As I walk to my car this moring, I see a few odd looking car parts and wires next to my car. As I walk closer and look in the window, angryly noticed that someone finally did it. They finally stole my AVIC Z-1. After taking a quick glance to see if anything else was stolen, I called the police. Yes they also took my bluetooth adapter and navtrafic receiver. They did leave the CD changer, game port, and other quite valuable items (I guess not valuable enough). So I filed a police report and the forensic fingerprinting unit came by to investigate. Besides minor damage to the dash, I guess they knew what they were only going for. Luckily, everything was insured and should be all replaced. Will I re-install it again....who knows. Most likely not at this present location of living. OH WELL!!!

P.S. I guess that is what happens when living in the New York area.

hasher13 said:

As I walk to my car this moring, I see a few odd looking car parts and wires next to my car. As I walk closer and look in the window, angryly noticed that someone finally did it. They finally stole my AVIC Z-1. After taking a quick glance to see if anything else was stolen, I called the police. Yes they also took my bluetooth adapter and navtrafic receiver. They did leave the CD changer, game port, and other quite valuable items (I guess not valuable enough). So I filed a police report and the forensic fingerprinting unit came by to investigate. Besides minor damage to the dash, I guess they knew what they were only going for. Luckily, everything was insured and should be all replaced. Will I re-install it again....who knows. Most likely not at this present location of living. OH WELL!!!

P.S. I guess that is what happens when living in the New York area.

See maybe you should e-mail pioneer about this! This is getting bad, we need some security features for a 2000 dollar unit, they have to address this. God Bless

Where in NY do you live?

I am very sorry for your loss. I used to live in Flushing Queens and those Bstards used to break into my car at least once every couple of months to see what they could get. They once broke my rear window and stole my rear parcel shelf that had my ADS plate speakers on it. It sucks that you work hard for stuff and some folks just aint worth the air they breath. Good luck with your next system......Steve

So I already wrote an email to Pioneer lets see if it starts a fire under their asses.

For Pasain NYC I live in the Staten Island/Brooklyn area!
What is up with the AVOX Mobile Jukebox 120GB "Mobile Tivo" How does that work. Maybe I will get that next time as well. And there will be a next time. I just have to think of a better security system. Maybe tear gas, that is triggered when the device tampered. Anyone know of any two way alarm systems that will notify by cell phone or pager if someone enters the car?

I other solution is to move. That seems the best and most likely at this time!!

guys quick question. How can I insure my Z1 and sound system? Can I just add it to my car insurance? I didnt think car insurance would cover a sound system would it? I believe I have Allstate in NY. Any1 have any hints for me?

yea, I am not sure about allstate but Geico you can add a seperate insurance for the radio and stuff. Thank goodness I did this early on!! That is the only good part. For 50 bucks, I get my car fixed and everything replaced. Or lets hope so!!

hasher13 said:

So I already wrote an email to Pioneer lets see if it starts a fire under their asses.

For Pasain NYC I live in the Staten Island/Brooklyn area!
What is up with the AVOX Mobile Jukebox 120GB "Mobile Tivo" How does that work. Maybe I will get that next time as well. And there will be a next time. I just have to think of a better security system. Maybe tear gas, that is triggered when the device tampered. Anyone know of any two way alarm systems that will notify by cell phone or pager if someone enters the car?

I other solution is to move. That seems the best and most likely at this time!!

These guys make some great stuff but it aint cheap: http://www.directed.com/security/viper/ ... atcham.asp

I had this installed and its great if installed right.... you get a notification to the remote with vibrate and beeping if your car is being broken in to.. I have tested it and it works about to a little over a quater of a mile.... My Truck is never that far from me.. I live in Houston, Tx and hell you can park at a restrurant and they will steal your stuff.... not anymore though..

dwhitley0381 said:

I had this installed and its great if installed right.... you get a notification to the remote with vibrate and beeping if your car is being broken in to.. I have tested it and it works about to a little over a quater of a mile.... My Truck is never that far from me.. I live in Houston, Tx and hell you can park at a restrurant and they will steal your stuff.... not anymore though..

I have had this alarm in my cars since they came out. On three occasions it warned me when someone hit my car backing out of their parking spot.

