On each side of that trim piece there is a little arm with a small pin facing outwards. Each pin has a place to fit on each of the OEM metal radio brackets.

 

**If you don't want to read this post.. I would like some help picking out a headunit from Bestbuy (I'm doing 18months interest free.. all I can do this month) -- The "must haves" are Double Din - Touch Screen - Built In Bluetooth - 4V Pre-outs (not 2v) - and 3 RCA Pre-outs (OR, 2 RCA Pre-outs and A "Sub-out") --- Go to the bottom of the post and you will see a link I made that takes you right to the headunits at bestbuy to scan through and help me pick one. Budget around $300-$550. Thanks **

Well good news (Car is finished completely), and really.. really bad news (Head Unit stopped working!).

I figured out how to flush the head unit.. I just grabbed the dremel for the billionth time and opened up the holes and was able to flush it.

I buttoned everything back up.. turned the key! -- And,..nothing from the headunit.. no lights, no screen... then it starts this constant beeping.

Beep beep.... beep beep...... beep beep... and it never stops.

I was like this is bad..

I took it ALL apart again,.. checked all the wiring.. (Good)

I pulled all wires off headunit,.. and checked fuse -- Even put a new one in. (Good)

At this point I was like.. I don't think this is going to work again. But I continued.. over the next 2-3 hours I pulled every Fuse from the vehicle and independently checked them. Yes, really. (All good).

I went online.. nothing much about just 2 beeps, pause.. 2 beeps pause.. 2 beeps.. forever.. and no lights, no screen display .. on a Pioneer headunit.. or my specific headunit the Pioneer AVH-P4100DVD . I found a FEW help threads on the issue.. and every single one of them the person ended up taking it out for service and the unit was DEAD.

I read the entire manual on my model online.. No mention of "beeps" .. Did mention a reset button. So I pressed and held it.. nothing. I did that another 20 times in different ways.

So I was like ok.. I'll pull the battery cables and let it sit for an hour. (Did nothing).

I was out of ideas.. Everything I could think of.. I did. And I figured there would be a million topics about this online,.. but I couldn't find them.

SO.. I'm assuming I need a new headunit.

So the only UPSIDE to this is this headunit doesn't have Bluetooth in it.. and it's like $200 just for the adapter to enable it.. so,.. the new headunit WILL have bluetooth , to make it not just a carbon copy of what I have. I'd like GPS, but they are $200+ more dollars generally.

The good news? I finished the car. Everything is in.. nothing broken.. it's back like she was. Again.. camera is taking grainy pics.. but here she is:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/111739693@N04/11976262193/
Now.. here's the deal. My intuition tells me the HU is just not going to work again.

So,.. I really can't order one online at the moment,.. and it's really shitty to have done 40+ hours of work with this and now it doesn't work cause of the HU.

SO.. I do have a good best buy account.. with 18 months interest free.. I always pay single purchases off in less than 6 months from there.

So while I don't think you guys can give me a magical "fix" for this headunit (If you've heard/read or seen this issue with a Pioneer headunit and KNOW an absolute way to fix it, please tell.)

But otherwise -- I'm now in the market to get another headunit and fast.. like tomorrow fast.

I'm limited to Bestbuy. Surprisingly they have a decent selection.

I DID notice some of the ones I preferred had 2V pre-outs instead of 4V preouts.. And some of these with 2V pre-outs were top of the line $750+ headunits.

So here's the criteria. Must have 4V preouts (must have 3 sets.. or, 2 sets, and a sub woofer set of "preouts, aka: RCA's) (As I'm running fronts, rears, and the sub off three pair of RCA's.)

To make this have an "upside".. it must have built in Blue tooth. I've wanted that , and never had it in any vehicle in my life. So might as well.

So (must haves), Double Din - Touch Screen - Blue Tooth Built In - and 4V Preouts (3 sets of RCA's, or 2 sets and a Sub out).

Can/will you guys can help recommend the best one in a $300-$550 pricerange (ish).. from bestbuy. I'll even give you the direct link to browse to make it quick for you:

http://tinyurl.com/nxv8ll4

Help me pick out a good headunit.. I'm probably going to grab it tomorrow afternoon.

Thanks..

 

The current (broken) radio - is it under warranty? You just got it.

To me headunits are all about their UI (user interface). Because of this I'm not a fan of touchscreens - too much looking, I need a radio that I can control by feel, so the more buttons the better for me. I run an older, single DIN Alpine CDA-117, pretty much the opposite of what your looking for.

Off topic, does your little blind spot mirror really help? I've been debating adding one. The tiny side back window doesn't help when changing lanes.

 

No, unfortunately it's not. It came with the car,.. and I'm the 3rd owner,.. The guy I bought this car from said it was in the car when he bought it in 2010. So it's sort of "old" in a way. No chance on a free fix.

I was thinking about this headunit:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/6-1-cd-d...x470&cp=1&lp=1

It's A Kenwood.. , Touchscreen,.. but a little bit of "best of both worlds" sort of thing with analog dial for settings, volume buttons and other such on the left hand side.. and touchscreen as well, just .9" smaller than the one I have.



It's a reasonable price.. and have 4V preouts.

Think I'm going to head over to bestbuy in an hour or two.. maybe they can slap this in this afternoon/evening.. Or, I MAY just buy it and put it in myself.

I hear you on that. I prefer controls you don't have to look at as well. I do have to admit I did like the touchscreen (for the short time I had it working) on the pioneer.. it's better than I expected and I have really big hands.. Did have to take your eye off the road for a split second to change tracks.. but otherwise ok. The Kenwood I mention has the bluetooth built in and has some analog controls in conjuction with the touch screen.. I think that's a good compromise. For $335 or so .. That's not a bad deal I don't think, even from Bestbuy.

