jayv

This has been a long quest.. took me about 11 months to get the parts together.... But after all is said and done it will have only cost me $636 to complete the conversion... My car is an 04.. the screen is an 06.. the subscreen and DVDrom are 07s...

186 for the screen off of ebay

200 for the DVD rom from Tim at Hondaacuraworld.com here of the black market

150 for the sub screen(new)

30 for the steering wheel switch(waiting on it to be shipped)

70ish for various connectors and wiring harnesses... i bought a TL door harness and a RSX harness each for 10 bucks hoping that between them i would get the rest of the connectors i need...


Wish i would have taken more pictures, but i kinda got rolling and forgot about the camera....



Here is the harness i built... took me about 5-6 hours of soldering and heat shrinking...


The Right side of the dash apart, where i was running some wiring...


If anyone else does this, right behind that little plastic vent piece is where you can make your FCAN, VSS and Back up connections... Im sure there are other places.. thats just where i did it...


This just shows the harness being ran under the carpet


Here is the setup screen working...

I still have to finish running the harness to the trunk..Run the harness up to the HFL unit..... put the antenna in... and put my car back together.. ill do all that in the morning and hopefully all will be fine... Thanks to all those that i have bothered with questions through PMs...

THTL

iTrader: (2)

amazing...your temperature display is red.

jayv

Finished all of the connections today, and everything works beautifully and while doing that i also installed the Peripheral Electronics IPOD adapter.... They are rebranded at Best Buy as Isimple. I am very happy with the IPOD functionality. Plus it was only 129.99 with the acura wiring adapter.. Installation was as easy as unplugging the white connector on the back of the radio.. and plugging in a T- adapter in between. Didnt lose XM and it has text.. Ill post pics of everything tomorrow...

mmade22

Nice!!!! The first 04 with the new 07 nav screen. Really sweet. For that money, you couldn't get a handheld. Great job.

VQPower37

are you gonna change the clock display to blue to match the rest of ur interior lights?? or just leave it red??

jayv

Its going to stay red... someone else used an 07 drive and had an issue using the 04 clock... thats why i got the 07 clock....I did change the color on the nav screen to red though

djbonsu

iTrader: (3)

Nice Job!!!

jptl04

iTrader: (1)

you should have got the base 07 tl clock instead of the type-s clock. thats why its red. it would match better. good job on the install. did the door harness have all the connectors you needed? from the pic i see that you're missing like 3-4 of them. also is you HFL and xm working correctly? i read somewhere else that it wasn't compatible with the 07 drive.

again good job! i will be doing a non navi to navi install on monday, it will be my third navi install on a 3rd gen TL. i'll post some pics when completed

jayv

Didnt know it was different... guess ill have to swap it out and sell the one i got... No the door harness didnt have them all, it had two... but between those, plus the acura harnesses i had.. and i got 4 of them from here on the black market i had them all... All the connections are there in the harness, i just take bad pictures... The HFL and XM both work correctly.. The only thing i am not sure about is dialing from the screen.. i havent tried that yet.. but i will today and let you know...

On another note i have a crap load of the pins for connectors.. if anyone needs some for this install let me know and ill mail you some in an envelope...

mamitaxchula

iTrader: (1)

Looks good!

elchapo

good job man!!!...yea my 04 tl sub screen for some reason displays the wrong time from 1am to 10-am then its fine....

TL_moda

nice if only i can find someone locally around here that can do it

jayv

Finally got the car all back together... I have a 9 month old little girl that keeps me from working on it for too long... plus today was the Orange and Blue Debut(Florida Gators Spring Game) so i had to watch that before i finished...

Here is a pic of the Ipod Text


Here is the Text on the subscreen(I am taking JPTLs advice and getting the base 07 screen, hopefully they will let me exchange it, since i just got it last week)


Here is the working Nav



The whole thing wasnt all that hard..Even more so with the few people that have done it here answering all my questions...

SQAcuraTL04

so does your navi have the new gui since you are using the 07 drive?

jayv

im really not sure.. since i didnt have navi before and didnt pay that much attention when i was in cars that did...

it does have the zagats surveys and stuff that the 07 has...

