fraychild

I've been trying to research this for a while, unless I'm missing something.. I haven't seen anyone who's done this in their XD or better yet, who's posted pictures...
I decided to take a shot at my wife's new 08' and also share a few things with you guys here...
I decided to locate the VSS in the XD and add a switch in between in order to be able to access certain menus and watch DVDs while in motion... Of course this is strictly for passenger use and entertainment... this is a safety violation for a driver, so don't hold me responsible for anything... Do it at your own risk!

The instructions below may serve two main purposes -
1- Help you by-pass the motion lockout on your stock navigation aka SNS
2- Help you locate the VSS if you're installing an aftermarket navi such as Pioneer, Kenwood, Alpine etc.

-or-

3 - Possibly show you how to pull apart your dash and center console ...

You'll need a phillips screwdriver, a 10mm socket, a prying tool, extra wires, a toggle switch, female connectors, electrical tape, wire cutter etc.

First - Remove the radio Bezel - VERY easy. just pull on that nice shiny looking trim around the radio... start off the top and work your way down - No special tools needed.... Unlug the wire for the Clock and Airbag Light

Second - Remove the four screws that hold the radio bracket into place... Phillips screwdriver there... One with a magnet tip would be better... trust me.

Third - Unplug the four connectors from the back of the radio -

The connector you're looking for is the 4th one from the right - See below pic:


Navi from the back - you're looing for the fourth connector from left to right:


CAREFUL - When reassembling, the third connector is NOT TO BE USED!! The plug from the Clock/Airbag Light fits in there but will blow your fuses to hell!

Fourth - See the purple wire, located in pin 3? - That's the VSS for the Scion XD. It controls the volume, the navigation lockout, the DVD lockout etc..


Five - I stripped it and cut it in half - and attached a wire to each end and taped it up -

Six - This is how I removed the center console - VERY easy in the XD... Scions are so easy to work with... I remember her XA was also a piece of cake...
A - I pulled the console with the 4 button covers (she has an automatic)

B - Put the car in Drive and pull off the shiny trim around the shifter - smoothly.

C - Remove the 4 10mm screws hoklding down the consle from the front -

D - Remove the one cupholder 10mm screw holding it from the back -

E - Your baby should look like this...

F - Now remove that front holder by pulling on it -

G - Run the wire from under the A/C controls through the back of the radio:

The rest is easy - just attach the female connectors to the ends of the wires and plug them to the toggle switch -
It's a bad pic, but I took a drive down the block watching a moving at about 15mph to be safe -


The switch works great - At first, the navi didn't seem to work when the VSS wire was switched off... So, If we wanted to input an address while driving, we flicked it and once we were done, we flipped it back - However.....

The navigation WILL work even with the VSS wire "disconnected" - All you'll need to do is drive around for about 5 to 10 mintes and the GPS antenna will kick in and move just as accurately as if it were connected to the wire..

Had a lil' help from this:


Wire Harness Diagram I got from TIS.com

ChelsDS

I don't have the cahones to attempt something like this but its great that you did something like this.

fraychild

Trust me... there is nothing to the scion but light flexible ABS plastic pieces to pull apart... I can't stress enough how easy it is to do this...

GeoUSA

Great documentation; thank! I'm curious what happens if you start the car with the toggle already flipped? Does the nav system refuse to start or something similar to when the purple VSS wire is disconnected?

fraychild

IT WORKS!!
The navigation works even if the VSS wire is switched off or "disconnected"!! Therefore, there is no need to keep switching it on and off!!!

ALL you have to do is drive the car around for about 5 to 10 minutes tops!

The system will "learn" to switch to the GPS antenna for motion and it is just as accurate!!!

Now I Do have to mention that by disabling the VSS wire... you're also affecting the "auto-volume" option that Scion likes to brag about... a feature that I've never been too crazy about personally....
There are also some of the maintenance information that will not be accurate, such as "Oil Changes", due to the fact that the wire is not sending the signal for the system to calculate. But if you're handy like me, I'm sure you won't need your radio to tell you when to change your oil.... and BTW, the XD's gauge also provide that same information...

