I've been finding tons of info on the forum here, but I still have some questions I was hoping someone could help me with before I take this in to get it installed. Any help would be appreciated.

1. I'll be getting the unit professionally installed. Once it's installed, how hard is it to get to the back of the unit? Is it not possible without taking the entire dashboard off?

2. I have zero electrical experience other than things like installing lightswitches and ceiling fans, so I don't know what's meant for step 2 of the bypass instructions: "Take the mute wire and tie it & and the green parking brake wire to ground." All the YouTube videos and pictures online gloss right over this step and I can't find anything about on this forum, so it must be something easy, but I'm afraid it needs to be spelled out for retards like myself. What's meant by "tieing" wires? I assume I'm not just tying it in a knot. Does it involve stripping the wires? Soldering? I don't even know what soldering is... something about heat and melting wires I think. Can someone explain this step better? Don't be afraid to list it out extremely over-simplistically, like you're talking to a four-year-old. Per this YouTube video, "you're going to take the yellow wire and the green wire and ground them. Either "chasity (?)" ground it or ground it with your black wire."

3. I don't need to buy anything extra to hook this up to my iPod, do I? I've been seeing some stuff about iPod adapters, but I thought this unit came with everything.

4. Similary, I don't currently have a Siruis/XM subscription, nor MSN Direct. Do I need to buy anything extra to get these to work? How will I get setup with these? I did see that MSN Direct is expiring so I may not bother with that.

5. While I'm at it, I currently have factory speakers in the SSR. As long as I'm throwing money around, are there any cheap upgrades I should do that'll really improve sound quality? I'm not an audiophile, but I'm definitely not opposed to spending a few hundred more if it'll make a noticeable difference.

Thanks,

Drzy

For the ipod/iphone you need this cable: CD-IU50V

I found it cheapest on eBay. Just make sure you narrow your search on eBay to US shippers only so you don't order from China or some place outside the US.

Step #2 is just basically telling you that you need to ground out those wires. So basically there is a ground wire on your cable connector. Just connect the two wires and connect them to the ground wire. You need to splice the wire to get to the actual wire itself. They best way for me was to get these "tap in wire connectors". This is much simpler then splicing the wire and then braiding the wires together. You just simply put the wire in the tap in and squeeze them down. It will then "Tap in" to the wire.

Taking your car interior apart can be easy or a pain depending on the car and your patience. I have a toyota 4runner and I can literally take my z110bt out of my interior in 5 minutes. My car comes apart like lego's!!! Some cars are not so easy.

The wiring stuff is easy. I suggest you watch this video on getting the yellow wire out of the plug:

I did it that way and it was very simple

1. Well that depends I have a 06 Mustang and its relatively easy to get to the back of the unit and if not the whole dash can be poped out in a couple of easy steps. But its different with ever car when your getting it installed just ask to see how easy it is to get to the back or take off the required parts to get to the back of the unit.

2. The best advice I can give you being in the same boat as you is just ask the installer to do the bypass most are really nice and understand as long as you understand the risk and whatnot and just be polite and ask them. If they wont do the bypass they would be the best to offer advise on where to take it or how to do it yourself. I hope that helps

3. You dont really need anything but I do have the Ipod cable that just plugs into the ipod its the only way you can play video though the HU but you can get by with the ipod cable and a wire for the audio. Im not exactly sure cause I have the cable..

4. If you want siruis or xm you will have to buy the module for it. the store would be more than happy to offer thoes services to you im sure..

5. You could change out the front speakers I changed out my stock front speakers with a good pair of infinity speakers that were on clearance.. and yes it makes a huge difference

Good luck I hope this helps!

3. You dont really need anything but I do have the Ipod cable that just plugs into the ipod its the only way you can play video though the HU but you can get by with the ipod cable and a wire for the audio. Im not exactly sure cause I have the cable..

You will need the Pioneer CD-IU50V iPod cable if you want all of the iPod capabilities that the unit is capable of. The iPod cable that came with your ipod will not be sufficient.

Thanks all. I ordered the Pioneer CD-IU50V iPod cable.

Bummer on the bypass though... I've been trying to remove the pin via stables and thumbtacks and sewing needles all day with no progress. I'd seen the YouTube video with the guy using the razor blade but was avoiding that because I was afraid I'd f*** something up. I finally gave up and gave that a try, and it didn't go too well. I snapped the pin and half. Not only that, I still can't get part of the pin out of there:

Is this salvageable? Where do I go from here? I wish I could just order a wire online somewhere.

Maybe you should have searched this forum. There is a guy selling those wires on here.

Would you mind saying who or in what part of the forum? I believe I've read every post of the AVIC Z110 section and haven't come across that, and I'm searching more now for all sorts of terms and can't find him.

I didn't see anything in the classified section either.

This is the thread I am referring to. My mistake though he isn't selling them, just advising on where to get a wire if you need one.

viewtopic.php?f=57&t=30106

If your installer is a dick he will not install it if you did the mod first.

Looks like you decided to use a dremel cutting disc over a razor blade..... In which sucks, as it also looks like you've managed to melt the guides of the connector itself....

I think you may need to start over... Odds are that the connector won't even fit right inside the unit..... find the P/N for that connector, and see if you can't get it from Pioneer...

Did you pull the locking piece from the back first, like all the tuts describe?

To put it simply... You have managed to murder the bypass.... It's really not that hard bro...

Did you pull the locking piece from the back first, like all the tuts describe?

