mystikarkitect said:
Girlfriend gave me my early Birthday present today...an Avic Z-1. Not only that, but the production date on it? April 2006. Can't get much better than that...ok here goes the question for you do it yourselfers.
Nice find... and a April 06 to boot! Guess I will be looking forward to an order from you.
http://www.sminntech.com/z1flasher.html :)
mystikarkitect said:
I'm installing this thing on an 07 Avalanche, but theres a few install questions. If I do it myself, does it void my warranty?
No it does not. And I think that your 07 Avalanche might require a bose/onstar adapter.... I don't have any experiance with those, but I think you might need one of those.
mystikarkitect said:
I got a 3 yr warranty with it as well. I plan on installing Sirius (I like it better than XM) on it as well with a tuner as well as the iPod adapter.
Sounds like a nice setup, I actually have the same thing. If you have steering wheel controls (which I think yours might) you will want a Pac Audio SWI-PS as well to save those.
mystikarkitect said:
Would I be better off taking it all to an installer and have them do it?
That does depend on your skill level, but if you have installed amps before, I think that those are somewhat complicated as well. At least if you do it right and run new power lines from the rear of the vehicle to the battery. A head unit is no different other than there are more connections (and in the case of the Z1, a ton more) and you have to take the dash apart (or a small section of it). If you can figure out the dash, the rest is not that hard, just take each connection one at a time.
mystikarkitect said:
Does the stock antenna fit directly into it or do I need to get a different antenna, as I've heard this is necessary.
Stock Am/FM antenna? I would think that at best it just goes right in, at worse you would need an adapter.
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-58EolZrXCO ... =19686&t=1
The nav and sat radio will have antennas that need to be wired up and run to the roof.
mystikarkitect said:
I've installed amps before, never a head unit so I'm a little scared of it, especially in an 07 truck.
I know what you mean, but is it really any worse than a 05 truck? Just that you haven't had it that long and you don't want to mess it up. But remember no one (and I mean no one) cares about your vehicle more than you do. Some installers are really good, most are ok, some are really bad. I have seen the hack jobs that some have done and had to fix some as well. If you can figure out how to get the dash apart, then I would say go for it.
mystikarkitect said:
The Sirius thing throws me off as well. And one last thing,
It's really not that hard... it's a little module like 4 inch by 4 inch by 1 inch and plugs into the back of the radio. The hardest part is running the sat radio antenna up on top of the roof. It takes time and some body pannel removal or flexing (to tuck the wire under them) but it's really not that bad.
mystikarkitect said:
how easy are the backup cameras to install? Do you have to run a wire the length of the cab to it? Im confused about that as well...thanks to anyone who helps and am happy to be an official member.
That was the hardest for me to install. I wanted it somewhere, but couldn't get the body pannels off that I wanted to and I ended up mounting mine somewhere else. The location works, but it wasn't my first choise. It's cool, but it was expensive, lost it's cool factor real quickly, and it was the most difficult thing to install (in my mind anyway). Yah, you need to run power, ground and the video signal back to the back.