Nissan Altima 2008 2.5s

Hello,

 I've recently purchased a new Nissan Altima 2008 2.5s and have found myself running into a few problems. I've found out that if i decide to swap my factory deck for one that I previously had, I will loose all functionality of my steering wheel controls. I really don't want to do that and therefore have chosen to keep my factory deck. I have a couple amps and a a couple 12" subs, the problem that I am facing is the factory deck doesn't have RCA outlets in the back. I was wondering if anyone knows if it's possible to get some kind of adapter for the deck allowing me to use RCA's or not. If not, is their some way that I could still connect all of this and still get good quality sound etc. To make a long story short, I guess what i'm really wanting to know is how would I be able connect all of this.

What is the model of the deck that you were considering using?  I would have to verify this, but there is a good chance that there is a $70 adapter that will allow you to use your steering wheel controls with it if it supports either a wired or an InfraRed Remote control.  Otherwise, it is likely you could purchase a new deck (even an inexpensive one that would do that and have subwoofer pre-outs.

If you don't want to replace the deck, if your amp has speaker level inputs, you can just tap into the factory speaker wires and run those to your amp.  If it does not have speaker level inputs, you can get a LOC and again tap into the factory speaker wires to feed signal to the amp. 

The other deck that I have is a Panasonic CQ-C5403U MXE with WMA & MP3. It's Sat Radio Ready as well.

 

I've connected this system to my older vehicle before, but with this new vehicle, i'm a little nervous about ripping things apart in a brand new car.

How would I go about tapping into the rear speakers to get a signal. Sorry for sounding dumb, but it was completely different with my other vechicle.

Sorry to keep hitting you with questions, but ...

Are you buying or leasing the vehicle?

Do you have speaker level inputs on the subwoofer amp?

Is this a Coupe or Sedan and does it have the Bose system and/or Navi?

You have three ways that you can go with this:

• Oddly enough, if you are leasing the vehicle, your best option is likely to install your old Panasonic deck in the car, you can put your info into Outfit my car, and then click "View Installation Gear" under the toolbox at the right.  You will likely need a wiring adapter, an antenna adapter and a dash kit.  You steering wheel controls will not work, but having them not working will not hurt anything (unless you really like using them).  The great thing with this is that except for possibly running the amp power wire through the firewall, you don't have to splice into any of the factory wires.
• Your Panasonic supports a wired remote, so you can use the PAC SWI-X to retain your steering wheel controls with the Panasonic.  You will have to splice into the factory wiring to install this and you will have a small emitter that mounts in front of the IR receiver on the Panasonic.  I verfied that it works with the 2008 Altima.  I didn't verify that it works with the Panasonic, but PAC only lists a few JVC, Sony and says Denon is unknown as receivers it DOESN'T work with and the Panasonic has been out for a while so I would think they would have updated it.
• If you want to keep the factory radio instead, you need to splice into the rear speakers wires right before the speakers and run new speaker wire to the subwoofer amp or the LOC.  The easiest and best way, IMHO, to do this is with Posi-Taps.  (Oops, they got a really bad review if you are using 20-gauge wire, which you could be.  Okay - find some slack in the speaker wire, cut the wire, strip about 1/4 of insulation off both ends and your new wire, twist all three together, and then cap with either Posi-Twists or Crimp Caps.  (I have used both of these and like them.  Alternately, you could use butt splices and use two wires in one side and one wire folded over in the other side.  The drawback to this is that your fader (rear) will also make your sub louder, so you really lose use of it.
  

No problem about the questions, I really appreciate all your help

I've bought my vehicle (not leasing it).

It's a Sedan

It's doesn't have the Bose system or Nav,

I'm not sure about the "speaker level inputs", the way that I ran it on my other vehicle was I have the smaller of the 2 amps running the front and rear speaker and I had the larger amp running the subs only. Hopefully this answers your question.

Once again, I would like to say thank you so much for your time and your responses, it's been a great help. If theirs anything else that you need to know, just ask and hopefully i'll have the answers for you.

 

Also, one more thing that I forgot to tell you, It's got the keyless start feature and i've heard that this complicates thing quite a bit because everything is all tied in together.

>I've bought my vehicle (not leasing it).

No problem splicing wires if you do it correctly, then. 

>It's doesn't have the Bose system or Nav,

Easy to install the Panasonic in then. 

>I'm not sure about the "speaker level inputs", the way that I ran it on my other vehicle was I have the smaller of the 2 amps running the front and >rear speaker and I had the larger amp running the subs only. Hopefully this answers your question.

Nope, but the bigger question now is whether you prefer the Panasonic radio or the factory one in the Altima - you can do either it sounds like, but if you want the Panasonic, all the concerns about splicing into speaker wires and running them to the amp go away.  If you have the model numbers or the amps, I can probably check if it has speaker level inputs. 

The Keyless Start really shouldn't affect the radio, but then again, General Motors really shouldn't run the oil life and tire pressure resets through the radio either but they do.  I thought Nissan was smarter about this though.