Going to attempt the Navi install.
 

I missed the UPS man the past couple days, but I finally got it. I really don't know anything about car stereos, but I researched everything and it looks pretty straight forward. Everything except for the custom double din mounting kit I need to make.

It's the Pioneer AVIC F90BT
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...teele/navi.jpg

I searched the internet and got the impression it would just slide right in using the original mounting hardware. The only optional piece I would need is the trim kit to make it look more flush. After pulling out the radio that was already in the car, I now see that this just isn't going to work. A quick search of the forums shows I need to purchase a double din kit and then modify it for the navi unit.

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a.../doubleDin.jpg

Am I missing something here? I don't see where the mounting kit connects to the audio console. All I see are a couple of screws at the lower back.

Tonight I plan on soldering the wires to the adapter harness. I've never done this before, but it doesn't look too hard. And also a little more research on how to get this bracket to work.

:thumbsup:

hmmmm.... dont solder the wire together... get those things that u can screw it in... gl with project dude... those kit's that u buy....u need to modify them in order for them to work...

I guess I'll just buy a Metra or Scosche kit and see what I need to do. Do you know if I need one of those aluminum sleeves that covers the navi unit?

no music??? :cry:

actually, soldering is the most reliable way to connect the plug-in harness to the navi... just as long as you aren't cutting the car's harness up. I would recommend buying some shrink tube and putting an inch or so of sleeve on each connection then wrapping with looming or 3M electrical tape. The setup would look a lot like this:

http://fordfuelinjection.com/images/how2solder03.jpg

with the final product resembling this:

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/i...lderSwitch.jpg

now, onto the mounting. The CL uses a double-din style opening from the factory, so I'm not understanding why that radio shouldn't fit right in. In regards to securing the radio in that space, I would see if I could modify the factory radio bracket to accomodate the navi unit. It looks pretty beefy, but definitely needs some support. With the factory radios, the trim does act as some support for the front of the factory unit. You should do a test fit and see if it will fit in that space and allow you to reinstall the black trim.

http://www.cdplayerrepair.com/images/Acu_2.5TL_1996.jpg

and btw: Acura used double-din radios in the 90's RL, TL and in the Accord in markets other than the US. They are mounted in the same way as the factory radio in the CL with the exception of the part of the metal mount that juts out to accomodate the Tape or ID Cellular phone.

he's soldering the radio harness to the double din.

hmmm..... ya sure... but it is a hassle when u want to take out the unit..... and u have cut the wire short..... to install in the next car!!

oh.. and a navi-unit is a very nice choice for an add on! Please take some video of how it works once you get it installed!

you dont have to cut it short, just cut the radio harness.
i've done double din installs before, specifically avic-d3. most of the wiring is straight forward. the only problem i had was the dvd bypass. but once you get a double din dash kit, i had to trim and shave off some corners to get it to fit properly.

good point, but there is A LOT of room to have some extra wires tucked in that space in case you want to re-install the radio.

It has music. It plays CD's, DVD's, MP3's from SD card, has a really nice iPod interface and it's possible to hook up an external hard drive. It also accepts Sirius, XM and HD radio as well as regular radio. It's a pretty neat device and works really good ever since the firmware 2.0 update.

^is that a cl, the steering wheel and guages look like a cl, but the dash/console look completely different

looks like a first gen TL.

Question: What external hookups does this radio require? I am assuming GPS antenna? Is the amplifier built in? How many watts RMS is it?

like i said wire caps...... i used on the install of my unit pioneer 7000bt.... what an amazing unit......

there isnt much room when you do a double din install. when i did it on the 350z, i had to move the wires to a lower compartment(a/c compartment).

Thanks for the tips. I just finished soldering all the wires and completed the bypass. Everything is nice and secure and I used the heat shrink tubes like you mentioned. I had one mishap where I burned my ring finger pretty good. :tomato:

As for mounting the radio, I know it will fit in the opening. I was just concerned about how I should go about mounting it since there are no off the shelf mounting kits available for our CL's. I searched the forums and couldn't find any pictures of anyone else's set-up. It looks like I'll just buy a double din kit and try to trim it to fit.

use something like this
http://cgi.ebay.com/Honda-Accord-199...3%3A1|294%3A50
you can see the little center piece that you need to trim. you also need trim the corners a little bit.

niceee, im jealous, good pick up:thumbsup:

At the bare minimum you need:
"power supply" harness
"AV" harness - which contains the inputs and outputs for extra screens/backup camera etc... It also contains the mute wire that needs moved in order to complete the bypass
GPS antenna
External Mic - If you want hands free

And finally, the USB cable that's hardwired into the unit. This is unique to the F90BT. The F700 and F900 you need to purchase it separately.

