Attempting AvicF900bt install

[AnonNomis]

I've never done a car stereo install or a anything at all car install unless you count little chromies but I'm feeling confident that my geeky electronics background might carry over to cars. I'm going to document every step along the way and if I'm successful maybe this will inspire others to try this on their own too. I have some questions so hopefully some others who have been through this can help me out.

I have a 2007 redline 5spd manual with monsoon and onstar since its mandatory. I do not have the xm unit.

So I started off at crutchfield since they carry the avic F900bt and their web interface tells you everything you need. I thought they would have model specific instructions since they finally claim this unit will fit and up until now they said it wouldn't fit. I just kind of assumed they don't say it fits until one of their research guys tries it out and writes up instructions. This is apparently not the case as I received generic instructions.

So here are the parts I bought:
1. Pioneer AVIC-F900BT
2. Pioneer GEX-P10HD (hd radio, no paid radio subscriptions for me)
3. Metra GMOS-LAN-04 (harness to make hookup easy and retain chimes)
4. GM Kit 2004-Up, DD 2004-Up, DD (dash kit to go around the head unit)
5. Chrysler Antenna Adapter Motor Motorola M to OEM antenna F

They had a special offer a few days after I purchased and I called them and they are going to send me this for free:
6. Boyo VTL400 Zinc Chrom License 2.8mm adjustable backup camera

Items I had to buy separately that I didn't know I would need. so far....
7. PAC SWI-PS (to keep steering wheel controls)
8. shrink tubing since I'm soldering instead of putting crimp caps over my wire connections.
9. An antenna splitter. Apparently I need one antenna to go the hd radio and one to go to the avic to get msn direct traffic info.

[AnonNomis]

Pic 1: Everything I have so far

Pic 2: Chop off the ears from the dash kit

[AnonNomis]

After studying the wires and manuals for a day I decided I was going to solder as many connections from the avic to the gmlan04 harness as I could so that when I take apart the dash most of the wiring will be plug and play. Reading the threads here and the solstice forums I was able to figure out that after you remove the stock unit there will be three wires back there. One Blue wire harness, one white wire harness and one antenna wire. These two wire harnesses go into the metra gmlan04 harness which then connects to the wire harness that comes with the avic. So the gmlan04 bridges the wire connections between the factory wiring and avic wiring. Pretty neat it makes everything look possible. I don't think I would be attempting this install if this didn't exist.

So this evening I took out my soldering iron and started to connect all of the obvious wires together I held off on three of them so that I could ask about them here before I commit to having them together.

So far I have 4 wires soldered together.
1. Yellow to Yellow. This is the power wire carrying the 12v constant power. Having the gmlan04 for this saves having to find power elsewhere from the car because it will use the same power line that powered the factory unit.
2. Red to Red. This is the accessory power line so that the unit will know when the car is on so that the unit can be turned on. Again the gmlan04 makes this easy so you don't have to find a way to hook up to the ignition.
3. Orange to Orange White. The gmlan04 is orange and the avic is orange white. I read others had problems with this and had to switch to orange white on the gmlan to get the dimmer to work. I would do this except I don't have a orange white wire. The other threads I read were using a gmlan03 instead of a gmlan04 so they might have fixed this issue. I will find out when I plug this sucker in.
4. Blue White to Blue White. This wire connects to the monsoon amp to power it on when the avic is turned on.

Here is a pic of my 4 wires together. I've never soldered wires before so I didn't know what size shrink tubing to use. I picked wrong one so they didn't shrink enough so now I will have to cover it with some electrical tape. My previous soldering experience has all been in adding mod chips to video game systems.

To solder wires. Strip the two ends make two wire hooks to hook together. Then touch the soldering iron to the wire. Then on the opposite side touch the solder to the wire.

So here are my first questions:
For the ground should I just solder the black ground from the avic to the black ground on the gmlan04. This should ground through whatever method the stock unit did. Or would it be better to ground these two either separately or together to a screw that connects to the chassis. Will I be able to find screw on the inside the dash that will be easy to get at?

