It took me about 4 hours to fully install the AVIC-D2 with Sirius tuner, mainly because I'm a perfectionist and would verify that certain parts of the install were done correctly before proceeding.

Finding the VSS wire on the speedometer harness was a lot easier than I though, and so was doing the parking brake bypass. The only thing I didn't do was the reverse cable (which I'm hardly ever in reverse) because I thought for the time that it would take to find the wire behind the passenger's kick panel the little bit more accuracy I would get wouldn't be worth it (besides the GPS signal updates the information quickly and I've yet to see my navigation display a wrong position due to me backing out of my driveway). I mounted both the GPS and Sirius antennas inside on the front dash (I know, a cleaner install would have them in the back but I really didn't care to run wires all the way back there) and I haven't had any reception problems.

I also went ahead and hardwired my 8500 x50 and instead of paying $15 for a direct cable from Escort I just bought a $6 telephone cord from RadioShack and spliced it and my radar works fine and looks great (my interior looks so much better without the exposed cord and my ash tray open).

















And just in case you wanted to see some exterior pics:

Sweet look 8)

nice job. so you know though, you could have found all wires rather simply, you could have gone straight to the ecu on the pass floor. Thats what I did in my 05 sti, and now in my 06 sti for the z1. the antanas I placed under the clock housing, where you have your ecutek, I experience little to no reception problems for the navi or sirius i hooked up. The only time it has an issue is when I am under a wide overpass. Should you want any help with that car, let me know, I have done much to my 05 and 06. Such as auto window up and down, alarm w/ remote start IN SAFE even if car is in gear, phone control of alarm and remote start, sound system, d2 and z1, turbo timer, boost controller, and some neat trick stuff that only a true hobbiest would really appreciate.

tillithz said:

nice job. so you know though, you could have found all wires rather simply, you could have gone straight to the ecu on the pass floor. Thats what I did in my 05 sti, and now in my 06 sti for the z1. the antanas I placed under the clock housing, where you have your ecutek, I experience little to no reception problems for the navi or sirius i hooked up. The only time it has an issue is when I am under a wide overpass. Should you want any help with that car, let me know, I have done much to my 05 and 06. Such as auto window up and down, alarm w/ remote start IN SAFE even if car is in gear, phone control of alarm and remote start, sound system, d2 and z1, turbo timer, boost controller, and some neat trick stuff that only a true hobbiest would really appreciate.

Nice. Yeah, I heard from some others that the reverse wire was in the passenger kick panel but I didn't care to mess with getting up in there just for the reverse wire.

Wow, I didn't know you could hide the Sirius antenna as I thought it had to have line of sight for reception. I will try mounting under my ECUTek holder and see what happens as that would clean up my dash a bit.

Thanks for all the info.

yep, just make sure your not putting metal between the sat and antana.

you listen to mandy moore, haha

=P

Dubbedown said:

you listen to mandy moore, haha

=P

My wife does. I told her I was getting some grief online from the forums I posted on about the Mandy Moore thing. She then started telling me how great her songs were so I'm guessing I can't get rid of them.

btw, kinda sux in order to have gps + xm/nav-traffic, you need to mount 2 gps antennas. i would've thought the satellite radio only provides one for those who are connecting to a non-navi hu (just a hu w/ screen...)

i think it might look better to mount one of them in a more stealth location!

Dubbedown said:

btw, kinda sux in order to have gps + xm/nav-traffic, you need to mount 2 gps antennas. i would've thought the satellite radio only provides one for those who are connecting to a non-navi hu (just a hu w/ screen...)

i think it might look better to mount one of them in a more stealth location!

Actually I just mounted both my antennas to right below the dash shown in the pics. I'm receiving both Sirius and GPS signals very well and it looks so much better not having two antennas exposed. And I personally wouldn't get the NavTraffic either since although I live in San Antonio I am going to be moving to a much smaller town so I wouldn't have use for it anyway.

I'm installing the D2 in my '06 STI this weekend (or earlier if I have time)...what wiring harness did you use? I don't want to splice the cables directly into the car but I called my local CC and they told me that a harness doesn't exist for the combo. If one does, could you give me the part # and if one doesn't exist, could you tell me how you wired it up? The D2 is sitting in its package on my bed at home right now! :)

Yobz said:

I'm installing the D2 in my '06 STI this weekend (or earlier if I have time)...what wiring harness did you use? I don't want to splice the cables directly into the car but I called my local CC and they told me that a harness doesn't exist for the combo. If one does, could you give me the part # and if one doesn't exist, could you tell me how you wired it up? The D2 is sitting in its package on my bed at home right now! :)

They are wrong. I got my wiring harness from the local best buy and it's for 90+ Subarus.

the part number is 70-8901. as stated before it's for 90+ subarus.

yeah the d2 is nice also, I had that in my 05 sti before the 06 and z1. keep in mind there is not much room for the accessories like ipod sat radio and so forth in the vehicle within close range of the deck... so plan it out before you get all involved. behind the glove box there is a little bit of room, but it is tight. I didnt like under the seat myself but you probably could fit something there if you are even installing anything other then d2

cntrylvr79 said:

the part number is 70-8901. as stated before it's for 90+ subarus.

I stopped by CC on the way home from work and the computer didn't show it (they went to some website), but they went in back and got me a part. I read your post after I read what they got me -- the part number is 80-8901 and it says Subaru to Universal on it...I assume this will work as well?

yes it will, you will have to cut the "80" off of it.. the 80 in 80-8901 is the universal white 2 row plug... this is what cc sells.. best buy has the other one that already has the wires cut on the other end. and is a few cents cheaper but hardly worth going back returning and then going to best buy. just match up the one you need with your car and cut the other off, then connect wires, and your done.

Yeah the difference is like a $1.50.

yeah, on a retail level it really isnt much... but wholesale wise these things are only like 1-2 $

Ok, I installed the D2 in my car and it looks great. The only problem is the nav. I wired it to come out on top of my dash, right next to the windshield. It gets pretty poor reception right now...is the metal plate necessary or is that just a way to mount it? If it helps reception I'll use it, otherwise the signal is pretty poor...

Try the metal plate, if that doesn't help then you'll have to move the antenna.

Yobz said:

Ok, I installed the D2 in my car and it looks great. The only problem is the nav. I wired it to come out on top of my dash, right next to the windshield. It gets pretty poor reception right now...is the metal plate necessary or is that just a way to mount it? If it helps reception I'll use it, otherwise the signal is pretty poor...

Yes, definately use the metal plate. I was using it on my dash and had 0 problems with reception but didn't like looking at two antennas (gps and sirius). I then mounted right under the clock using the metal plate again and I get the best reception you can get for GPS (a full bar) and the Sirius reception is good as well but it does seem for one channel that I listen to that it loses reception a lot easier now, but I'd still rather not look at an antenna so I'm keeping it that way.