Hi all,

I successfully installed in my 03 Lincoln Aviator:

D3 - Bypassed and Still Have Mute Function

12-Disk Changer

Reverse Camera

Bluetooth

Steering Wheel Control Adapter

iPod Connector

Voltage Regulator for Factory Subwoofer

D3

Pretty straightforward as far as harnesses and dash kit from Crutchfield... When people tell you Aviators have alot of room in their dash... They don't... The cool thing about the Aviator is there is about 2-3 inches of dead space above the driver-side instrument cluster and the passenger-side airbag... I took the sticky magnet plate that comes with the D3 and stuck it to the top of the instrument cluster housing and then have the GPS antenna stuck to that... 75% of the time I am getting 8 out of 8 and 25% of the time am I getting 7 out of 8...

VSS was Grey and Black in the three-wire harness behind the Aviator's radio...

Use the ILLUMINATION wire to connect to the D3... Not the NEGATIVE DIMMER wire... Just tape that one off... My D3 successfully dims and changes color when the lights are turned on and off...

Also, there is a AMP GROUND wire in the radio harness and another one in the amp harness... Just run both of these to the black ground wire...

D3 - Bypassed and Still Have Mute Function

By pass was easy and straightforward thanks to the help of all you guys on the forum... I bought a similar looking harness adapter from a local electronics store (couldn't beat it for $0.50) and removed one of its pins/wires so that I could still keep the factory MUTE function...

I now have a successfully bypassed D3 that will still MUTE the radio when the Aviator's reverse sensors beep... The reverse beep wire is BLUE in the three-wire harness at the back of the Aviator's radio...

12-Disk Changer

I have the Aviator that has the center console in the rear as well... There was pretty much no room for a changer at all anywhere in the vehicle so I put it inside the rear center console... I still have to dress it up a bit so that you don't see wires and metal brackets when you open the center console, but it did good there...

I ran the changer IP-Bus wire down the driver side door channels and then went under the trim that covers the folding mechanism of the back seats...

Reverse Camera

I was able to disassemble the entire rear hatch... On the Aviator the license plate is surrounded by plastic trim... It is indented along the top to use as a lift handle for the hatch... I drilled a small hole through the plastic to run the wire from the outside of the vehicle to the inside...

The routed the wire around the rear window... I then drilled a small hole through the metal where there are rubber boots for all the rear wiring harnesses (too many wires already in them to run the camera wire though)... Put a rubber grommet around the hole and then filled with silicone...

Ran the wire up the driver side... The camera interface box is by the driver kick...

Reverse wire was tapped directly off of the reverse light at the back of the Aviator...

Also, I had to unscrew the camera from its mount and basically flip it around so that it would mount to the plastic at the correct angle... Right now it is stuck on there with the included tape, but I will screw it on once I am 100% satisfied with its location... Right now I am 98% satisfied...

Bluetooth

Pretty straightforward... As I said above, when people tell you Aviators have a lot of room in their dash... They don't... The cool thing about the Aviator is there is about 2-3 inches of dead space above the driver-side instrument cluster and the passenger-side airbag... I have the Bluetooth box above the passenger-side airbag box...

Still working on actually connecting my phone... Horrible horrible manual...

Steering Wheel Control Adapter

This sits on top of the actual radio...

Steering wheel control wire was blue and red in the three-wire harness behind the Aviator's radio...

iPod Connector

This is run into Aviator's glove-box... I also ran a audio/video cable to the glove box just in case...

Voltage Regulator for Factory Subwoofer

This is mounted in a little plastic box above the radio as well... This eliminates the turn on thump from the factory subwoofer... This was custom built by a friend of mine for me using the following page as a reference: http://www.sminntech.com/techai.html

I will try and post some picks as soon as I get the organized and resized...

If anybody has any questions, feel free to contact me...

NOTE:

The installation did not go without problem...

The first time we hooked everything up the unit would NOT power on...

After some troubleshooting and learning how to use a voltmeter, we found that my YELLOW constant wire was loose... Fixed that and all was good...

Then, I am assuming from the constant ACC testing and all that stuff, the battery died...

At first I was worried that something was draining the battery... But, the Aviator has been parked for about 12-14 hours and testing the battery terminals with a voltmeter this morning before leaving for work I got 12.47v...

So, I am assuming all is well and the dead battery was simply due to constant/frantic testing and having the doors open all day long...

Good luck with everyone else's installs,

Mark

Good review and sounds like a very nice install. I'd really like to see some pics of all this, as you sound like you were busy for quite a while. Glad it's all working fine for you.

sounds like u had an eventful day... as for people killing their batteries... if u disconnect the negative lead on the battery like you are supposed to then you wouldnt be killing you car

as for loose leads... do people not soldier their deck harnesses to the factory adapters? i cant imagine doing crimps or taps for something like this... the only thing i 'half assed' was the VSS... i simply slid the end of the wire pioneer gives you into the female end of the plug the VSS was connected to

what kind of phone are you trying to pair with the bluetooth?

I think I can count on with one finger the number of batteries I've disconnected to put anything in.

i guess ill parallel to cell phones in an airplane... 99% of the time they really wont do any harm... but its that 1% that makes you do otherwise... maybe its just me?

Thanks guys!!!

I'd really like to see some picts of all this, as you sound like you were busy for quite a while.

Yeah, I will post picts soon... All in all, it took about 10 hours start to finish... I have not installed an after-market radio in about 6 years... And, those were all just single-din radio swaps... I have never done anything quite as complex as this before...

if u disconnect the negative lead on the battery like you are supposed to then you wouldn't be killing you car

I know... Well, I should say, now I know...

do people not soldier their deck harnesses to the factory adapters? i cant imagine doing crimps or taps for something like this

I have never soldered any radio I have ever put in... Personally, I don't even know how to solder except for when it comes to copper water pipe...

what kind of phone are you trying to pair with the Bluetooth?

I am using a T-Mobile Motorola v600/i...

Thanks,

Mark

soldering wire is real easy and in the end you are so glad that you took the extra 10 minutes todo it... your connections are tight and secure and you dont have to worry about things slipping apart/loose connections/etc... plus it looks ALOT cleaner

i should take a picture of what my old alpine harness looked like with all the male/female disconnects... man that thing was a NIGHTMARE to work with when i had to remove the deck

id def recommend soldering your connections

10 hours sounds about right... i took my time and had to run some new RCA's and speaker wire... the in-car time for me was about 3 hours with about 3 hours of prepping the dash bezel, soldering wires and getting myself situated in the garage

Right now everything is connected with "butt" connectors and then heat shrink tubing over the connectors and about an inch of wire on either side...

I am just going to leave sleeping dogs lay so-to-speak... If I ever need to redo something or change something around, I will definitely take the time and solder all the connections...

Thanks for the advice,

Mark

agree... leave it alone unless u are having a problem

as for soldering, practice makes perfect...

one thing ill recommend is to not twist the bare leads together in parallel, in other words, you want to twist them together such that it looks like one continuous wire... then just heat that up with the tip of the soldering iron and let the solder flow

Awesome... Thanks for the tip!!!