One of those times I was in Subway eating and my remote started beeping. I ran outside to see a pickup backing out next to my car and starting to pull away. I ran up and pounded on the window. Grandma was letting her nephew "new driver" drive her pickup hit my car pulling out. They were just going to leave! I stopped them told them they were leaving the scene of an accident and I was calling the cops! I was more pissed that they were just taking off. She begged me not to call because he was a new driver and offered me $100.00. The marks on my "lease" vehicle could easily be rubbed out so I took the money and let them go.

I will not be without the Viper alarm on any of my cars!

The new one that just is hitting stores now has a true and tested 1 mile range! I will see if it does, mine is being upgraded Saturday.

any online retailers for these? I tried google and only came up with British UK sites :(

Okay, where do I start!! Thank you everyone for your input and suggestions. I came back from the claim adjusters and they reimbursed me already, check in hand, for the total amount of the installation and products, plus damage to the front dash unit. After being very happy about how quickly everything happened I was now able to put things back together and see the true damage. Pretty much the head unit and the xm/nav traf unit was ripped out and all the other wires besides those were cut. So basically I have some peripherals, game port, BT adapter, CD changer still present but the connection ends were cut off

Leads me to my next question. The CD changer was an old RF model that I barely used due to buring all my CD's in the HDD so not really worried about that. The game port is all right, just need to buy another $7.95 A/V cable to connect it.

What I would like to salvage if possible is the BT adapter, is there a way to connect a new IPBUS connector on it? Does cutting the connection wire due to theft, covered under the warranty? That is the only real salvagable part left. The rear camera, well, they cut 1 out of the 3 wires which should be fixable.

Oh yea, by the way! After putting back my factory radio, all the manufacturer car parts dash and so on are 99.9% in working order. Just one little scratch.

Okay now to you suggestions, i checked out that car alarm, was pretty impressed. I also checked out Crime Stopper Alarm system. I have a remote starter already Marrs 22 model, does anyone know if I can add a better alarm to that model with a 2 way receiver. Or does anyone know of a good alarm system with a learnable transmitter. I would hate to have 2 remotes plus a tramsmitter on my key chaine. And final question, yes I know this is long. Does anyone know of a product that will text your cell phone. Between work and other things, I have my phone on me more that my car keys.

Thanks again.

It really sucks. I lost an AVIC-N2 the same way about a month or so. My Grand Cherokee was beat up pretty bad from the burglary so I ended up just trading it. I ended up getting a garage now so I finally installed an AVIC-Z1.

Sorry to hear you lost everything. Hopefully your insurance takes care of it and your premiums don't go up. These things are so nice to have but with crime rates soaring its dangerous to park a nice vehicle anywhere.

Good luck and hope it all works out.

PaisanNYC said:

any online retailers for these? I tried google and only came up with British UK sites :(

It's suppose to be a dealer installed item only. Warranty only valid if installed by an authorized dealer.

You can find them on ebay.

As far as the new 1 mile range model it's called the 5900 model. Probably still a little hard to find. DEI web site has not even been updated.

hasher13 said:

As I walk to my car this moring, I see a few odd looking car parts and wires next to my car. As I walk closer and look in the window, angryly noticed that someone finally did it. They finally stole my AVIC Z-1. After taking a quick glance to see if anything else was stolen, I called the police. Yes they also took my bluetooth adapter and navtrafic receiver. They did leave the CD changer, game port, and other quite valuable items (I guess not valuable enough). So I filed a police report and the forensic fingerprinting unit came by to investigate. Besides minor damage to the dash, I guess they knew what they were only going for. Luckily, everything was insured and should be all replaced. Will I re-install it again....who knows. Most likely not at this present location of living. OH WELL!!!

P.S. I guess that is what happens when living in the New York area.

I have a couple questions...

you had additional coverage for that unit (AVIC-Z1), right?

and, if they damaged the auto, like the dash, that coverage was under your normal coverage, right?....so, a deductable would apply, correct?

my insurance (Nationwide) automaticily covers $1500.00 for the unit, but if they damage anything, it falls under the regular insurance, which I have a $500.00 deductable.

so, I called my insurance agent up, and wanted to add additional coverage, like another $1000.00 to the $1500.00 and they want another $80.00 per year.

