2016 Gem E4 - Stereo Upgrade

[FUNDAD]

Hi everyone, I figured that I would share some upgrades that I have done lately to Gemma.

Shortly after I got her I cut the dash and installed a cheap walmart radio and speakers. It had Bluetooth and synced with my phone. It sounded fine but always left me wanting a little more.

I decided to not go crazy but to upgrade the radio and add a subwoofer. I already had a nice 5 channel amp.

I was lucky enough to find a 10" sub from Autozone for $59 that fires downward and fits right between the back seat frame. In fact, there was even enough room to mount the amp on the sub box and still clear height-wise.

For the radio there are not a lot of cool options in a single din frame. I bought a really nice Pioneer for my Grand Cherokee that has a 9" floating display with a single DIN frame but didnt want to spend anywhere near that on a radio for Gemma.

I found a single DIN - 7" Floating Display radio with Apple Car play from Boss Elite. I got it from Crutchfield and it even came with a rear view camera. Best part it was $199 with free shipping and a free five year warranty. They make a 8", 9" and 10" but I was nervous the larger sizes would cover the speedo. Turns out 7" was perfect.

I still need to find some 6.5" speaker pods to mount under the back seats but I must confess even as a “2.1” system, this sounds absolutely amazing. Nice deep bass, great midrange and crisp highs.

I have Apple Car Play in both my other vehicles and I absolutely love having it in the Gem. Waze shows the speed and having all my Apple Music playlists right there without have to touch my phone is awesome!!

I don’t have a pic of it but I mounted the microphone up in the left hand corner and tucked the wire behind that thin removable cover.

Gemma already had a dual USB cigarette lighter style charger, The radio has to female USB cables hanging off the back. One is for a storage drive or charging etc. The other is for the wired Apple Car play. I removed the oem dual usb charger and installed one from Amazon that had two male USB cable coming off the back. It installed perfectly and looks just like it did with the little cover when its not in use.

For the rear camera, I was able to get ground from the reverse light ground and there was a power lead embedded in the yellow RCA cable that goes from the camera all the way to the radio’s camera input. I got a 12v + from the white reverse light wire and ran that to the reverse trigger wire on the radio. So now, just like a normal car, when I put it in reverse, the screen shows the camera image. It even has adjustable lines.

I apologize that this is so long winded but I love these latest mods and had to share.

[Erniea15]

@FUNDAD thanks for posting… I need to tackle a stereo update in my 2016 too! This is super helpful.

Where are you pulling power from for the AMP? Direct from the AUX battery? Charger? … I’d think the accessory busbar would be too low amperage.

[FUNDAD]

I used the accessory bus bar ( didn’t actually know that was what it was called. lol. ) and haven’t had any problems. The radio’s power, ground and constant
( memory ) is tapped there too. Works awesome so far.

On the positive wire coming from the amp, I put a fuse in line about a foot before the accessory bus bar, kind of like you would when normally running an amp in a car.

Also, I ran all the wires under the car all the way to the front and zip tied the wire bundle to the brake line. Then ran it up the “fire wall” zip tying it to the main harness. I then made a new hole through it just to the left of where the emergency brake hole is. I was able to fit everything through there and it’s basically a straight shot to the radio from there.

I need to go back under the car and take some pics and also put on the wire loom I bought to protect the bundle of wires from road debris.

I still can’t believe how great this sounds!!