offroaderf150

looks good! those sport tracs are awesome!

yeah i had the same issue on my f90bt with the arrows. i couldnt get them to go away even by pressing the map button. after i rebooted it the next day, they were still there. i hit the map button and now they go away whenever i hit the map button. maybe software glitch?

yeah, having the battery die many times would kill the cells in it.

optima are good batteries. theyre pricey though. most people i know have had so so luck with them. my friend had to go through 3 of them before he found one that was good. he just kept warrantying them.

i would go with the red top unless you sit for long periods of time with the truck off and the radio on. the yellow top is a deep cycle one, where the red top is a starting battery.

sounds like your factory battery is goin out. in my f150 i was able to run my alpine v12 4 channel and rockford 1000bd amp, with my d2 for about 2 hours with the truck off. also i had a 2 awg wire running off the battery split to 2 4 awg wires to each amp.

also be sure to check the grounds and cables. corrosion inside the wire will cause voltage issues...so will a bad ground.

yeah its a lot of work. i installed a z1 in my dads 07 crewmax. it also had jbl, which the metra axxes harness works well, the steering wheel controls i used a pac accessories interface....which comes with instructions that you download online. other than that, be sure to get the dash kit from scosche. it matches the piano black color and texture of the factory radio. the metra one is just a standard flat black that doesnt match anything in the truck. i found it on ebay for 20 bucks. other than that, be sure to take your time and do everything step by step.

dang! i remember seeing this last year when you originally posted it! i remember now how terrible that install was! glad that you finally got it done yourself! at least now you have the satisfaction knowing that you are more capable of an installer than those guys were! just sucks that you had to go through all of that!

mine is mounted under the dashboard. i havent had any problems with mine at all...with the d3 or the f90

i did something similar to what Stephanie did, but a little different.

i wired up a DEI 520T back up battery in with an output channel on my alarm (could also use a switch if no alarm). basically the back up battery has a wire that connects to 12 volt constant that charges the battery, and another wire (grey) that goes to the alarm, or in this case, the acc lead to the avic. i also used a 6A diode to isolate the accessory circuit, so the back up batt doesnt get drained.

so i wired it up this way... as soon as i trigger the alarm, it activates a relay which breaks the power to the red wire going into the back up battery module. this activates the battery's power since the hardwired source has been interrupted. but in order to keep the back up battery from constantly supplying power to the acc circuit, i also wired in a 2nd relay to join and interrupt the acc circuit from the back up battery circuit. so, alarm channel is activated, relay 1 cuts the power to the b/u batt, triggering it to start sending out power from the battery. relay 2 connects the avic acc wire to the back up batt power. sorry if i sound redundant, i just wanna make sure its clear to understand.

so the back up battery solves the issue with the accessory cutting out during crank, and i love that im able to kick on the radio from my alarm while my car is in the garage. since i park in a garage, i came up with this so i dont kill everyone with c02 from my exhaust.

unless you do the bypass, the unit will eventually lock you out. once it finishes calibrating then it goes off the internal gyros on whether you're moving or not and ignores the parking brake. also, unless the gps antenna isnt hooked up, simply grounding the ebrake wire won't work. btw the disc is for z1s, and it's a download from pioneer's website, so there are no viruses. i doubt anyone has wasted their time trying to develop a virus for the z series. lol the bypass instructions are in the z series forum. its in bold, stickied to the top of the page.

also check to see if your domelight is still working. a lot of cars have the constant 12v wire for the radio tied in with the doors. the fuse labeled "radio" is usually for the accessory wire at the radio, not the 12v constant (yellow wire). also, check the fuses with your multimeter to make sure that power is or isnt going through the fuse. sometimes its difficult to see if there is a break or not.

ha yeah no kidding....i always turn the volume down when i get near parking lots or any public place that i plan on parking near. i wouldnt want anyone to hear anything coming from my car. not like i have subs in the trunk or anything, but yeah.

i understand what blwnv8 is saying....the battery cut off is only on the power wire ran from the batt to the radio switch.

