snowmanTL

First I would like to give my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ all the honor for giving me the strength to do this successfully! (Colossians 3:17)

I just started the complete OEM conversion of my non-navigation TL to fully operational Navigation TL, including Voice Command. I started last Friday at 12 and worked until 4pm. Started again on Saturday at 1pm to 4pm. The only thing I have left is to mount the DVD player in the trunk (right now it's behind my passenger seat , it's too cold outside to mess with .

Also since I had the head unit out I decided to install the Dice Adapter for my IPod. This added a little bit more time especially since I didn't know how to disconnect the XM radio at first.

Here is all that you will need to do this conversion. I have to say that Martin at acurahondatech@comcast.net was a tremendous help. Talked me through all my questions and made the connecting wire, sent all the easy to use diagrams as well.

Brand new Navi Screen, DVD Unit, Custom Cable, HFL Navi Button for steering wheel, navi antenna, Orange DVD, Navi Sub-Screen.

If someone can tell me how to post my pictures I will get them online as well.

timmahh

Congrats on the conversion.

jupitersolo

go to photobucket.com and set up an account. Upload pics to them and copy and paste the link to your message. Use photobucket, imageshack is too effing slow to load.

brandct

How much did this cost you do to with all the new stuff if you do not mind me asking. Been thinking about trying to do the same thing.

snowmanTL

Ok I'll load the pics soon, maybe in the next day or two. The entire Navi system costs $1820 with phone support and voice command. If you don't want voice then it's about $100 cheaper but VC is way to cool to bail on at this point. Martin said he'd do the same deal for anyone else. It took him about 2 weeks to get everything ready to go so you have to be patient, he custom builds the cable for a professional installation, I was very surprised at how easy it was with his help. Though I was a little scared once I had my car ripped apart. Acura makes most of the parts snap in and out so it's not that hard. If you ever installed your own radio or installed a amp you can do this. I gave him a $200 down payment and he kept me up-to-date pretty frequently. He would have installed it for me for $300 bucks more but he lives in NJ and I'm in VA, plus I like a good challenge. I am glad I did it this way, I originally wanted a TL with Nav but I wanted the red more, now I have both for way cheaper if I had gotten all up front. I just did the start screen hack and it worked great!

fish008

First I must say that I am very impressed with your conversion and cannot wait to see the pictures.

But I do have a couple of question for you. If the navi option on a new TL is a $2000 and you paid $1820 for everything and installed it yourself (at least 8 hours labor I count) how did you save money? What is that "way cheaper" than?That seems like a mighty hefty price for all of that. I think that you paid more for everything than it will increase the value of your car given the effect of depreciation. I know, I know, you did it for the looks/function but still. I would love to do this to my car if the price was right but at almost $2k I am not sure I want to. I might consider it for $1k. Did you install dom’s unit so you can play videos off your ipod or add wendy’s backup camera – are they in the woks? Like I said cant wait to see the pics.

Eoanou

I'm impressed that you were able to pull it off, I'd love to do the same.

snowmanTL

fish008, thanks for the congrats. For me it was the way to go since I didn't buy my TL brand new, I got it a little under a year ago at a Acura Dealer, it was a lease trade in. I paid less than $20K for it because the dealer made a mistake and listed it low. It had only 34k on it. The Rondo Red was my first color of choice but they are very hard to find in my area (No. VA) with low miles. I wanted the Nav but I preferred the low miles and the color scheme. You are correct in one sense that if you buy a brand new TL the Nav option is around 2K but in my area the difference between Nav and No Nav is about 3K-4K on used TL's because they are in such high demand. Actually unless you pay cash for a brand new TL with Nav you would be financing the 2K over the life of the loan of 5-6 years making it more around 3K+ depending on the interest rate. So what i have is a 04' TL still under factory warranty up to 100K, the color scheme I want with Navi (which will be covered under my extended warranty) for less than 21K. I don't think I could find that deal in my area even a year later. Plus I'm not paying interest on the Nav or the other options I add, this works for me, since I like a little challenge anyway. I don't have the big bucks like alot of folks on this site.

As for your last comment, I originally wanted to spend 1K as well, I found a used unit for about that, but I wasn't comfortable with the cables or the condition of the unit and it didn't have the voice command and everything to make it a true OEM install nor the phone support which I needed if I was going to do this myself. Looking back I'm glad I did, there is a lot that goes into these systems so it helps having someone handy who has done it before. I paid a little more but I'm very happy with the end result. I'm probably not adding the back-up camera though I did install the dice Ipod adapter during the install and it works very well, with very good sound quality. I plan to put some 19" rims (if I can find the right ones for the right price) and that's about all I'm going to do to it. I want to get my wife a C-Class for her birthday this year, I've spoiled myself enough . Thanks for the questions. Have a blessed day!

monacm2

lets see some pics!

snowmanTL

This is a test, if this one works I'll upload the rest. BTW: this is a real headache just to load pictures, it has to be a better way .

[IMG]ftp://mysite.verizon.net/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/IMG_0224.JPG[/IMG]

The finished product....

fish008

That didnt work. Why don't you take some pics with a digy cam and upload them on photobucket or something. That is the best way. The link you used makes it look like you created a website or sent if from your phone.

