Stereo rebuild
 

So... after a long German winter and accumulating parts I finally decided to start installing a system in my Nismo. Parts consisted of the following:

Pioneer AVH-X8500BHS (had it for a while but never installed... kept it because it was a gift from the wifey)
Polk Audio PAD4000.4 4-ch amp
Polk Audio MM6501 components
Polk Audio MM1040DVC w/ WickedCAS enclosure
Rearview camera
Etc.

Anyway, after running all the wires for everything, I left the head unit for last thinking it would be the easiest part of the install... WRONG.

I pull the Boss head unit installed by the previous owner and am presented with this:

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...psdtluw8my.jpg

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...psbby4iv6u.jpg

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...ps0xkcucjh.jpg

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...ps3j9etjps.jpg


After pulling the nest of electrical tape apart, this is what I was left with

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...pst9289a1v.jpg

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...ps32gwfmxe.jpg


Stock radio harnes: cut and discarded
Stock antenna harness: cut and discarded
Why use a plug-and-play harness when you can half-*** it yourself, amiright?? :confused:

After discussing things with bigaudiofanat, I decided it would be best to just hardwire the radio to the car using the pioneer harness. The good part: it couldn't possibly be any worse than it was; the bad part: unless other radios use the same harness, I'll be stuck using Pioneer until I change vehicles. But, I've always loved Pioneer so that's just fine with me.

Now begins the fun part... I'm looking for anyone that has the color coding for the stock harnesses (radio and antenna). As you can see, a pin out won't work as there's no harness to pull pins coordinates from.

Any help would be greatly appreciated to get this taken care of. :tiphat:

Guys, it's sad when I see stuff like this. I see it a LOT in the years of installs. Even from shops saying they will take good care of it. Make sure you are not getting screwed.

I recommended that northstyle buy a reverse harness from metra and wire that into the stock wiring. this will give him the factory plug once again. Sad to see this being done.

Metra Nissan Car Stereo Harness - 71-7552 - Rakuten.com

Send me some photos of the stock wires and I should be able to tell you some of them. There are sadly a few wires that are the same color so be careful. and don't let the wires touch as 2 are going to your can bus system, tapping them to the constant 12 volt can fry the computer.

Ahhh... so that's the harness you were showing me. Jeebs I'm slow sometimes lol. I'll go with that instead of hardwiring then. Speaking of, do you know if there is a similar reverse wiring harness for the radio as well? I do actually listen to it from time-to-time...

There's just no excuse for that nowadays.

I've got the Metra pioneer kit in mine so can pull it apart and give you the pin out from that. I have to pull the head unit out again in about a week anyways to add my reverse cam and rux knob. You ok waiting a few days? Otherwise I can try and get it this weekend if I can squeeze it in.

I got my MM6501's in the other day and am pretty happy with them. Wide range and punchy. Could actually stand to be a bit boomier but I'll take tight over sloppy any day. Still need to finish the rest of my install then tune it up but so far so good with the components and head unit.

Yeah, that would be great!! And I don't mind waiting, I just ordered the reverse wiring harness that bigaudiofanat linked (ordered it from ebay since it was cheaper) so I won't be receiving it until next week since I'm stationed in Germany anyway.

But you're right, absolutely no excuse. Especially with a car this new and the parts available to do it properly (and cheap, as well). Just laziness.

So, found the following diagrams which should be extremely useful to getting this sorted:

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...psbpjgzb7q.jpg

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...psdjy1ghsf.jpg

The two pictures above were posted by forum member BrandonT back in 2011... so if you're still on BIG :tup: to you!!

The next diagram I "believe" corresponds to the radio antenna plug (Connector 2) but I'm not sure whether each cable has a different purpose or not (the corresponding cables are in my original picture with the two black cables twisted together).

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...psm6fodk7v.jpg

Does anyone have an actual picture of the radio antenna harness? I'm trying to order a replacement vehicle side (male) but all I've found have a blue/black connector as opposed to the black/black connector as shown in the diagram I posted previously. The same goes when looking at the radio side (female) harness.