I think I did. I was having a hard time figuring out what exactly the locking piece was, but I think it's the three flat rectangular pieces on the bottom with little notches in them. I managed to pry them open with a tiny screwdriver, and as I kept prying further and further the piece eventually broke off (shown below). But at no point did it ever get any easier or harder to pull out the wire.

Here's a couple more pics of the s***-job I've done. Dwagbone's right, I don't own a razor blade so I used the sharpest knife in my kitchen I could find. It's easy to see where f***ed up, the cut was way too narrow to try to force the wire through like I did.

I don't think I've cut into any of the hole where the wire should move to, so it may be possible to keep using the same harness

Based on those pics, is it best to start over? I think I found the part on Pioneer's site: http://parts.pioneerelectronics.com/mod ... VIC-Z110BT

I think it's Part# CDP1194, RCA plug? Correct me if I'm wrong. That's $75 with tax and shipping, which sucks, but it's doable.

If I can get away with just a new wire, maybe I can drive by the installer today and see if he has one.

I pod cable:

does the one referenced above (CD-IU50V) allow for charging of the ipod and video playback??

edit: with the above cable can i still run a back up camera?

Yes, and that info is easily obtainable on the Pioneer site.

While it's pretty boogered up, I think you could still make it work, with possibly some sanding... Does the connector still fit OK in the unit?

I'm not sure, since I broke the connector. I'm going to take it to the installer tomorrow and see if he has any spare wires and get his opinion. I'll do my best to avoid using the word bypass or saying anything remotely connected to bypass, and hopefully he's cool with it.

I had the same problem doing the bypass. I accidentally ripped the wire out of the slot and a piece of the metal stayed in. Finally I got it out and my harness looked like yours and I was still able to salvage it. What i did was stripe the covering of the mute wire and put the bare wire into the slot as far as I could and taped it to keep it in place. did the ground and my system works great. you don't need the metal piece it just keeps it place.

I didnt read all the comments so maybe this doesnt help at all but good luck.

Again, thanks all. I'm down to one final question.

I used the razor blade method to move the pin. It's not as easy as seen in the YouTube video... I have no idea how that guy did that in a minute. But I did get it done, and all that's left is the grounding part. As chad711 said earlier,

Step #2 is just basically telling you that you need to ground out those wires. So basically there is a ground wire on your cable connector. Just connect the two wires and connect them to the ground wire. You need to splice the wire to get to the actual wire itself. They best way for me was to get these "tap in wire connectors". This is much simpler then splicing the wire and then braiding the wires together. You just simply put the wire in the tap in and squeeze them down. It will then "Tap in" to the wire.

I'm still not clear on how to connect the wires. Are all three wires (yellow, green, black) supposed to connect in one place? How could you use a tap-in wire connector to do that? Also, does it matter where the wires are tied? I'd hate to tie them together and then have the installer tell me he couldn't make the wires go where they're supposed to go because there wasn't enough slack.

I hate to sound like an idiot, but if anyone could really spell out the process for this, I'd really appreciate it. I mean really, really spell it out. Assume I know absolutely nothing about how to do this.

Just cut them and splice them together using whatever means.... The parking brake wire is super long... You don't need all that wire.... get rid of it...

I just cut back a small piece of the insulation on my ground wire... wrapped the parking brake and mute wire around it... soldered it...then protected it with heat shrink.... then just ground the ground wire...

Thanks dawgbone. In addition to cutting the insulation on the ground wire, I'd have to do it for the parking brake and mute wires too, right? And tie them all together in the same location?

I made a handy diagram. Does this look right?

When you say "then just ground the ground wire..." , is that something I do or the installer does?

Your installer will ground the ground wire....

This is what it should look like...

Thanks again man, I really appreciate the help.

I think I understand now, but just to be 100% perfectly clear, the parking break and mute wires end at the ground wire, right? Meaning, the ends in circles 1 and 3 in the picture above won't be used. Correct?

Yes... all 3 need to be grounded... as to how you do it, it doesn't matter...

Since the Unit's ground(black wire) has to be grounded for it to ever power on... You might as well tap into that wire for the PB and mute... Instead of running 3 different wires to the same place...

Do the wires need to soldered together, or is it enough to just wrap them around each other?

If I do need to solder the wires, I've never done that before. I was watching some YouTube videos on how to do it, and it looks like you need some actual solder compound to apply... I thought you just heated the wires up until they melted together. Is that solder necessary, or can you make wires hot enough to melt them together without solder?

You can't melt the wires together... You have to use solder...

Go to Radio Shack(or Walmart) and buy a cheapo soldering iron and some solder.... Heat the iron up and put the tip of the solder wire to the tip of the iron... It's pretty much self explanatory from there...

Just remember to put your heat shrink on first...

Dawgbone, thanks for all your help on this, there's no way I could've done this without you.

Here's the final product. I cut the green and yellow wires at their ends and exposed them, exposed a section of the black wire, and wrapped the exposed portions of the green and yellow wires around the exposed black wire. I didn't actually use solder because for whatever reason I couldn't get it working on the wires I was practicing on, but I don't think it'll be a problem because there's no way the wires will ever come apart. I then applied the heat shrink and used the soldering gun to shrink the wrap around the wires. It's a nice, tight fit. That's not exactly the order of steps you told me to use, nor is it even exactly what you said, but I think the important parts are all set. I'm just going to wrap the hell out of it in electrical tape tomorrow before I take it in at 11 am for the install.