I found one on the Bay of E and a black surround. I thought having a ciggy lighter as a aux power socket would be good and got one for £1.99 with blue back light, but I’m thinking of changing the dash bulbs to orange now so might have to buy another one!
Also, I’d been wondering how to connect an iPhone to the stereo and charge it too. It’s my SatNav and has all my music on it too. There is no tape player in the car so a cassette adaptor was ruled out, and the FM transmitters seem to be a bit hit or miss. I found Connects2 device that goes in line with the aerial and was thinking this might be the solution but £35 ish. A bit more scouting around turned up this rather neat Philips head unit in Halfords for £50:
http://www.halfords.com/sat-nav-audio/clearance/all-clearance/philips-ce153dr-iphone-bluetooth-usb-dab-car-audio-system
Got decent review in Autoexpress when it came out, and was originally £139! Will see how it goes...
Having got the surround off, old stereo out, and disconnected the heater controls I found that there wires for the ciggy lighter already in situ so that saved the trouble of wiring it in, the heater panel swapped, cables lubed with some WD40. I cannot recommend the last bit highly enough – the controls are so much smoother and there is no feeling that it’s tight and going to jump the gears at any moment.
An impromptu shopping trip took me and the Mrs to Lidl, just to pop in and get washing up liquid... £60 later we leave but with garage/car things!! You never know what they are going to have in
there! So we have some new 13” wheel trims for a tenner, tyre inflator as my old one was broken, set of bulbs and fuses to keep in the boot (legal requirement in most EU countries and although it’s not here in the UK I still think it’s a good idea), high viz vest (also legal requirement abroad but again I think a good idea hear too). Loads of dash/interior/glass wipes to freshen up both cars.
They also had a stereo for £24 that plays off USB which might have worked with an iPhone but I’d already got the Philips unit to fit.
New and old wheel trims:
Having the dash apart I found that previous owners obviously only had limited electrical skills; the standard plugs have been cut off, wires joined using spade connectors and tape – complete bodge! Cut the whole lot out and rewired it and all is good! There are wires for rear speakers but not sure where there were fitted, but connected them up so that in the future it I can find where/how to fit the rear ones at least the wiring is in place.
Before
After
All in all a good days work today fitting and cleaning up the interior, and happy with the result so far – a lot of cleaning still to do, some bits are filthy, real dirty, but it’s a start!
Having recently acquired the K11 Inspiration I’ve set about doing a couple of jobs.
I saw Stuart Wood (stuartwood89) fitted a black surround round the heater controls and quite liked it. The temperature knob was broken and clicked when turned hot/cold so I found one on the Bay of E and a black surround. I thought having a ciggy lighter as a aux power socket would be good and got one for £1.99 with blue back light, but I’m thinking of changing the dash bulbs to orange now so might have to buy another one!
Also, I’d been wondering how to connect an iPhone to the stereo and charge it too. It’s my SatNav and has all my music on it too. There is no tape player in the car so a cassette adaptor was ruled out, and the FM transmitters seem to be a bit hit or miss. I found Connects2 device that goes in line with the aerial and was thinking this might be the solution but £35 ish. A bit more scouting around turned up this rather neat Philips head unit in Halfords for £50:
http://www.halfords.com/sat-nav-audio/clearance/all-clearance/philips-ce153dr-iphone-bluetooth-usb-dab-car-audio-system
Got decent review in Autoexpress when it came out, and was originally £139! Will see how it goes...
Having got the surround off, old stereo out, and disconnected the heater controls I found that there wires for the ciggy lighter already in situ so that saved the trouble of wiring it in, the heater panel swapped, cables lubed with some WD40. I cannot recommend the last bit highly enough – the controls are so much smoother and there is no feeling that it’s tight and going to jump the gears at any moment.
An impromptu shopping trip took me and the Mrs to Lidl, just to pop in and get washing up liquid... £60 later we leave but with garage/car things!! You never know what they are going to have in
there! So we have some new 13” wheel trims for a tenner, tyre inflator as my old one was broken, set of bulbs and fuses to keep in the boot (legal requirement in most EU countries and although it’s not here in the UK I still think it’s a good idea), high viz vest (also legal requirement abroad but again I think a good idea hear too). Loads of dash/interior/glass wipes to freshen up both cars.
They also had a stereo for £24 that plays off USB which might have worked with an iPhone but I’d already got the Philips unit to fit.
New and old wheel trims:
Having the dash apart I found that previous owners obviously only had limited electrical skills; the standard plugs have been cut off, wires joined using spade connectors and tape – complete bodge! Cut the whole lot out and rewired it and all is good! There are wires for rear speakers but not sure where there were fitted, but connected them up so that in the future it I can find where/how to fit the rear ones at least the wiring is in place.
Before
After
All in all a good days work today fitting and cleaning up the interior, and happy with the result so far – a lot of cleaning still to do, some bits are filthy, real dirty, but it’s a start!
