My Nakamichi CD-45z Installation Manual
Introduction: I created this short manual to assist people in installing a new stereo to their Subaru. I have at-
tempted to provide relevant pictures and diagrams to assist. Some of these have been taken from other websites
and I have tried to reference them where appropriate.
Background: I have owned my ‘95 Subaru Impreza since I was in high school and have loved every minute of it.
When I graduated my parents got me a new stereo for it, an Eclipse 5341R. This is a very nice stereo. One year
later, when in school in California, my parents got me a ‘99 Subaru Outback. I had the Eclipse moved over to this
vehicle. Later, upon coming back to Kansas, I began to drive my Impreza again. It has the standard Subaru stereo
in it which provides truly unacceptable sound. Sometimes I wonder why car manufacturers even waste their time
putting in the horrible stereos they do into cars. They must own large amounts of stock in the companies they
use… Anyways, after suffering with it for a while I became frustrated enough to purchase a new stereo. I decided
to do the install myself despite the entirely lacking amount of information on the web about the wiring on a Su-
baru. The head unit I decided to install was the Nakamichi CD-45z. I got an incredible deal on one on eBay. So,
doing my own install helped to further save me money.
Tools Needed:
Philips Screwdriver (preferably magnetic tipped to aid in not losing screws)
Regular Screwdriver (helps in prying apart some components, remember to be gentle!)
Wire Cutters and/or Needle Nose Pliers that can cut wires
Larger Pliers that can be used to exert large amount of force to crimp things
6 Male Bullet Plugs for 14-16 Gauge Wire
6 Female Bullet Plugs for 14-16 Gauge Wire
The Installation: Below is a picture of where the install both starts and should ideally finish. This is, obviously, not
my original stereo. I had already gone through installing my new Nakamichi before I wrote this manual.
Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for anything you do to your car, your stereo, yourself, anyone else,
or any other form of property. I suggest that before starting you remove the power from your vehicle. You
could and likely will cause serious damage or possibly even loss of life by failing to do so. Basically, I am not
responsible for anything you do or any mis-statements made in this manual. Remember, you need to do your own
thinking. I am not here to do it for you. If something I say doesn’t make sense, then do not procede. Either I am
wrong, or you do not understand what to do properly and so you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place!
One of the first steps to
start off with is to pull
the parking brake and to
stick the car in first. To
do this you will need to
stick the key in the igni-
tion and rotate it.
REMEMBER, DO
NOT FORGET TO
PULL THE PARKING
BRAKE!!!
The purpose of this is to
give you more space to
use, which in particularly
needed when removing
the center dash unit
which holds the stereo,
lighter, and ashtray.
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A quick snapshot of the
4 screws removed in the
previous steps. Just
provided for reference
incase it is useful for
someone...
The next step is to re-
move the outer dash trim
piece. To do this just
start pulling up at the top
and work your way
down. I have shown the
before and after pictures
on the left and right re-
spectively.
Now, remove the four
screws holding in the
center dash rack. This
rack holds the entirely
CD, ashtray, lighter, etc
assembly. Be careful,
underneath this unit is
the airbag control sys-
tem. We would not
want to inadvertently
damage it in the proc-
ess. On the next page is
a large picture showing
the four screws to re-
move. The picture on
the let is before remov-
ing them. On the right
is after.
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This is where I remind you to remove
the faceplate before going any fur-
ther. In fact, you should have discon-
nected the power from the negative
lead of the battery before even start-
ing this whole process, but since I
knew I was not actually going to be
doing the whole assembly, I decided
to forego showing all of that because
I wanted to enjoy my music while
taking these pictures. I should not
that you could either ruin your head
unit, ruin your whole car’s electrical
system, or injury/kill yourself and
possibly others by failing to turn off
the power to the vehicle before doing
this. Please, be safer than I am! ;-)
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Pull the center dash rack
out about 4 to 6 inches.
Once you have done this,
reach over to the right
side and pull off the
ground connector as
shown in the picture on
the right. Continue to
pull the rack out. This
step is why it is impor-
tant to put the car in a
gear lower than park.
You will find that if you
do not, you won’t be able
to pull the rack out. The
shifter will get in your
way which is very an-
noying when your hands
are busy with other
things.
Here is the stereo pulled
out. The box with the big
yellow sticker on it is the
airbag control box, leave it
alone! Now you can dis-
connect your current stereo
and connect up your new
one. Below I have included
the pin-out for the 14-pin
connector standard in a Su-
baru.