Hah! When I first saw those things I was like.. really? Who puts those tacky adhesive mirrors on a 350Z! lol. To be honest,.. yes they help a bit for the "blind spot".. I've glanced at them a few times, mainly on the highway.

But.. it's funny you brought that up. Just last night I got the heatgun and alcohol (rubbing alcohol ) out.. and removed them from the car. Looks much cleaner without them.

I've driven my entire life without them,.. I think I'll get by without them.

But sure.. if you need a wider view of the blindspot those DO help.. I won't lie. They are functional and not worthless. I just couldn't stand the way they looked is all.

 

now that is funny - thanks for the info.

If you can play with the radio in the store that should help you decide. Check out YouTube and see if there are any videos of interface. Some people do mini reviews where they go thru all the different menus - gives you a good idea of how the UI works.

 

Finished! -- Went and bought the Kenwood DDX470 and BestBuy couldn't install today.. So I just brought it home and installed it.

Here she is done:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/111739693@N04/11990754885/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/111739693@N04/11991567776/
I really like this headunit.. It has more features for Audio.. Built in Front, Rear, and Sub crossovers active -- Very handy.

I love the actual volume ****, attenuate button,.. Phone button etc.. Where I don't have to look away from the road. Still a 6.1" touchscreen and DVD player.. best of both worlds.

Bluetooth works excellent,.. It's new for me to have it in my vehicle, so it will get a lot of use.

There is a difference in this HU and the Pioneer one though.

To get the proper voltages when retuning the amp.. I had to bump the gains higher using this Headunit.. Despite it having 4V pre-outs as the Pioneer had.

Particularly the Sub channel.. Sub channel is probably 85% or so now to get it to the level needed. (That's at a 79hz tone.. at 40hz.. the voltage is WAY higher.)

The fronts/rears didn't need much of a bump.. about 10% compared to the Pioneer.

Sounds great though!

And.... she's done! My hands can heal.

Thanks for all your help.

 

Glad your rockin!

Interesting find on the voltages... maybe they are really like 3.8V and for marketing sake they just rounded up Or it might have to do with when each units hits the 4V level. For example I've read that some radios reach their limit early and go into clipping where others never reach the full voltage because they leave some head room in for dynamic range. What happens when a head unit has a built in EQ? In theory it should only hit max voltage when the EQ bands are boosted.

 

Thanks.. that I am. I'm in the process of:

a) Running Reverse/Rear Camera, wiring to reverse/backup lights for power.. and running 12v + video in to back of headunit.

b) Removing the headunit (and that triple gauge center console piece , hopefully for the LAST time.)

c) I've since realized the headunit is NOT grounded.. since the 350z factory radio wiring harness does not have a ground running from it (it has a ground wire on one end, but that wire goes nowhere, nadda.. lol. -- So I will be cutting this wire and tapping a new wire into it and grounding it (either to the floor somewhere, or the a ground behind those 3 gauges that people have mentioned is there.)

d) Installing the KCA ip202 cable in the USB and AV2 Aux in slot (so my Iphone (and to lesser extent ipod) works via VIDEO and digital (instead of analog) audio to the headunit,.. so the Headunit will now control the Iphone/pod via touchscreen. Big use of this is Pandora and my $50 Garmin App (yeesh and expensive app) on the Iphone that will essentially turn my headunit into a navigation unit as well when needed.

e) Wiring in a few wires I didn't originally.. namely: the Illum wire (to see just how the headunit responds to the lights and such.. it may be one of those situations where I wire it in.. don't like it.. and remove it. -- Wiring in the power wire to the antenna. Yeah, we don't have power antennas, but we very much have an amplifier which is right next to our antennas (on the inside of the vechicle (if you remove enough of the interior like I have).. This needs power, else you will have terrible reception.
What else... Wiring in the Reverse 12v wire to the headunit so the headunit knows when my car is in reverse and to switch the display to that camera.. wiring in the (well plugging in) the Yellow video RCA to the reverse input on headunit... and some other odds and ends.

f) pulling the headunit out of it's bracket completely.. and once again taking the dremel to the mounting holes to open them up.. as it doesn't sit quite flush with the range of the current holes.

g) Installing a new Trim piece I ordered a while back.. the one I have on it has a clip broken on the right side.. and falls back some. I already have it, so might as well no?

h) Zip-tieing and essentially tidy'ing up the cables I've run from the reverse camera in back to front.

i) As with (a) -- Finding the appropriate ground for the 12v power from reverse lights.. as in that bundle of 20 wires or so there are 2-4+ black wires. I'm going to just assume they are ALL grounds,.. and can use any of them to ground this camera power into. I've since figured out the Light green wire is the 12v power wire in that bundle to the reverse lights. Surely Nissan wouldn't have a black sheathed wire but anything but a ground, surely!

Everything is fairly straight forward,.. except that stupid "cage" the headunit sits in that has the ungodly LONG *** legs on it that simply do not want to go into place after you remove it. With all the screws holding this into place it'd almost be easier to cut those legs off (It'd be A LOT easier in fact).. but I won't. It took me literally an hour+ to get that damn thing back in properly last time (but there was a week time period between when I pulled it out and put it back in.. maybe pulling it and putting back in , in the same session will help my memory on how to get it back in. I just remember it doesn't just easily slide in that spot,.. you have to angle it, and sort of bend those legs a bit to get it to go into place (not really bend them, but have some pressure on them anyway.)

Wish me luck.. Hopefully, for once, it all goes smooth, everything works as it should first time.. and the cage (attached to the whole console/gauge pod) goes back into place quickly this time.

This should be the last time I ever pull that radio/headunit out of the car..