I think that's to high, especially if there is damage and I'l have to at least pay $500.00 for the deductable on the damage.

how does your insurance work? Did you have to pay any out of pocket for the damage?

niteone said:

hasher13 said:

As I walk to my car this moring, I see a few odd looking car parts and wires next to my car. As I walk closer and look in the window, angryly noticed that someone finally did it. They finally stole my AVIC Z-1. After taking a quick glance to see if anything else was stolen, I called the police. Yes they also took my bluetooth adapter and navtrafic receiver. They did leave the CD changer, game port, and other quite valuable items (I guess not valuable enough). So I filed a police report and the forensic fingerprinting unit came by to investigate. Besides minor damage to the dash, I guess they knew what they were only going for. Luckily, everything was insured and should be all replaced. Will I re-install it again....who knows. Most likely not at this present location of living. OH WELL!!!

P.S. I guess that is what happens when living in the New York area.

I have a couple questions...

you had additional coverage for that unit (AVIC-Z1), right?

and, if they damaged the auto, like the dash, that coverage was under your normal coverage, right?....so, a deductable would apply, correct?

my insurance (Nationwide) automaticily covers $1500.00 for the unit, but if they damage anything, it falls under the regular insurance, which I have a $500.00 deductable.

so, I called my insurance agent up, and wanted to add additional coverage, like another $1000.00 to the $1500.00 and they want another $80.00 per year.

I think that's to high, especially if there is damage and I'l have to at least pay $500.00 for the deductable on the damage.

how does your insurance work? Did you have to pay any out of pocket for the damage?

Well I have to say that I am lucky because I believe to have a very nice plan with Geico. I guess that is what happens when you use them for so many years with many cars. Well, I did get a rider just for the unit and installation and everything else for about $2800.00 and it was only an extra 30 bucks every 6 months, totalling the yearly payment to about $700-800. And the kicker was that I have only a $50.00 deductable. So basically they reimberressed me for the unit and everything, plus the appeared damage to my truck, and they took out the $50.00 at the time of cutting the check. So yea, all is good now. Just upset about the whole incident and complete loosing faith in the area, to believe it or not, they also took a bag for work which I had a book in there, which is like a bible and is not replacable. Or atleast all the added info that I put in myself. Oh yea, and the bag had alot of sentimental value :-( Oh well. Life goes on!!!

I feel your pain too, but in a different way. I had my AVH-P7500 destroyed (partially) by some jacka** who tried (and failed) to rip the head unit out of the dash. He managed to rip the screen module out of the head unit and left it on the floor. I don't know if somebody came by and the thief panicked or what, but he left me a broken mess. He also took off with my CD wallet that contained a BUNCH of CD's and DVD-A's that I'm only now finding replacements for. My insurance company (Allstate) wouldn't do a damn thing because (I assume) the thief didn't actually STEAL the unit!! I tried to explain the damages to the rep but they wouldn't do anything to help me.

I have not been able to afford to get the thing fixed yet and I've been reading this site because the thought of an in-dash unit that looks more like a factory radio intrigues me. However, seeing a posting like this one is discouraging. Have any of you tried getting an old, non-functional factory radio and removing the faceplate and using that as a removeable faceplate "cover" for the Pioneer? If I get a Z1, I'm thinking that this will be one of my first projects.

Finally, and this is a dumb question, but is the opening on my 2003 Ford Explorer considered a double-DIN size? Thanks for reading this and a BIG thanks to Ducatiboy for all his work.....and I don't even OWN a Z1....yet!

several people have already made faceplate covers for their z1's. I am making one now as a matter of fact. Its kinda time consuming but they look so stock that unless you try to turn it on you would probobly never know its not real. and most thives dont want to steal your stock ford cassette player anyway

silveradojeff said:

several people have already made faceplate covers for their z1's. I am making one now as a matter of fact. Its kinda time consuming but they look so stock that unless you try to turn it on you would probobly never know its not real. and most thives dont want to steal your stock ford cassette player anyway

That's my hope. I'd love to make a "plain Jane" factory radio cover for a Z1 whenever I finally get one.

Way ahead of ya, and did not matter!! I had the unit in a ford and I used another old ford radio that I had as a decoy. I removed the face plate with keys and display from the old radio and placed it over the Z1 unit. Like most, it looked like a sloopy install of a factory radio, but if someone just walked by it would not make them look twice. I believe it had alot to do with the the gps and the xm antenni. They were on my dash inside the car. The person that took the unit, knew what they were doing and what they were coming from. Like I said in my original post, they just took the unit and the xm/nav adapter. Left other valuable and small things inside. The police said it was a strange thing, because they have never seen just the unit being taken, they usually take the small stuff aswell and the airbags. After explaining this was not "just an unit" they understood. So thinking more and more about it. I also beleive that thieves are getting more aware of the unit and lack of internal security. This make a very easy target, once they get in the car or truck. So something in this nature has to be resolved. The unit has to become dead when removed, simple as that.
When I do get another unit installed, I am going to have the antenni installed on the roof and in the middle with no signs of them what so ever.
Owning a truck, and a tall one, one is not able to see the roof and be curious what is inside.