If that's the case, then what is the second black (ground?) wire in my original post supposed to be used for? (Last picture in first post) Any help??

first, here. car side of the harness.

https://www.amazon.com/Metra-71-7552.../dp/B0015G9V76

Gonna try to dig up the antenna ****

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...0audio%202.png

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...0audio%203.png

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...70%20audio.png

DeliriousClam, much appreciated bro. The terminal diagram will definitely come in handy. I had previously ordered the Metra 71-7552 based on info I received from bigaudiofanat and ordered the Metra 40-ni22 (radio/vehicle side) after searching around.

My confusion is this: when you look at the diagram for the antenna harness then look at the harness itself, 43 is the amp ON, but the color is a ground (black) but physically it's blue. 44 is the signal, buy shows no color on the diagram; physically it's black. Then, to add even more confusion, when looking at the actual car, BOTH of these wires are black (again, last picture of my initial post... the two that are still twisted together). So either a) one of these wires is the signal and the other is the ON, or B) one is one of the aforementioned and the other is not (however they come from the same spot into the radio area and there's no blue wire to be found).

This is why I asked if anyone had an actual picture of the connection from their vehicle. It's a pain, I know LOL.

Please don't mind all the dust all over the bags I have been waiting over three months for my new "spring" Kenwood to come in....

No worries, it's greatly appreciated. Unfortunately, I need a picture of the male side coming from the vehicle :tup:

Quick question: did every year of 370z come with the CAN system speed sensor (pin 18)? I received my female harness for the radio but it didn't have a wired pinned into the harness for that connection so I re-pinned one that wasn't being used. Now, I'm in the cat soldering the new harness in and I can't find a wire that coincides to that from the diagram.

After looking through DeliriousClam's diagram(s) I saw that there was no pin 18 for the base/Nismo Z so went ahead and wrapped up the first harness.

Soldered/shrink wrapped

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...psszbxkkc5.jpg

Finished by wrapping everything together with electrical tape

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...pszt3cl5qj.jpg

Still waiting on the female radio antenna harness to show up so routed my RCAs for the components/sub and rearview camera. Also started sound deadening the doors and hatch. Finished the doors and most of the hatch but still have to do in front of the strut towers (inbetween the towers and the seats).

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...psdigcee4n.jpg

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...psd2dqukjp.jpg

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...psfxhrh7dr.jpg

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...psuv3op364.jpg

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...psoznq7ycp.jpg

Don't mind the wires... that'll all be cleaned up tomorrow but ran out of daylight today. Also have to mount the tank/compressors for my cup kit so I ran the wires for that as well.

One question (that I probably won't get an answer to but hey...) has anyone sound deadened that hatch cover? I searched but all I found was people doing the hatch itself but not the cover so if anyone has, please post a pic so I can see how you accomplished this. I removed all the panels but this is where I stopped.

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...ps0j5md7rv.jpg

A BIG "THANK YOU" to the following people:
bigaudiofanat
BrandonT
DeliriousClam
white37014

I did this. It's the same deal as sound deadening the doors/anything else. I just left the bolt holes for the wing exposed incase it ever has to be removed. I did both the actual hatch and the plastic that clips to it. Probably added another 5lbs to it. I noticed no difference

As far as the antenna connection goes, untwist them. There should be one that's just copper wire strands and the other should be copper wire, some kind of shielding, then a single wire in the center of the shielding. The one that is just copper wire strands is your power antenna line. The one with the shielding in it is the actual antenna connection

This is kind of what the antenna signal wire should look like. (Yes I sacrificed an antenna adapter for this picture.)

wow looks good man you sure had your work cut out for you on this one, looks like the project is coming along nicely, I once had a disaster of a wire issue on a RSX I bought from somebody what a mess!

I just replaced the following;

Stock headunit for Pioneer HU W/ Car Play
Steering Wheel Controls
Rear View Camera
Wired all of this to the factory BOSE, for now.

Next goal is to add a aftermarket subwoofer in a custom enclosure w/ standalone amp and dynamat the trunk. .

Question: How easy was it for you to dynamat the trunk? How much material was needed? I also plan to dynamat the hatch as well.