I also plan on doing the bypass to get navigation controls to work while the car is moving. To do this I will need to ground the parking brake wire and the mute wire (mute wire needs to change pins in the harness). Should I splice this into the black ground wire I mentioned or should these be grounded separately? I read somewhere you shouldn't ground too many things together at risk of overloading the wire and starting a fire. I also read that the bypass grounding should not use much power so this shouldn't matter but I would like to see what others have done here.

Vehicle speed sensor wire (pink) and reverse gear wire (purple). I held off on soldering these two because I've read some people had trouble with it. I don't know if they were trying to tap into the rear reverse light wire or the speed sensor wire where ever that might be located. However the gmlan04 has a blue pink wire that should connect to the VSS pink wire and a green purple wire that should connect to the reverse gear purple wire. So my question is why didn't people use this? Does it not work? Or maybe these wires were not available on the gmlan03?

[AnonNomis]

Here is what I did for the bypass hack. The mute wire is not used since bluetooth is built into the unit and does not require use of the mute. Most people use the mute wire but any other wire will do. The yellow/black mute wire starts off in the top left hole of the white avic harness. To do the bypass you need to remove this wire or another unused wire and move it into the bottom row and fours holes over. It should end up between two black wires. This wire will then connect to the green wire that is normally tapped into the parking brake power wire to tell that the car is stopped. Instead of this, these two wires (green and yellow/black) will be connected to a ground so that the avic unit always think the car is stationary.

[AnonNomis]

Now I'm trying to hook up the rca connectors. There is a label to distinguish the front from the back speakers but not left and right. So I'm looking at my household electronics and it appears left is always white. I'm pretty sure this will be correct but I guess its not the end of the world if its not since I'll probably never know the difference.

[AnonNomis]

So far everything looks like its coming together except of the hd radio unit. The 12v constant power connection confuzzles me to no end. How and where am I supposed to get power. I looked at the inside fuse block and it looks like there is no where to put this thing it. I looked at the engine compartment fuse box and it appears that it may fit in some where in there but I really have no idea if it supposed to. The black ground wire makes sense but I have no idea what to do with that yellow wire. What is this black 2Amp fuse connector thing and what do I do with the end of the yellow wire?

[Morfious]

Originally Posted by AnonNomis

My previous soldering experience has all been in adding mod chips to video game systems.

To solder wires. Strip the two ends make two wire hooks to hook together. Then touch the soldering iron to the wire. Then on the opposite side touch the solder to the wire.

If you can solder mod chips in place you will nave no issues soldering stranded wire. I too have done quite a few video game mod chips and that is a difficult thing to solder in place. For stranded wire you can twist to two ends together, place the soldering iron at one end and the solder at the other and let it melt that way. This will create a smaller and flatter solder joint.

Originally Posted by AnonNomis

So here are my first questions:
For the ground should I just solder the black ground from the avic to the black ground on the gmlan04. This should ground through whatever method the stock unit did. Or would it be better to ground these two either separately or together to a screw that connects to the chassis. Will I be able to find screw on the inside the dash that will be easy to get at?

I also plan on doing the bypass to get navigation controls to work while the car is moving. To do this I will need to ground the parking brake wire and the mute wire (mute wire needs to change pins in the harness). Should I splice this into the black ground wire I mentioned or should these be grounded separately? I read somewhere you shouldn't ground too many things together at risk of overloading the wire and starting a fire. I also read that the bypass grounding should not use much power so this shouldn't matter but I would like to see what others have done here.

For the harness you can just hook the avic wire up to the GMOS harness wire. That will be fine, it will use the stock car ground. You will need a spot to ground the parking break wire as well as the bypass wire (check the screw under the center console, that is where I did mine) You will want to try and minimize the number of different ground points to help eliminate ground loops. As stated earlier these wires are not carrying much current so the idea of a fire from wires heating up is minimal. I would hook the AVIC up to the GMos harness behind the dash and then use the center console screw for the accessory ground (HD radio, backup camera, parking break and bypass. You can crimp/solder all the connectors to a ring connector so you only have 1 connection for all the accessories at the ground point.