I cant wait to see the pics!

snowmanTL

snowmanTL

Check it out, maybe this will work....

[IMG][/IMG]

snowmanTL

I think putting the pictures up was harder than the installation

Shalooby

Where in VA are you?

Great taste in color. Is that Camel int?

MWalsh9152

you said this will be covered by your warrenty, did you confirm this with your dealer? Im not questioning you....Im just suprised if this is the case.

snowmanTL

Thanks, I see you have good taste as well!

snowmanTL

It's covered by my 3rd party extended warranty which is bumper to bumper on anything that is attached to the car.

MWalsh9152

ahhhh ok thats cool

Nautica91

couple questions... #1 did you use your existing head unit? and #2 would your buddy be interested in doing my conversion? I have all the hardware, just need the custom wiring and installation.

snowmanTL

Yes I used my own head unit as seen in the photos. Yes he probably would you would have to contact him. He is located in NJ.

monacm2

any more pictures, completed install?

Was there anything that was difficult to do? Looks like everything snapped together nicely.

I am just concerned of scratching up my interior.

KN_TL

iTrader: (3)

Snowman,

Nice work!

Do you know if the custom cables were built from brand new connectors or were they cut and spliced?

Would it be possible to get a closeup of the connectors with the shielded cables?

KN_TL

iTrader: (3)

Everything pops apart pretty easily.

The worst thing is getting the long pieces on each side of the console off. The clips came off the plastic when I did it and I had to go searching for them. Other than that, it was very easy.

Just make sure to use some kind of cloth or something between the prybar and the plastic.

snowmanTL

KN_TL is exactly right, besides dropping an occasional clip here and there it is pretty easy. Another tip I got from a fellow ziner is make sure your interior is warm when you do it, the plastic will break easier if it's below 50F. Other that Acura/Honda makes the car with alot of thought that the owner/service tech would be taking it apart. I am very particular about my interior too but I can't see any signs that I had my car torn apart!

snowmanTL

The only connectors still exposed are the ones connected to the DVD player, do you want a shot of those? I believe some of the connections were spliced but the connectors are from the acura dealer (you have to splice some of them). Martin did a very professional job and the cable was very well done I was very impressed. He even used the exact clip in pins for the connectors from acura and had everyone individually marked exactly right, very easy for me to follow the diagram.

monacm2

Thanks, completed install looks great!!!

You installed the DVD player in the trunk, correct?

Was it difficult to run/hide the wires?

KN_TL

iTrader: (3)

Those would be great. I am interested in seeing how far back the splice from the connector to where the shielding begins on the runs that need them.

I am doing a semi-conversion of my non-navi and the connection between the main display and sub-display has 4 wires that are shielded. I found the connectors on ebay using an old Accord harness but I am just curious how they've done the splicing.

KN_TL

iTrader: (3)

I notice you've got the non-navi sub-display. Why is that?

brandct

Very good job.

How much wire splicing without connecters was involved? I would kind of like to do this, but I do not know if I would like the fact that my temp. controls did not show up anymore.

KN_TL

iTrader: (3)

You should get that info. In the image below, it's on the sub-screen. I'm not sure why the non-navi display was left in by the OP in his finished image.

There are other threads about the wiring as well. It seems to be moderately difficult. The wiring he shows is VERY well done.

snowmanTL

I haven't mounted in the trunk yet, need to pick up the Nav trunk liner (I want to do it right the first time) The wires were very easy to hide as it appears acura makes the non-nav and the nav unit a lot a like.

snowmanTL

I just received the Nav-sub screen....put it in last night in 5 minutes.

Here ya go:

snowmanTL

I only had to splice 3 wires: the optional connections for the VSA, CAN-L wires. These allow the nav image to move with the car in the event the nav antenna looses satelite connectivity like when you are in a long tunnel. These were pretty easy to do they are located on the passenger side by the lower console, other than that everything else has clips that slide in to the wire harness or the modules. When I installed the sub-screen my AC control, my bluetooth phone indicator, Radio status and IPOD song/Title display now shows on the subscreen, so I didn't loose anything. The sub-screen on the TL with the IPOD connected is so sweet, now I can have the map up and the titles on my IPOD scroll up there while they are playing. As you can see from the picture I was listening to Psalm 119 on my Ipod! Sweet!!!! I chose to do this conversion instead of the wheel upgrade for now and I'm glad I did, feels like a new car!

monacm2

Do you know if this kit would work for a canadian 06 TL?

monacm2

Do you know if this kit would work for a canadian 06 TL?

snowmanTL

What are the differences on the Canadian model?

monacm2

No XM radio, not sure if the maps DVD is the same.

Also, mine is 06, so the sub display is blue along with all the other displays.

brandct

I think I am going to have to start saving up my money to do this. This is something I wanted on mine but I could not find around here... 1 Acura dealer in a 2 hour radius. I wanted black interior more than I wanted Navi so that is the one I went with

snowmanTL

The only difference will be with no XM your display might not show the song output from your IPod if you are doing the adaptor, the text only works if you disable the XM which of course you must have to disable. Other then that I believe it will work fine.