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This information was obtained from this Usenet Post:
0705992311010001%40ip28.ts6.mn.dialup.ottawa.cyberus.ca#link1
/------------------------\
| 1 2 3 . . 4 5 6 |
|
| <== pins on socket (header) that plugs
| 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 | into factory radio
|------------------------|
Note: The above diagram is done from the perspective of looking directly on to the connector pins. If you are
having trouble figuring out which way is which, just use the ground wire, which is always black, as a reference for
making sure you are doing the pins correctly. It is very important to correctly wire up these pins. If you don’t you
could cause serious damage to your stereo or entire car. Please do not attempt this unless you truly know what you
are doing.
But I noted that Subaru, most inconveniently, changes the colors that they use for their wiring on a regular basis
and do not conform to the wiring standards in anyway. So, if you have a 1998 Outback you may find the Usenet
post useful for determining the proper colors. The MOST important thing is the pin-out. Do not worry in particu-
lar about the colors. The specific pins functionality is always the same as far as I know. I can’t imagine them
changing that anytime soon either.
I have included the EIA colors for reference. It is interesting to see how much my 95 Impreza differs from them.
It seems truly odd to me to have my red be a rear right - speaker connector. This makes it so incredibly easy to
misconnect up the lines. I am shocked that Subaru did this in fact. But that is another issue…
So, disconnect your old stereo and unscrew it. Put your new stereo in its place according to the instructions in the
manual that come with it. Then, you need to look at the connector for your new stereo and connect the proper pins
according to its diagram to your Subaru stereo harness. I used bullet plugs and soldered them because my Na-
kamichi used bullet plugs for all the connections.
Wiring Harnesses vs Cutting Off the Original Connector: There are two camps of people, those who choose to use
wiring harnesses and those who believe in cutting off their original connectors. I did not choose to use a wiring
harness, though many nice ones are available for many car models as can easily be seen by a simple search on the
internet. If you choose to use one, it might make your install much easier. In addition, it can greatly simplify the
later removal of the stereo. I, choose not to use one because I am very confident in my skills, and I believe that
they are detrimental to the signal quality. In fact, I know that they are if compared with an experienced person sol-
dering with high quality solder. So, I chose to go with the latter route. The choice is yours. The soldering route
does take considerably longer and requires you to work in the close/cramped space of your car. I am not con-
cerned with the difficulties of later removing it as I am quite experienced in doing things like this. The choice is
yours, either route is worth thinking about depending on your abilities/experience/if you are leasing,etc.
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I chose to disconnect the cigarette lighter be-
cause I have never smoked, do not know any
smokers, and really do not want anyone to
ever smoke in my car without my knowing it.
I figure that this helps to eliminate the chances
of someone lighting up in my car.
This is a picture of something
else I am very happy with. I
used an RCA to mini-stereo
plug adapter to allow me to
attach my MP3 Player to the
car stereo. I wired it up to the
AUX IN connector. Now
when I switch to AUX IN
mode I can play from a
friends MP3 player or my
own.
Yes, MP3 is a sin to play on
such a fine stereo, but when
you got over 1k dollars of
your audio CDs stolen, some-
times you have to deal with
things like that… ;-(
Finally, now all you need to do is clean up any connections that are dan-
gling and try to squeeze your stereo back into the recess. I would not
suggest re-screwing it in until you are certain that it is operational. It is
really annoying to have to re-extricate it because you messed up on a
connection. An easy way to test some things is to like shift the fade to
full rear, balance to full left, then balance to full right, then fade to full
front, then balance back to full left. This should show all four speakers
working. If you did not hear something in all 4 of these scenarios, then
you have something mis- or disconnected. Go back and check your con-
nections and try again.
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Here is me trying out my new stereo, the Nak 45z.
A very fine sounding stereo indeed. If you are in
need of a very high quality stereo, I would defi-
nitely recommend it. You can’t play your video
games on it or any of that shit, but who the hell
wants to do that type of crap anyways. I am not up
for any ugly flashy buttons on my stereos, so I went
with a Nakamichi. It is, in fact, the only one that
did not make me puke with its looks. As you can
tell from the final install pictures, it looks right at
home in my car.
A couple of shots of my MP3 player cable cubby hole. I finally
came up with a good use for the ashtray!!! Yipee!!!
I hope this install guide has helped others with any issues they
might have been having. Good luck.
—Lance Feagan
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