Originally Posted by AnonNomis

Vehicle speed sensor wire (pink) and reverse gear wire (purple). I held off on soldering these two because I've read some people had trouble with it. I don't know if they were trying to tap into the rear reverse light wire or the speed sensor wire where ever that might be located. However the gmlan04 has a blue pink wire that should connect to the VSS pink wire and a green purple wire that should connect to the reverse gear purple wire. So my question is why didn't people use this? Does it not work? Or maybe these wires were not available on the gmlan03?

As stated earlier the GMOS-LAN-03 harness (or at least eralier ones) did not have VSS or reverse wires. I would use the ones from the GMOS harness if they are available. There is a green wire in the passenger footwell area that has the reverse signal wire if it is needed. That is a much easier spot than using the reverse light as I did. I'm not sure but the unit may require a VSS wire for the 3d mapping features.[/quote]

Originally Posted by AnonNomis

Here is what I did for the bypass hack. The mute wire is not used since bluetooth is built into the unit and does not require use of the mute. Most people use the mute wire but any other wire will do. The yellow/black mute wire starts off in the top left hole of the white avic harness. To do the bypass you need to remove this wire or another unused wire and move it into the bottom row and fours holes over. It should end up between two black wires. This wire will then connect to the green wire that is normally tapped into the parking brake power wire to tell that the car is stopped. Instead of this, these two wires (green and yellow/black) will be connected to a ground so that the avic unit always think the car is stationary.

Nice to see you have done your AVIC411 homework before the install. I was going to tell you about this when I saw the title of your post, but it seems you have it covered.

Originally Posted by AnonNomis

Now I'm trying to hook up the rca connectors. There is a label to distinguish the front from the back speakers but not left and right. So I'm looking at my household electronics and it appears left is always white. I'm pretty sure this will be correct but I guess its not the end of the world if its not since I'll probably never know the difference.

Most people and electronics manufacturers have red as right channel. It does not make a difference which color goes to which wire as long as it's consistent. You will hear problems if you have the wires reversed at one end. (Out of phase)

Originally Posted by AnonNomis

So far everything looks like its coming together except of the hd radio unit. The 12v constant power connection confuzzles me to no end. How and where am I supposed to get power. I looked at the inside fuse block and it looks like there is no where to put this thing it. I looked at the engine compartment fuse box and it appears that it may fit in some where in there but I really have no idea if it supposed to. The black ground wire makes sense but I have no idea what to do with that yellow wire. What is this black 2Amp fuse connector thing and what do I do with the end of the yellow wire?

You can tap into the yellow wire in the GMOS harness to get constant 12 volt power. The fuse is there to make sure things don't go kabloowey if you have a short in the system. You can also run the ground to the center console area and use the same screw for a grounding point. The installation for this unit will be pretty identical to the AVIC-D3. It even uses the same exact wiring harness to the radio. I'm thinking about selling my D3 to get this unit, still not sure what I want to do.

Looking good so far. Can't wait to see the final product.

[AnonNomis]

Thanks a bunch Morfious. I was hoping you would reply since your ultimate D3 thread was so informative. So after I splice the 12v yellow in with my two other yellow power wires from the gmlan04 and the avic harness do I need to tape up the fuse thing? I see it has two little metal prongs. What are those for and should I tape them up to make sure they don't short?

[AnonNomis]

So today I connected the wires I held off on. Pic1 is my bypass mute (black/yellow) and parking break wire (green) together and to a connector that I intend on grounding. Pic2 is the reverse gear purple wires. I used the extension wire because it has the inline fuse. I would have cut the extension shorter except if it doesn't work I still want to have the long cable. Pic3 is the avic vss line connected the vss in the gmlan04. Pic4 is the hdradio power line to the power line of the head unit. Pic5 is everything together. I taped up the ends that aren't used and put a bunch of ugly electrical tape to cover up my poor shrink tubing. Tomorrow I will start taking the dash apart and then Monday my backup camera and pac swi-ps should come in so I can make the final wire preparations before everything starts to go in.

