Okay, I'm thinking about getting the Kenwood HU mentioned in the beginning of this thread and read that I would need additional hardware or cables to retain the steering wheel controls.

Newbie Question: Would anyone mind listing everything I would need to:

1) Install the Kenwood HU
2) Retain the Steering Wheel controls

This will be going into an 08 Touring Edition with Bose system (if that matters)

Thanks for tolerating my ignorance.

 

I do have amber LEDs in both my front and rear signals. Just go to the vendor you bought the backup lights from, and order the same type "bulb" in amber. But, you need to wire a resistor across each bulb in order for the blinker circuits to operate properly. These are the ones I used:

http://www.superbrightleds.com/morei...r-kit/190/831/

This company has some nice LEDs, but the eBay ones I have seem to be of equal quality (they're 3 years old now, with no failures), and the eBay ones are sometimes much less expensive. I have a mix of both in my car. You can use this type in the front parking lights:

http://www.superbrightleds.com/morei...se-tower/1128/

 

I trust Crutchfield so I'm just going to use it to answer your question.

The DDX470 comes with a nice wiring harness.. so you shouldn't have to (but can) buy a wiring harness. On my 2008 Base I did not by a harness the new harness that came with the DDX470 worked well.

For steering wheel control intergration you need this :
http://www.crutchfield.com/p_120ASWC...1.html?tp=3405

The Axxess-ASWC

If you don't have anything coming off the factory harness end.. this will make your life easier as well:

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_1207075...s.html?tp=2977


You need nothing more.

You may find it cheaper elsewhere.

That's it.

 

Helpful.. Thanks.

Now, sorry to ask you more -- But could you link me the resistor(s) I need to purchase to wire inline for them to operate properly?

 

Cool, thanks for clarifying that.

 

Just to be a little clearer -- When I said I didn't buy another wiring harness on my car.. I also already had an aftermarket headunit previously installed by the prev. owner. So I did not have to buy a harness that went from the factory "white" molex plugs. Switching from a stock head unit.. it makes things "easier" buying the adapter (which I linked above). You can obviously splice into those wires behind the factory molex's.. but I prefer to leave them alone and do all my splicing on aftermarket harnesses.. plus you want a little slack to work with.

**Oh one more tip. The factory "ground" from those white connectors goes to nothing. Not sure the logic behind it,.. but just remember when you put in a new headunit to run a proper ground to the black ground wire,.. you'll know you've done it properly if the headunit turns on without the antenna lead plugged in.. with the factory ground it requires the antenna lead to be in the headunit because there is no ground, and the headunit grounds through the antenna.

I personally rewired my new headunit the other day where I have enough slack in all wires going to it (with it on and functioning) to where I can pull the head unit out and put it in the passenger seat to work on things back there... This is very helpful to me because removing that whole waterfall cage isn't hard, but getting it back in can be a bit time consuming sometimes. So having the slack I can basically do all the work back there by pulling 8 screws (maybe 10) and sliding it out.

If you are anything like me (most aren't ) -- You will have one reason or another to want to pull the headunit out after you initially install it.

I have mine set after continually adding features to it like Reverse Camera, ip-202 cable,.. etc.. But I can still see one more reason to pull it and that is when/if I finally put all the switches in for cruise control,.. buy the steering wheel switches, and then I'll need to wire in the factory steering wheel control to the headunit (even the base models have the wiring in them.. yay) -- Then get an expensive tune.. which I can justify once I've added enough performance mods to my vehicle to justify spending $500 on a tune.

 

I just installed this the other day in my '06 Roadster Touring w/ Bose. I purchased the Metra 70-7551 Harness (Super easy, connected colored wires to the same colored wires on the HU harness), and the Scosche Dash Kit. (The dash kit had two little plastic things on the back side of the face that prevented the HU from seating properly, just cut them off, no problem).

Before splicing the harnesses together, pre-plan the Power and Ground wires really well ahead of time, several of them need to splice together. I ended up having to cut and resplice a couple of times. However, after I wired everything color to color, plugged it in and it worked immediately, no problem.

For the steering wheel controls, I purchased the Axxcess ASWC-1, but decided not to install it yet, as I found that you have to splice the wires into the factory harness/wires. I would prefer to find a female connector that matches and do it that way, instead of cutting into the factory wires.


