How I put a newer, better, bluetoothier OEM Nissan Stereo from a totally different car in my '15 Leaf and got EVERYTHING (yes, everything*) to work.
Old & busted:
New hotness:
Story Time
(If you want to skip all the story, just click here to go right to what I did)
At the end of 2015, we bought a new Leaf S for the Mrs; she loves the car, but somehow, Nissan felt it was appropriate in TYOOL 2015 to sell a car that can't stream music over Bluetooth. Unacceptable. I wanted to do something about it (I had just replaced the radio in my Forester XT with a new Pioneer double-din unit) but after an incident involving cursing, blood, a blown fuse and a semi-significant amount of smoke, she didn't trust me. Fair enough. I bought her a little $18 Anker (or Aukey?) Bluetooth dongle from Amazon and didn't think anything more of it.
Thing is, I don't drive the car often, but when I do, it's with my wife, so we are usually talking and not listening to music. Turns out, that thing is super flakey, and moreover, there is often a contention between that thing and the car bluetooth over which device gets to take calls if they come in. It had gotten bad enough that she would either 1) not listen to any music in her car (because lol radio sucks), or, 2) spend 10 minutes un-pairing/re-pairing with the adapter in the car before she could drive. To make matters worse, in November 2016 her mum was excited by my wife's Leaf and decided she'd get one of her own - a 2016 Leaf S. And lo and behold, the 2016 Leaf S *does* have Bluetooth music streaming. That last piece was the nail in the coffin. I was going to do something about it.
I parked the cars side by side:
As far as I could see, the dash was identical. It literally looked like both the cars were going to be exactly the same under the dash - other than what radio they were attached to. Just to be sure, I pulled the radio out of both of them to check the wiring:
2015 Leaf S Accessory Connection:
2016 Leaf S Accessory Connection:
Hmm; looks almost identical - but there are three pins that have moved from holes 11, 12 and 13 of the top row to pins 14, 15 and 16 of the bottom row. I bet I just have to move those pins, and it'll work, right? At the time, I didn't notice the extra two wires going in to pins 5 and 6 of the top row. Whooops...
I went to Car-Part.com and searched for a replacement radio for a 2016 Leaf S. None found - - however, apparently the Display Radio from the 2015 Sentra was compatible. An auto recycler near me had an ad not unlike this one:
and the radio was just $80!. Sweet!
The radio came in the last habitable day outside before the winter set in, and i tried fitting the radio.
Here's what worked:
*Device powers on/off with vehicle
*Most non-Bluetooth music sources (CD/AM/FM/XM)
*All speakers
*Backup camera
Here's what didn't:
*No AUX input (used to be on the radio itself, moved elsewhere in the car for '16, plus, I didn't get an adapter
*No USB input (different plug between '15 and '16)
*Limited steering wheel controls (Volume/Source buttons worked, but not phone up/down)
*No microphone, and, as a consequence
*No possible way to pair Bluetooth
No matter how hard I tried, I could not get the microphone to work.
Defeated, I put the old radio back in, and tried to plan what I'd do once it was nice outside again.
Old & busted:
New hotness:
Story Time
(If you want to skip all the story, just click here to go right to what I did)
At the end of 2015, we bought a new Leaf S for the Mrs; she loves the car, but somehow, Nissan felt it was appropriate in TYOOL 2015 to sell a car that can't stream music over Bluetooth. Unacceptable. I wanted to do something about it (I had just replaced the radio in my Forester XT with a new Pioneer double-din unit) but after an incident involving cursing, blood, a blown fuse and a semi-significant amount of smoke, she didn't trust me. Fair enough. I bought her a little $18 Anker (or Aukey?) Bluetooth dongle from Amazon and didn't think anything more of it.
Thing is, I don't drive the car often, but when I do, it's with my wife, so we are usually talking and not listening to music. Turns out, that thing is super flakey, and moreover, there is often a contention between that thing and the car bluetooth over which device gets to take calls if they come in. It had gotten bad enough that she would either 1) not listen to any music in her car (because lol radio sucks), or, 2) spend 10 minutes un-pairing/re-pairing with the adapter in the car before she could drive. To make matters worse, in November 2016 her mum was excited by my wife's Leaf and decided she'd get one of her own - a 2016 Leaf S. And lo and behold, the 2016 Leaf S *does* have Bluetooth music streaming. That last piece was the nail in the coffin. I was going to do something about it.
I parked the cars side by side:
As far as I could see, the dash was identical. It literally looked like both the cars were going to be exactly the same under the dash - other than what radio they were attached to. Just to be sure, I pulled the radio out of both of them to check the wiring:
2015 Leaf S Accessory Connection:
2016 Leaf S Accessory Connection:
Hmm; looks almost identical - but there are three pins that have moved from holes 11, 12 and 13 of the top row to pins 14, 15 and 16 of the bottom row. I bet I just have to move those pins, and it'll work, right? At the time, I didn't notice the extra two wires going in to pins 5 and 6 of the top row. Whooops...
I went to Car-Part.com and searched for a replacement radio for a 2016 Leaf S. None found - - however, apparently the Display Radio from the 2015 Sentra was compatible. An auto recycler near me had an ad not unlike this one:
and the radio was just $80!. Sweet!
The radio came in the last habitable day outside before the winter set in, and i tried fitting the radio.
Here's what worked:
*Device powers on/off with vehicle
*Most non-Bluetooth music sources (CD/AM/FM/XM)
*All speakers
*Backup camera
Here's what didn't:
*No AUX input (used to be on the radio itself, moved elsewhere in the car for '16, plus, I didn't get an adapter
*No USB input (different plug between '15 and '16)
*Limited steering wheel controls (Volume/Source buttons worked, but not phone up/down)
*No microphone, and, as a consequence
*No possible way to pair Bluetooth
No matter how hard I tried, I could not get the microphone to work.
Defeated, I put the old radio back in, and tried to plan what I'd do once it was nice outside again.