anyone have the AVIC-N2 by pioneer installed in their Z? the head unit that has navigation, dvd, and mp3 player all in one. if so, can you tell me how hard it was to install? was it hard to take out the stock head unit?

 

Took me about an hour to install everything. If you know how to install a head unit in a car, you can install this. It is very simple. It is basically the head unit installed, run the cable to a head unit (usually under the passenger seat), run the sat antenna.

To take out the head unit you have to remove a few things, but it is very simple compared to alot of newer cars on the market. Do a search, there are a few diagrams of how some of us installed it.

 

I want to hire you, we're going to make lots and lots and lots of money.

It took me the better part of about 16 hours to install everything. Heck to sort out and soldier the 12 wires and heat shrink them took an hour. Getting the dash and console apart takes 20 minutes. Adjusting the headend back and forth in the DIN adapter took a bit of time. Installing the door, rear, and subwoofer speakers probably took 4 more hours. The backup camera was about another hour as was the satellite antenna. Pulling the passenger's seat out, fitting, drilling and running the wires to the brain was another couple 2-3 hours. The amplifiers and power cable/ground distribution system was bunch of hours too. Pulling the old Bose amplifiers out was about a half an hour. Heck re-assembling the car from the rear license plate forward to the battery compartment took an hour or more! While the car is striped of its interior it's a great time to add sound deadening material - heck I spent probably 8 hours adding the 75 square feet of fatmat I added.

I'm old and slow but have put in a few hundred systems back in the day

You'll want to start off with a Nissan wire adapter so that you can un-plug the stock unit, soldier the adapters bare wires using heat shrink (not tape ) to the aftermarket unit's wires and then you slam the two together. If you've got the factory provided Bose unit you've got to run speaker wires to the five speakers or by-pass the factory amplifiers or run line level outputs from the head-end into the Bose provided amplifiers. Without the adapter you're running a hot soldiering pencil down into the center of the dash ... that's just looking to burn something that doesn't need to be brunt ... hands, leather seats, plastic dash covers ...

Best sound is replacing the Bose speakers and amplifiers to be sure. The Bose speakers are rather lacking. The Bose amplifiers are tiny little things. Laughable in fact.

If you're just replacing the headend I would figure about 5-6 hours - passenger seat removal/replacement, mounting of the brain, power/wire/signal wires to it, pulling the console and dash apart, soldiering, pulling the panels to run the satellite antenna (many put them inside the rear strut bar).

If you by-pass the amplifiers and change out the five speakers you're adding another 4-5 hours.

Adding a couple of amplifiers and the back-up camera would bring this to a two day, all day event.

I did mine in the middle of July with the outdoor temps hitting 100-105 so I worked for a few hours in the morning and a few hours late at night across several days so my estimates might be a bit off but I know there's no way in heaven or earth that I could have gotten the thing jammed into the dash in 60 minutes.

 

Haha, I didn't install all of that stuff that you did though. I only did the head unit with the brain under the seat. I didnt even remove the passenger seat though, just slid it forward. I will be removing it this weekend though while i install my sirius unit under there. I need to re-do how i have everything bolted down. I hate how its not a flat surface under the seat.

 

The front door and rear speakers at 6.5", the subwoofer is 10" but is a "free air" which sucks. Have a look at an under the strut box if you want to really kick the bass. The tweeters are 1". The front doors will need a spacer ring, many people make their own out of layers of MDF or other wood.

For which brand I've said it before and I'll say it again ... you need to take your favorite CD to the car stereo store and do some critical listening at the volumes you enjoy. That will give you a taste of what they'll sound like in your doors. The sound will be different in the car than in the store but at least the flavor will be "close".

 

took me an hour....first time.....