Purchased all from sonicelectronix.com (over the phone), and the guy gave me the Shipping, Dash Kit and Metra Harness for free, and dropped $15 off of the price of the unit. Super helpful, and super fast shipping. Would definitely recommend.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

Good info Cynical.. Sonic is my preferred online sight because they are as helpful as crutchfield and have lower prices as they are crutchfields main competitor now for online business (which, let's be honest.. is the majority now ).

IE: A $350 item at Crutchfield is likely to be $299 at Sonic.. usually at least a 10% or so lower price.

And, Sonic does do what Crutchfield used to do many years ago.. and throw in much of the odds and ends you need to install into your car. Wiring harnesses, modules, trim pieces, etc. I even got some nice Sound Deadener when I ordered a $200 pair of component speakers for the front..

But back to the question on steering controls.

I personally don't mind splicing (properly.. either with really good crimps, or I personally like soldering everything and using shrink tubing on it.. I enjoy soldering for some reason.. go figure. But in some locations where I don't want to chance the heat , I do have a great crimp tool and hundreds of crimp connectors of all sizes now (ebay is a great place to buy things in the 100's.. that cost like $10 locally for 5-6).

What really annoys me is when I see people who strip wire.. twist it together and then half-arsed tape it together like that with electrical tape. When I pulled my headunit I found a lot of that.. So I literally cut out probably 6 feet total of wiring if you put it end to end, and redid it all.

Anyhow,.. The PAC website is VERY handy when it comes to stuff like this.. they have multiple modules for just what you are doing with the steering wheel controls.. and the products are selected by your year, make, model of vehicle and it generates diagrams based on that with great install instructions.. and example is here..
http://www.pac-audio.com/swi/SWIAppG...Radio%20+%20BT

I'll eventually be buying steering wheel controls for my base model when I've put enough perf. mods on the car to justify a $500 tune.. and get it flashed to an enthusiast (or other model) to enable the built in Cruise function on the car (of course having installed the pedal switches and wiring everything up, etc.).

So all info posted here I'm actually interested in as well.. I haven't wired mine up for steering controls yet (though I could.. as the connector for the controls is just sitting behind my steering wheel not plugged in (cause my steering wheel of course doesn't have the buttons on it.) --

When you do, do your steering wheel controls.. Post up some pics while you are doing it,.. I'd like to see another couple of pics/angles of what's going on there before I pull the steering wheel panels, etc to get mine hooked up.

 

I did post the link to the resistors, but here it is again:

http://www.superbrightleds.com/morei...r-kit/190/831/

 

Answers I found regarding setting your own custom background, and Android devices not connecting via USB:

https://my350z.com/forum/audio-and-v...rs-inside.html

 

I've posted this in my original thread. However i figured i'd post here too since i purchased the back up camera from the provided link.





The receiver is Pioneer AVH-X4500BT
Looks nice, in the 2nd picture the buttons look red, that was a result from my camera they actually look just like the OEM orange lights.
(Which can be changed but for now i like how it looks oem)

Anyways thanks guys the install went great i had no problem with the wire length was perfect. also i did install the camera in the left side, due to the fact the camera would be more centered with the car.

 

Posting a Pioneer in a Kenwood thread? lol.

 

Thank you for the thorough write up!

 

What I liked about buying it over at Crutchfield is that they gave me EVERYTHING to install it; harness, detailed instructions and install kit. Also, when I had a question when it wasnt playing sound, Crutchfield gave me amazing customer service.

 

I wonder if I can use my neg for a dvd player?

 

Just found a firmware update - will have time to install it this afternoon:

http://www.kenwood.com/cs/ce/mm/firm...2013b/eng.html

 

You mean ground it to use the DVD player while driving?

If thats what youre asking then yes. I grounded the green wire to one of the shifter bolts and it works great

Improved functions
(02.07.2013)
• Improved Language Setup.
(15.05.2013)
• Improved iPod Function.
• Improved OEM Features Function. (Only for DDX370)

Awww thats it?? Not much of a difference.



I fuqqing love my DDX470. I like how its not too flashy with over done graphics that stand out too much. Some people even thought the radio was factory haha.

 

Just bought a stock z and have the nose unit with xm sat radio. Is there something I can plug in for aux for the time being?

 

Where did you ground your parking brake wire to? What location?

Thanks,
Bob