Equipment Installed Today: Pioneer 4000dvd HU, Pioneer 600W amp, two Infiniti 6.5" reference series speakers in the doors, 2 Sony Xplods in the rear, two 10" bazooka subs with a tiny bazooka amp and the zenclosures box, along with the Pioneer XM Tuner, Scosche NN1456B / NN1456, all new speaker wire ran throughout car, 5 Farad Capacitor, and Pac Steering Wheel controls.

Car: 2006 350z with Bose and Navigation.

I just picked the car up and overall the install looks very clean.
First Disappointment: The fit of the Scoshe DD Faceplate. In the lower drivers side corner it is sticking up and doesn't sit flush at all. Will be swapping out for the Metra kit when I find a local place that carries it.

Hop in the car excited to turn it on and I'm immediately disappointed again. There is a static going through all the speakers. The volume is only at a 6. The more I turn it up the louder the static gets and it's almost unbareable. Check out the settings and the fade is all the way up at 15 for the front speakers and yet the rears are still drowning them out.

Next source I go to is the radio. I can't get reception on any of the FM channels. Not even the most local one. Flip over to AM and I get a couple more, but still a lot of static.

XM Tuner sounds alright, but still static on that source and I can't tell if I'm getting a poor antenna signal or the speakers are still throwing everything off with the static.

They were able to mount both amps, the tuner, and the capacitor where the old Bose sub was. To be honest the stock system sounded a lot better than the current setup right now and I'm a little on the concerned side.

Any ideas on what might cause the static and the poor reception? It's almost like a hissing. I searched and saw that problem only occured while trying to integrate the bose amp. I am almost positive that is not the case since all new wires were ran.

I didn't go with component speakers for the doors...should I have? Is this why I'm hardly hearing them? I'm not sure how they mounted the speakers in the door, but should something special have been done in terms of mounting hardware?

I'm also hearing a clunking sound coming from around the dash as I drive and I can't seem to pinpoint the location because I'm afraid of going death from the static if I turn it up.

Please help! Pics will be posted tomorrow morning of the poor dash kit fit.

 

One last thing...also noticed that on my heated seat buttons only the driver side has the middle lit up. Both switches light up at the top or bottom when pressed down or up....but when idle only the driver side is lit. Is this correct, or shouldn't they both be lit up?

 

To me it sounds like you may have a few different problems. The static on the radio indicates to me that the shop didn't hook up the power antenna lead on the harness. Even though there is not a antenna mast, they still need to hook up the wire to get good radio reception. The static that you refer to on the other sources could be one of many things. If the noise changes with the rpm's of the engine then it is most likely a bad install of the amp, probably the ground. I assume that the Pioneer amp is a 4 channel and it is running the front and rear speakers? If so the fader problem that you have could probably be fixed by adjusting the gains on the amplifier. Also, going with component speakers rather than the coaxials that you have will not make them louder, it will just give you a higher soundstage because the tweeter is mounted higher in the door. I have put the Infinity coaxial speakers in the Z's many times and never had a problem with them not being loud enough. There should not be any static on the satellite radio. It either has signal or it doesn't. Honestly to me it sounds like whoever did the install on your car has no business installing, because they should never have delivered your car back to you without testing everything first and making sure that it all works properly. With the list of equipment that you got it should sound far better than the stock bose system. Make a list of everything that you are not satisfied with and give them one oportunity to fix it, and if they can't fix it I would make them give you your money back for the labor or have them pay for someone else who knows what they are doing to fix it. By the way, I have had issues with both the Metra and Scoche kit fitting properly on the lower drivers side, but with a little work you can get it to fit right. Good luck!!

 

I also had a similar problem like this once, and it was that the plug just under the heated seat buttons was not pressed in all the way so only a few of the pins were making contact. If you pull straight up on the bezel that the shift boot is attatched to it comes right off very easily and you can see the big white plug on the passenger side in front of the buttons for the seat heaters.

 

Well I just went back to the install shop and here is what they told me...

They will have to file an insurance claim for the nicked up dash.

They suggested I order the Metra kit. He seemed suprised when I called him out on the finish and the lack of a screw holding the faceplate in. His excuse was he had to shim it.

When the Pioneer unit is turned all the way to zero volume there is still a whine throughout the speakers. He blamed the brand new Pioneer amp I bought from them. I get that things don't always work right out of the box, but this seems like a stretch.

Apparently the Pioneer unit (bear with me as I'm somewhat of a novice to this) does not have 4 RCA outputs. It only has the two and two for a sub. I'm running a 4 channel amp. When the fade is all the way to the front and I'm still getting wayyyy more sound of the rear speakers clearly something is wrong. I have decided to just go with a two channel amp for the front speakers and will just run the rears off the head unit. This will atleast allow me to get some fade with the speakers. I guess I could run all four off the head unit, but I'm really looking for some power for good sound.

When I have the XM tuner on I still am getting a hissing sound so I'm starting to think something isn't properly grounded. I barely get any reception from the standard radio and was told by the installer that he 'amped the antenna like he was supposed to.'

Anyone have any suggestions other than to find a new place to go to? Is this accurate with regards to the head unit not being compatible with a 4 channel amp and subs? And lastly, I am running two 10" subs but I don't really listen to rap or hip hop...more of a classic rock/alternative fan - is it possible to adjust the subs so I don't get as much thump as I'm going for more of a crisp and clear hit. Thanks for all of your help!

 

That head unit has 4 RCA preouts. 2 front, and 2 rear. It does not have a dedicated subwoofer output, so you would generally run the sub off the rear preouts, which means you should have front-to-back fade, but making use of the fade would also adjust your subwoofer level accordingly. What you could do though is set the gains correctly for your front and rear channels and then adjust the fade to get the effect you want, and then adjust the gain on the bazooka amp to dial in the sub level.

 

What you should tell them to do is hook up the F & R pre-outs on the headunit to the 4-channel then run the sub amp off the output of the 4-channel...the hissing on the XM might be a bad IP-Bus cable.

By the way where did you goto to get everything installed???

 

The car is going back in Tuesday. Hopefully I'll have the Metra dash kit by then.
I've decided to ditch the four channel Pioneer amp for a 2 channel amp and just boost the front two speakers and run the two rears off the head unit. This way I can at least get the subs running off the HU as well. Hopefully I'll have more control of the speakers because there is way too much sound coming from the rears and the fronts are almost invisible.
Will let everyone know how it goes.