GeoUSA

Cool! I would miss the "speed sensitive" volume. It's a feature I've wanted but missed in my past several cars. Funny how the small things can be important sometimes. My only complaint with the xD so far is with the turn signal. The click sound is too soft and it fails to automatically turn off on some milder turns. Okay, so I'm 40 -- but I'm not THAT old!

fraychild

LOL - I wouldn't know, it's my wife's car, I try not to drive it as much ... LOL - I'm 29 and I drive a Ford Edge - that's my big boy's toy and I love it -

xDrug

1. does anyone know exactly how this mod affects the warranty ? Does it bother any of you guys ?
2. any suggestions for a good,clean,stock looking switch and its install location ?

Thank you !

breadbooze

Most nav systems will work without the VSS buts its accuracy will be significantly diminished. It doesn't "learn" per-se, it's like the GPS looking for satellites based on last known position as opposed to referencing the VSS and gyros to "guesstimate" where the car is now and thus, where to look in the sky for satellites.

Older nav systems will freeze and lag without a VSS signal, newer systems as stated will have trouble with warm starts.

At least the SNS locks you out based on VSS, other nav systems have GPS based lock out and there is no way around those short of switching the antenna on/off.

LouGPS

Hello,

I am about to install the 2008 Scion Navigation System (SNS).

I have also located the Toyota Scion Nav installation instructions at the below link:

http://www.trdsparks.com/install/08545-00931inst.pdf

Those are the official Toyota installation instructions for the Scion. However, pages 8 and 12 of the instructions CLEARLY indicate that it is NOT necessary to connect the Scion's VSS ("SPD") lead to the unit.

I am confused about this. I know with 100% certainty that the unit has a built-in gyroscope, but normally the gyro works in conjunction with the VSS/SPD input to improve navigation accuracy (this is referred to as "dead reckoning").

Does anyone know if connecting the VSS/SPD wire will do anything at all? Or will the nav unit simply ignore the input, or worse- cause a malfunction? Does the Scion nav unit get the vehicle's speed in some other way?

I see older posts here indicating that the SPD connection is required. I also know there were 3 revisions of the SNS unit. I am wondering if the latest revision that I purchased does away with the VSS/SPD input altogether?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

fraychild

The VSS wire does work in conjuction with the Unit's gyro, however, it is not necessary to have it for the unit to function. The VSS helps with proper speed coordination - while the gyro helps with your positioning i.e. Making Turns, Going Up or Down Hill etc. - The GPS antenna alone can capture the most important information, which is your position on the map (through lattitude/longitude) - However, you are also signal dependant - Once you lose signal, like going under a tunnel for example, you will be dead in the water... Combining VSS + Gyro + GPS signal provides ultimate accuracy and avoids... "dead reckoning"...

LouGPS

So I just installed the Scion GPS nav unit in my 2009 Corolla (believe it or not), and it works great. Except for two things:

One: when playing my own mp3 disc (created on my computer), as soon as the vehicle starts moving, the radio no longer gives me access to navigate through the CD's folders. It also gray's out the little arrows at the far left and right sides...so I only have access to play the 4 songs that were listed at the bottom before I started driving. This can't be normal for the unit, can it? When I stop the vehicle, the arrows light up again to scroll to other mp3 tunes, and I can also navigate folders up or down again.

Two: the AUX icon on the "Mode" screen is grayed-out, and therefore I can not select this input. Even though the same harness that was originally plugged into the back of my Corolla (which included AUX capability) is now plugged into the back of my new Scion nav radio, the Scion unit does not recognize the AUX input. My Corolla's in-dash 3.5mm AUX input plug worked fine with my old factory radio. Again, ALL old harness plugs that were plugged into my old Corolla factory radio are now plugged into the back of my new Scion nav radio.

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

w_kary

This was a very helpful post. I have a 16 year old that would like to watch movies in the front when we are on longer trips. I followed the instructions, and cut into the wire exactly as shown, and it is the purple wire on the 20 pin connector for the steering wheel controls, very easy to locate. To my dismay, it didn't work! So, I started testing myself, and my 2008 xD was set up with the emergency brake ground hooked up... arrgh!

