Swapped out the factory am radio this morning with an aftermarket sony brand. That was the easiest radio install that I have ever done! The sony bolted right in and after I removed the trim ring it fit right into the factory bezel/storage trim. After I figured out the factory wiring harness with a test light It worked great. 2 hiccups were that the antennae wire does not unplug from the back of the factory radio but has a connection about 2 feet from the back of the radio, found an antennae extension wire locally and problem solved. The other issue is that Subaru did not think it necessary to build speakers into the dash. So I just hung the speakers under the dash with zip ties, actually worked really well and sounds surprisingly good considering that the speakers are not mounted into anything.
Hi Stormin, I have the same Van as you do (GD -TV1 2001 model). However I'm seeing it a bit of a problem to install a radio since it looks like not a straight swap with a single DIN slot. At least not all stardard single DIN's. I have a pioneer which I removed from a previous car I owned, and when trying to install, I realized that although the actual radio box size was similar to the factory plastic trim opening (still have to shave a few milimetres all round), my pioneer has a sort of frame surrounding the face (face is detachable) and so that is bigger then the plastic trim by far. This will make it impossible to bolt the stereo and then fit the plastic trim ring after. This is a pioneer DEH 1400R......so not sure if japanese cars require a smaller fitment or something different (such as particular stereos with flush face edges) then other cars. Would love to hear your input on this please.
My vehicle is the truck GD-TT2, but dash is probably the same. On my Sony stereo I removed the trim ring or bezel that was around the face of the stereo and then it fit right into the factory subaru trim piece. The physical size (length, width, height) of the Sony stereo and the factory Subaru radio were virtually identical.
i had a JVC single DIN in mine and the factory Subaru stereo surround wouldnt work even without the headunits faceplate, i ended up drilling holes where the screws go into the Subaru plastic surround and screwing the plastic surround to the stereo cage bracket to secure it i have a single DIN flip touch screen now and just cut the top portion of the plastic surround off