It's 14 Watt RMS x 4 Channel and yes the amplifier is built in.

I think I'll try to stop at Best Buy tomorrow and see if I can pick one up there. I'm sorta anxious to get it put in and can't wait for shipping!

The double din kit mounts into your 97 outer black trim piece

^be sure that you don't count on that fact, cuz on my JVC deck i think it only supports the format for drives < 32GB, although i've seen some ppl use bigger ones online, my HP never worked connected to my deck. yours may work tho, i really don't know, just wanted to warn you.

The plastic bezel? That's strange, I didn't really look at it too closely. I just assumed it connects to the somewhere in the back and maybe on the sides.

You're right, there's certain limitations as to what kind of HD can be used. The unit itself can't power up a larger HD, so you'll need some sort of other power supply. I don't see myself using one, so I didn't do much research. Some members of avic411 have got it to work, though.

^ you could always get some flash drives when they're cheap at best buy or whatever, just to store music or videos i think they do their job quite well.(i use some 8GB ones, but the 16GB ones are getting pretty cheap now too) And for the harddrive you can buy the small HP drives as they get the power from the usb cable aswell as being able to transfer info at the same time, i bought one and my deck had the HD running it just didn't recognize any of the files cuz of the formatting:tomato:

U cannot hookup a portable hard drive. U can only use usb sticks. That is the reason i did not buy it! The reason is the portable HD needs a power source, unlike a usb stick or sd card

most slim external HD don't require another power source, and run off the usb for power.

:werd: Or you can get a cig lighter usb power source like you would use for an ipod

u should look at klepto's install of his double din...... his is clean.... i bet if u ask him he can help u out....

:werd: He also had a 97 so you can see how he fit it in the radio trim

^:whyme:why didn't you read my post right above yours, i explained that already

i even checked the specs for power of the harddrive and my deck, and they were compatible, both were 5V

I'll check klepto's thread, but in the mean time, does anyone know if I am to remove these two tabs from the mounting kit? The directions don't give much info. It won't fit in the dash the way it is and it says nothing about removing them.

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...le/naviKit.jpg

Thanks for the help so far. :thumbsup:

Yup, snap em off

Thanks, well I got that done and ultimately turned the mounting kit into a trim kit. It's a pretty tight fit and there's really no custom work needed. All I have to do now is run the wires for the mic and gps antenna.

sweet looks good. i wanna do that too, have been since she got the damn car lol. my silverado has a din and a half =/ one day ill put a navi unit in it with the avalanche dash stuff. till then i can only hope. theyre too pricey imo.

^^It's a really cool device. Look into the F700, it can be picked up on Amazon for about $450 from a "premier" dealer, which won't void the warranty.

I got it installed tonight! I was a little worried about the bypass since you have to tap into a couple different wires and also move one of the wires in the harness. Everything works great! It doesn't quite fit as nicely as I would like, so I need to trim the mounting kit a little more. Other than that, I'm pretty satisfied with my first Navi install.

I stuck the mic next to the steering wheel and ran the iPod cable through the console and out through arm rest. The GPS antenna I stuck under the dash on top of the steering column (right behind the firewall). The only thing I didn't connect was the VSS wire, but it still locates me dead on.

I'll post some pictures tomorrow when there's more light. Thanks again for all the help. :thumbsup:

yeah you don't really need to connect the VSS wire, but the D3 had a cool feature where it shows the speedometer and tach on the screen. not really useful, but cool :D

how'd the install go?
pics?

:werd:

make me jealous..

How did you bypass the unit? Did you just ground the ebrake wire through a switch or did you move the pin on the RCA output harness? Also, you should be able to hook up an external hdd without a problem. Just make sure you get an external that can be powered through a DC adapter or secondary USB (through another adapter). Chances are you will have to format it in the FAT file format. I know my JVC required it to be FAT and not FAT32 or NTFS. Also, in order to get a FAT format that is quite large, you will need to download a formatting program from HP's website. It supports large FAT drives. Let me know if you want it and I will dig up the link.

Thats pretty much what i meant, u can't use portable hd. I have one myself, a slim Wd 200 gb that is powered by usb. But i can't use it on that deck (tried it at bestbuy).

But isn't fat or fat32 limitting you on the gigabytes available?

This one does that too. I didn't take the time to search for the VSS wire. I'll eventually hook it up to see if it makes a difference.