I then went ahead and started playing a DVD with everything hooked up and the emergency brake on and simply started pulling connectors until the DVD went off, had sound, no picture. That connector is the one in the top right corner if you are looking at the back, right above the antenna input!



Figuring the ground wire to the emergency brake would most likely be the one with RED in it, I plugged the connector back in, and while watching the DVD with the emergency brake on, snipped the red wire in this connector, the video image went out, and sound only came on. I then turned everything off, put a cap on the end of the wire that continues down to the emergency brake, and spliced in a longer piece of wire to the end coming out of the connector.

There are ample places right behind the head unit to ground to, including a metal bolt going into the metal dash bracket that is located to the lower right corner of the head unit opening in the dash. Strip the other end of the wire and securely attach it to that bolt.

I then noted a round pop out in my dash just to the right of the steering column. I popped that out, used a razor, and patience, and managed not to cut off any fingers making the hole for the new switch to mount in. By locating it there, I only needed about 6" leads attached to the cut ends of the purple VSS wire. I put a female spade connector on the end of each of these leads, and then played a movie and as I drove figured out what direction allowed play and what direction did not. Here is a photo of where i located the switch. So far everything is working just fine, including the navigation system, it didn't even hiccup.

I opted for the VSS switch instead of a disconnect as I would never play a movie and drive, this is done for passenger comfort only, and that won't be happening very often, so being able to flip a switch and have your navigation system exactly like factory install again in my view is a plus.

By placing the switch in the dash, it also negated the need to take down the entire center console. All I had to do was snap the plastic trim from around the head unit off, unplug the connector for the clock, and set that assembly aside. The head unit comes out with 4 phillips head screws, thats it, very simple! Hope this helps someone else, as the work done on this post by others certainly helped me! Thanks!

xD_kidd91

south park x2

w_kary

I can see arguments both ways on the warranty, depending on the service center you're dealing with. At the end of the day, you have not made any change to the navigation unit, you have simply rerouted 2 wires in the Toyota factory wiring harness. In fact, the VSS is optional per the install instructions from Toyota, and the emergency brake ground is simply that a ground wire, as long as it is grounded you have changed nothing. So the warranty should still be honored. But, you know how things work in real life, so don't do this if you need a gaurantee that your warranty will not be effected. Personally, I like the mod as it allows a passenger to watch movies in the front seat, it does away with the issue of not being able to access the menus on the iPod or MP3 CDs while driving. Both worth the minor risk that the unit would go bad and need to be replaced under warranty. This mod will in no way effect anything that could cause a breakdown in the navigation unit. Just my opinion.

As for alternate switch location, look at my post above. Good Luck with this, it really is an easy mod.

immajackuup1720

well let me get this right.

1.there is only one wire that goes the the emergency brake that need to be cut.

2.once it cut,strip it and attach it to another piece of wire and the end of that wire ground it.

3.cut the purple wire that would be the vss and plug it up to a switch.

4.when the purple wire is plug up to the switch do i have to ground that switch too??because it have 2 prongs that i'm guessing is neg and pos.

w_kary

No need to ground that wire, this is a simple switch to enable or disable the VSS. When you cut the VSSS wire, one end goes to one pole on the switch, the other end to the other pole on the switch. Hope that helps!

CL65Pilot

Great tutorial! I will hopefully have pictures and additional information to supply as I plan on doing this mod in the coming weeks. It is a shame that we are locked out of accessing some basic functions of the Nav while driving when, (if I am correct), in other countries there is no lock out. I guess we have US civil attorneys to thank for that...

CL65Pilot

I'm loving this mod! Now a passenger can enter an address on the nav while driving instead of pulling over or watching a movie.

I wasn't able to grab any pictures while doing it, but it is described above really well. I followed w_kary's instructions and used the empty 'push button start' cover to mount a switch for the VSS wire and grounded the parking brake wire to one of the screws on the side of the Nav unit.

Thanks to everyone before who posted instructions and pictures!

w_kary

Great deal, glad it worked for you, the instructions made sense and you are enjoying it! I sure like that flexibility, the option to utilize all the features of the unit at anytime...