I do not have the Navtraffic, although i think if i replaced the XM module i would... But to be honest i dont care much about it so i probably wont ever do that... Ill shoot you an email later about the harness...

dr mikeylu

Is it really that much cheaper, if you factor in all the hours you put in...

btw..it looks great

jayv

well if you are asking if i did it to save money.. the answer is no... I should have bought one equipped with Nav.. Then again i should have bought an A-Spec also.. but when i got this car.. i was actually set on something else... then i drove this and fell in love.. bought it on the spot... So i guess this was my way of remedying my earlier mistake.... I would always recommend that someone get the nav at the dealer.. but if you didnt.. you can do it this way also

The Dougler

iTrader: (1)

Did you buy it from BB or online?

jayv

I got it at my local best buy. they had a bunch in stock.

ttribe

Yes, he does. I own a 2006 w/Navi and I've driven an '07 and an '08 as loaners. The GUI he is showing in his pictures is from the '07-'08 version.

Nice job, btw.

carlos9827

iTrader: (2)

Nice!

KN_TL

iTrader: (3)

There was another thread on the what components are needed to run the 4.xx software. Looks like the navi unit is the only difference.

What did you use as a reference for the wiring of the navi unit? Is it the same as the older versions except for the connections to the xm module for nav-traffic?

I just finished my conversion with the older version and it's great. Like others have said before, it's almost like having a new car.

I can also see why automakers are moving the screens out of reach. It can be distracting.

jayv

i used the 04-05 ETM to figure out the wiring. Everything was the same on the back of the 07 drive with the exception of there being an extra 7 pin connection that i still dont know what it goes to.. Guess ill have to wait until someone buys the 07 ETM to find out. The two best answers i have gotten are navtraffic and the camera... not really sure..

xen-cuts

zagats and nav traffic are the only reasons I can see to upgrade to a 07 version of the nav system. So what I don't understand is why others who have tried to go from an 04-06 nav system to an 07+ have had trouble? If jayv can do this mod to a non-navi, how the heck is everyone else having so much trouble?

KN_TL

iTrader: (3)

I don't think anyone has posted problems with installing the +07 units. The newer nav units are harder to find. Jayv got lucky.

aalsaadawi

I also have a 2006 non-nav and I'm also thinking about doing the conversion any tips?

jayv

Just read the ETM... and after building your harness make sure you ring it out with a multimeter.. that way if you have a pin that isnt connected you can fix it before its in the car(happened to me).

TLfanatics

Wow, awesome work! Love the conversion! Looks like aton of work you put into your baby! I'm so jealous! and you're right, it's better to buy the navi with the car :3

lembowski

iTrader: (1)

Wow never saw this thread, I wanted to try something similar. So hypothetically if I were to change out the navi drive with a 07+ drive, and a new screen above the vents everything else is plug and play? I already have navi, but I like the cleaner look of the 07+ GUI. So do the connections from the existing harnesses fit perfectly? I’ve seen good deals on ebay for the navi drives similar to what the OP paid and this would be a pretty cheap way to get it done.

jayv

so if im reading what you are asking correctly.. the nav drive would be plug and play.. you wouldnt have to change out the clock display unless you just wanted the red one for some reason. I really wish i had gotten the blue one now.. There are some issues with using the 07 drive(time change thing) but other than that, it works perfectly...

SQAcuraTL04

Jay, I think I had asked you this before in an e-mail but can't remember your answer. Are you able to dial out from your searches with the 2007 drive with your older equipment? Like if you found a restaurant with a Zagat rating, can you command the car to dial out with your HFL?

jayv

no i cant... but i plan on trying to make that work soon... if i can ever get some time in port... only been weekends lately... we are even out to sea right now... Im coming up your way(yorktown) in september...

elchapo

i have the 04 display and 07 dvd drive...my only issue is that it still showing the wrong time on dash display unit from 1am till 10am..work great tho

VmtSquad

iTrader: (1)

Nice job man thats alot of work....props

VmtSquad

iTrader: (1)

search

desijatt

where did you get the wiring harness for 70$???

jayv

I built it, the 70 was what it cost me in parts to do it

Legend2TL

Impressive job, congrats on getting it all to work!

zantman4

In the 3rd picture you mention the connections for the FCAN, VSS and Back up connections, are these something that you actually need to tap/splice in to an existing harness for? I just installed this setup into a friend of mine's car, but he had the harness built by someone else. There were 3 wires coming out of the harness marked for VSS, FCAN, but the diagram provided with the harness wasn't very specific as to where they were supposed to be connected? Do they need to be jumpered in to the harness' that go to the back of the nav unit, is it accessible to get the harness down by the back vent piece? Any help/info you could provide on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

csmeance

I think you can access these wires at the ECU, there was a thread on an install conversion that had a picture of which wire harness was tapped for those.