It went pretty well. I can't get the top to sit flush. I thought it was caused by a couple tabs I didn't snap off. Now I'm thinking that's where the "custom" work is supposed to come into play. I'll post pics tonight. :thumbsup:

These things have gotten really cheap! Go pick one up! I remember looking at some of the in-dash units a few years ago and they were like $2k.

There's two harnesses on the back of the unit. A black one that includes the power wire with all the wires to the speakers etc... and also a white harness that has all the inputs for iPod, backup camera and so on. You need to take the Mute wire (yellow w/ black stripe) on the white harness and move it from pin 1 to pin 4 and then ground it. Then you take the E-brake wire (light green) on the black harness and ground that. Now you're done. Pretty simple stuff.

I actually soldered the Mute wire to the E-brake wire and soldered the E-brake wire to the main ground on the black harness. Some people ground all 3 wires separately. Either one will work. There's also a software bypass you can do. The unit runs on a Windows CE operating system, so it's pretty easy to swap files on the SD card and edit them.

:nod: fat will limit you to 2 GB max and you should be able to use a usb hdd as long as you have an external 5v powersource like I said above

Maybe it was FAT32 I had to do then. The software on HP's site allows you to do large FAT32 partitions. But good job on the bypass, that's the right way to do it.

I went out and grabbed some photo's. You can see how the top sticks out a little.

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...onsole_all.jpg

Menu
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...teele/menu.jpg

2D Map Mode
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...le/navi_2d.jpg

3D Map Mode
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...le/navi_3d.jpg

iPod Interface
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...od_display.jpg

I got a free 8GB iPod Touch when I bought my MBP over the summer and had no use for it. I almost sold it, but I'm glad I didn't. It fits pretty well under the arm rest and doesn't really get in the way.
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...od_console.jpg

I had the mic on the side of the steering wheel, but some people where saying they had a tough time hearing me on the phone. Others said I sounded fine, but I moved it anyways. Eventually I'll run it up the A-pillar for a cleaner look.
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...e/mic_dash.jpg

nice job man, thats a really nice navi. i like what you did with the ipod. MBPs FTW!!

^yep, that's where mine is at, can't really comment on how good it is as i rarely ever use it, i'd rather just pick up a phone. mine was made to attach to the sunvisor, cuz it had a clip that would slide onto it. But i thought it would get in the way too much(with the wire there) and that you may get some wind noise from the sunroof being open.
But it looks really good:toocool:, damn, now i'm considering getting a double DIN. I just don't like how you can't take off the face or anything, ppl love breaking into cars round here, and i don't wanna give them another reason too. Plus in winter time a touchscreen might crack on me:whyme:

^do you have any more info on this, cuz i want to use my 160GB HP harddrive but my deck only supports FAT32 i believe, as it has no problem reading 8GB flash drives. I just don't understand partitions and ish yet as i am a n00b in most of those areas

I really like the hands free feature. Talking on the phone while shifting gears is so much easier now (and safer). I've been trying to think of ways to cover the display and keep it concealed. Soon I'll be tinting the windows, but for the time being, I've been stuffing a hoodie overtop of it. :tomato:

looks good, do the buttons change color or do they just stay green?

^it's just so much easier for me to find my contacts in my phone, cuz it won't sync that with my deck for some reason (haven't really tried that much tho) i'm gonna try it more in summer tho as when i have my system up i rarely hear my phone, so muting the noise will get my attention


i've seen a tl on here i think, believe it was a 2nd gen. he bought an AC/climate control unit maybe even with a tape deck that was a double din size, i think it was from a tl aswell, he hacked off the back, just leaving a half an inch or less from the front part, and blacked out all the openings numbers etc. and he always just put it ontop of his screen when he left, it looked super discreet and completely real. you'd have to look at it from a couple feet away, and directly at it to tell it was fake. i'd say look into something like that, as it would be your best bet, and one of the best ideas i've ever seen.
EDIT: although from looking at yours there is that big volume knob so it might be a bit of a burden to attemp something like this and to make it look almost real

Thanks, the buttons can change to just about any color you can think of. I had my brother try to get it the same green as the OEM interior lights while I was driving the other night. It's pretty close and almost matches the clock perfectly. I'm going to try to tweak it some more.

This one syncs up fine with my crappy LG Dare. Sometimes outgoing calls show up on the screen as UNKNOWN, but I already know who I'm calling, so it's not that big of a deal.

The radio cover idea you mentioned sounds awesome! I think I still have my factory double din with the tape player. I'll just cut the face off maybe a half inch back and set it overtop. :thumbsup: Thanks!

looks like the top of the unit is sticking out further than the bottom? maybe it's just me, but i know mine did that when i put it in...

either way, looks sick... nice work