im going to rig up a pulse timer relay along with a dei 520t back up battery. itll keep the radio powered up while the car cranks, in case it drops the voltage too much. im gonna put it together once i order the pulse timer from my work. im also going to incorporate it into my remote start's extra channel so i can activate it before it get to my car. i park my car in a garage so i dont want it to be remote started while its inside.

it doesnt matter how its connected as long as it is. you can get a spade connector that will slide into the connector that pioneer has on the harness, or solder it. soldering is preferred because its a more solid connection. you can just cut off the metal part and solder the wire directly.

before you do that, i would test to see if that blue wire on the antenna adapter is getting enough current. the avic only puts out 500ma of current from that wire and it might not be enough for the car's antenna booster. try tapping the wire from the antenna adapter to the red ignition wire and see if the signal improves any. just try it while the dash is apart...but if nothing changes, then i would just reconnect it to the blue on the pioneer harness.

on your antenna adapter there should be a blue wire. connect that blue wire to the blue wire coming out of the avic power harness. it should say "antenna control" once you do that, itll power up the antenna amplifier that is in the rear of the vehicle. your am/fm antenna is in the rear window of your car. if you have any type of metallic tint that will also interfere with your reception.

also if you have an amplified system in the car, you will need to hook up the blue wire on the antenna adapter to the antenna control wire and the blue/white wire on the harness to the blue/white wire on the avic rca harness.

hope this helps!!!

what type of car? from your username im guessing its an altima....what year?

through the fm antenna

what are the chances that best buy will lower the prices on the f-series for black friday??

dont count on it. i work for best buy and on black friday the company usually doesnt put the indash navs in the ads for that day. itll most likely be a portable nav system like a garmin or tom tom. if pioneer offers like 100 bucks off or something then best buy will do it. or sometimes bb will offer free install on the unit...but just watch the ad from week to week.

or just take yours off the 90bt....sand it down and repaint it. you get rid of the painted on lettering plus you can paint it whatever color you want. im not sure how easy they are to remove though.

weve had the 900bt at the best buy i work at last week. usually some stores wont get them and would have to special order them. depends on their sales history and previous selling volume.

yeah i had my 90bt randomly reset today after it finished booting up. it reset right after i pushed the menu button. i guess it didnt like that. seems like instead of freezing like a pc would, it just has the command to reset.

the peripheral interface should have come with a yellow sheet with a web address for specific programming instructions. go to that site and put in your car info and itll give step by step install instructions and programming for your car. sorry i dont have a link for it at home....its all at work. same with the vss info.

the wires should be there, but it depends on the vehicle. what do you have? only thing, if its a gm then those are most likely in the LAN system.

...By the way, has anyone else noticed that, after the update, Samantha now pronounces "take the next left/right" as a question? Her voice goes up at the end of the sentence...

 

haha, I totally mentioned the same thing to my gf yesterday. Sam sounds so funny, I always repeat it back.

 

Take the next right?

haha maybe shes not sure.

just like in Anchorman... "I'm Ron Burgundy?" haha

true, i work on at least one or two cars a day that have had their radio stolen. i work in san bernardino, ca...which is crime infested among other wonderful cities in southern california. it has to do with the car as well. some cars are easier to break into than others. like hondas and f150s are easy to pop the lock without having to break the window.

i hooked up my alarm to a siren and my horn to make as much noise as possible if someone were to break in.

i think that if you are able to make a stealth faceplate of an oem radio to go over your nav, then your chances of keeping your radio are much higher. most thieves will glance in and see if theres anything valuable to steal or not. if all they see is the oem radio face, then hopefully they'll move on. I ALWAYS turn the screen off when i get near my destination, so nobody can see the glow of it at night. also i always turn everything down, so it doesnt draw attention.

but i agree to invest in an alarm anyways...its a preventative measure. it just makes it harder for the thief. if you were able to afford a d3 or f series, then you should surely be able to afford a quality alarm with install.

lotsa cutting! i did it once for a jeep liberty...very reluctantly though, but the customer wanted it. same size radio, as your truck. to me...it didnt look right with the dashboard. i think best way would be to fiberglass it in there, but if you dont know glassing, it can get pretty expensive.