Thanks!

*Edited - damn autocorrect lol.

Adding dynamite to the trunk sounds dangerous. You trying to go full Pinto?

:icon18::icon18:

In all seriousness though, dynamat is easy. You don't have to make it look good because it won't be seen. Cut it, lay it down, press it down, then press it down with the round end of a handle on a screwdriver (or a roller if you buy one for doing it) in the corners and grooves and ****

Yeah, I just finished up fixing the rest of the wiring this afternoon after work. The antenna was a bit of a pain being a coaxial cable so what I did was solder the innermost strands, wrap them in foil (no clue, but looked similar to what was already there so I was going for uniformity lol), then wrap them in more copper cable from some multi-strand wiring I had then wrap that in electrical tape as I had forgot to run the heatshrink tubing beforehand. All-in-all, came out well and everything "stereo-wise" works as it should.

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...psswc3m4s5.jpg

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...psosanggks.jpg

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...ps6fsgcwlo.jpg

Pretty much the same as everything I've done. The only issues I'm having are the reverse camera not turning on when I engage reverse and not being able to fully setup the Axxess as it won't recognize my Search up or down buttons (harness was made by bigaudiofanat and double- and triple-checked the wiring so there may be something wrong with my module). Minor things but still annoying considering how much BS I've already gone through...

As for the sound deadener, I used RAAM Mat and like DeliriousClam said, it's extremely easy to apply... just tedious and time-consuming. I just ordered the $159~ish setup and I still have a bit leftover to do in front of the rear shock towers and hatch cover but it'll be close.

Yupper... invest in a roller. I was able to pick up a pair (small and medium) for 7 Euro and it was much better than patting everything down. I used the end of my scissors for the small edges.


Back to the struggle: As I mentioned previously, I'm having issues with the receiver recognizing the rearview camera so it's either something wrong with the camera or my wiring is wrong. For those of you with an aftermarket camera (I have the type that integrates into the license plate lights), how did you wire it up?

Additionally, I'm unable to get my Axxess configured. I'm able to get as far as setting it up manually, with it recognizing the volume up and volume down, but when I try to set the scan/search up or down I get no lights... any advice? Thanks again.

Replies in red.

Much apprecated, I'll check that out!!

Do you have any picks of the actually harness wired up? I see the wires not the harness.

Yeah, I guess I didn't take any lol. I'll get some for you once I'm off work since I'll be back at it trying to setup the Axxess and double check all of the connections for the camera.

Any idea on why the Axxess is only recognizing the volume up/down but not the search up/down function when configuring it? The speakers and amp are working fine (haven't done the sub since the hatch is still apart) although I still need to properly setup the amp once I have everything buttoned up.

Yep, know exactly why. Can't do auto program you have to do manual. fallow my youtube video.

This is why I personally prefer the Maestro SW

True but way more expensive. It would be like putting in a computer to do a pda's job. :rofl2:

You getting it confused with the RR? The SW is the same price as the ASWC and comes with everything you need to flash it. Just need to create a free account on their site.

The Maestro RR is expensive as ****

This is what I meant by "configuring"... was following your video all along. Except, once it recognizes the volume up/down, the Axxess doesn't seem to recognize the Search up/down functions and the LED stays dark.

your car have bluetooth buttons?

Nope. Just the base volume/search/source buttons

Here's a picture of the antenna harness connected.

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...psmsm1tnue.jpg

Just an update and to close out this thread:

I finished wiring the rest of the system up, double-checked functionality, then buttoned everything up. I wasn't able to figure out the programming of the ASWC even after watching the video multiple times and resetting it to try and reprogram it each time... oh well, chalk that one up as an L. Only thing left is to install my suspension so I have something to connect the air tank to. Thanks again to everyone that was able to provide some assistance.

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...pssfbbvmwu.jpg

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...psnu3jwlh1.jpg

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...ps7vmz7j6v.jpg

If you want to get your steering wheel controls working. Use a Maestro SW. I used one in mine and install was easy as hell compared to the ASWC.

https://www.amazon.com/iDatalink-Mae...rds=maestro+SW

All programmed through computer