[Morfious]

Originally Posted by AnonNomis

Thanks a bunch Morfious. I was hoping you would reply since your ultimate D3 thread was so informative. So after I splice the 12v yellow in with my two other yellow power wires from the gmlan04 and the avic harness do I need to tape up the fuse thing? I see it has two little metal prongs. What are those for and should I tape them up to make sure they don't short?

It looks like you have everything correct in pic 4. The fuse just sits in the fuse holder on the yellow wire. You should not have to tape anything up. You will need access to the fuse if anything goes wrong.

[AnonNomis]

So I took my dash apart following jel's directions here

It was a little harder then I thought it would be. The three pieces around the radio come out as one piece but come apart and it makes it easier to disconnect the wires if you separate them. I'm posting pictures of the backsides so you can get an idea of how they come apart. The bottom piano black section has tabs on the sides and the top piano black section has two black metal tabs you can just sqeeze out. I also got the center console armrest out by tugging really hard on the back. You kind of have to just give it one really hard tug and not worry about breaking it.

The back of the radio has two wire harnesses. Each has one has a tab on the top but my left one was really tight and I broke the clip a little. It shouldn't matter though. I suggest using a screwdriver and pushing it out from the underside. There is a little piece of plastic you can press on. The antenna comes off with the black plastic portion still attached. Its easy to get off with pliers wrapped in fabric.

Now I'm working on the cup holder and the silver area surrounding the shifter. I unscrewed the little screw on the underside of the cup holder but still have no idea how to get it out. I've read that it should pull straight out towards the door but that doesn't feel right. Can anyone share how to get this out and the silver portion. The other thread I saw shows the silver portion removed but doesn't really say where and how to pull.

[AnonNomis]

So after reading every single post I could on the cup holder it looks like saturn switched from plastic to metal reinforced cup holders. I think I have a metal one. Does anyone know how to remove one that looks like this?

[AnonNomis]

Okay so I finally got the cup holder out. I made a separate thread with instructions on how to do this. This was the hardest thing thus far. Well now I can move onto the shifter housing.

[AnonNomis]

Okay so I got the shifter housing off no problem. Its held on by clips. I tugged the front end then the back then the sides. Next was the door sils. You can just grab then by the inside and pull. There are 4 clips. I started at the front and worked my way back. Next was the rear sides panels with the speakers. These are also only held in by 5 clips. I started at the bottom and worked my way up. Finally there is the whole rear panel that comes off along with the waterfall compartment and cup holders. The clips are all along the top and you can work from the outside in.

[AnonNomis]

Next I worked on the trunk. I removed the two strings from the sides. Then the water drainage tubes popped out. Then the trunk light at the back passenger side was disconnected. Then my car got a new hat.

[AnonNomis]

I got the steering wheel interface. Surprisingly there were instructions for the sky. There are four wires to connect this time.

red to red 12v accessory power on the gmlan04
black to black ground
green swi-ps to blue car's harness one connector
black and white on the car's other harness to the 12v accessory power also

This time there are two connections to the the actual cars harness. I decided to use wire taps for this one from radio shack. While splicing the the accessory power and ground I decided to splice in the backup camera power and ground too.

[AnonNomis]

Here is a shot of all the wires together that will need to be shoved behind the radio. If you look at the backup camera wire you may notice that its connected wrong. Sadly I did not catch this in time. I connected yellow to yellow while it should have been yellow to brown.

So next I ran the wires around the shifter. The black plastic around the shifter can be moved up out of the way without removing it completely. I ran it up the left side then over to the right and entered the dash from the passenger side. I covered some of the metal in electrical just so I wouldn't be rubbing away any of the wire casings.