I hope this gives some people some thought!

Thanks for that info. It's all a bit discouraging, isn't it? My Explorer sits outside my apartment and is completely exposed. Your idea about putting the GPS antenna up high is sorta like what I have now, but I have considered trying to make it even MORE obscure by mounting the little antenna "puck" somewhere on the luggage rails and disguise the wire inside the rail body, if possible. BTW, with the Z1, are the XM and GPS antennas separate modules or do they combine the antennas in one little puck?

thxdave said:

Thanks for that info. It's all a bit discouraging, isn't it? My Explorer sits outside my apartment and is completely exposed. Your idea about putting the GPS antenna up high is sorta like what I have now, but I have considered trying to make it even MORE obscure by mounting the little antenna "puck" somewhere on the luggage rails and disguise the wire inside the rail body, if possible. BTW, with the Z1, are the XM and GPS antennas separate modules or do they combine the antennas in one little puck?

The antennas are separate pieces. What you can do since ther're about the same size nad shape is put on each side next to the luggage rails. I do this wuite often. Makes it pretty damn hard to even tell that the antennas are even there.

cntrylvr79 said:

thxdave said:

Thanks for that info. It's all a bit discouraging, isn't it? My Explorer sits outside my apartment and is completely exposed. Your idea about putting the GPS antenna up high is sorta like what I have now, but I have considered trying to make it even MORE obscure by mounting the little antenna "puck" somewhere on the luggage rails and disguise the wire inside the rail body, if possible. BTW, with the Z1, are the XM and GPS antennas separate modules or do they combine the antennas in one little puck?

The antennas are separate pieces. What you can do since ther're about the same size nad shape is put on each side next to the luggage rails. I do this wuite often. Makes it pretty damn hard to even tell that the antennas are even there.

Hey cntry,
When you do one of these installs, where do you feed the antenna wire when you are coming from the rooftop? In this case, I'm talking about a rooftop that has luggage/cargo rails on it. On my Explorer, I put the antenna near the rear hatch so that I had only a couple inches of exposed wire. I punched a tiny hole through the rear windshield washer fluid tube rubber boot and fed the wire into the interior that way. I thought about dismantling the roof rack rail support posts to see if there was a way to feed the wire through there but I chickened out. Ideas?

i mounted my gps antenna inside the vehicle. its way up front hear the front of the dash and i get great satalite signal. ive never had all 8 lock in at the same time but i nearly always have seven. occasionaly i have had only 6 but thats been on bad weather days and in the woods. My guidance is spot on. it never shows me on wrong roads and its very very accurate. anyway thats just another option for ya

thxdave said:

cntrylvr79 said:

thxdave said:

Thanks for that info. It's all a bit discouraging, isn't it? My Explorer sits outside my apartment and is completely exposed. Your idea about putting the GPS antenna up high is sorta like what I have now, but I have considered trying to make it even MORE obscure by mounting the little antenna "puck" somewhere on the luggage rails and disguise the wire inside the rail body, if possible. BTW, with the Z1, are the XM and GPS antennas separate modules or do they combine the antennas in one little puck?

The antennas are separate pieces. What you can do since ther're about the same size nad shape is put on each side next to the luggage rails. I do this wuite often. Makes it pretty damn hard to even tell that the antennas are even there.

Hey cntry,
When you do one of these installs, where do you feed the antenna wire when you are coming from the rooftop? In this case, I'm talking about a rooftop that has luggage/cargo rails on it. On my Explorer, I put the antenna near the rear hatch so that I had only a couple inches of exposed wire. I punched a tiny hole through the rear windshield washer fluid tube rubber boot and fed the wire into the interior that way. I thought about dismantling the roof rack rail support posts to see if there was a way to feed the wire through there but I chickened out. Ideas?

Normally I'll do pretty much the same thing. Occasionally, I'll butt it up against the edge of the rear hatch and just pull up the weatherstripping and loop the antenna wires under it. If I do have to leave more than an inch of wire exposed, I have plenty of spare "tails" from portable sat radios that I'll use to help hold the wire.