asurjc

I just recently got my 2010 xD back at the end of October, and promptly joined this site at about the same time. Since then, I have enjoyed reading many informative posts from our members on all things Scion. The most helpful of these posts so far have been some select DIY postings which gave me the courage to take apart some interior panels for the first time. I decided to pretty much do an entire center pedestal re-work from the top down.

I installed a new Alpine head unit, mainly for the HD because I found out that the base unit wouldn't accept the aftermarket pioneer HD tuner...plus it looks cool too. Found it on eBay for a fair price. Next was Blu-Logic from sparks(why not? the radio was coming out anyway), dr. isotope delrin shifter cage bushings (b/c the center console was already coming out for the bluetooth switch), redlinegoods.com e-brake & shift boots(see no. 2) , a TRD shift **** to complement the shift boot(hey my credit card was already out...)

I would like to take the opportunity to extend my sincere thanks to the following people for their helpful DIY threads/posts/pm advice.

-A1binoA11igat0r for his shift boot install thread

-ack154 for the shifter cage bushing install. (I managed to not cut myself. Thanks for the heads up!)

-CL65Pilot(my fellow rj rat), and mr slim for their advice on the Blu-logic system in our cars

-mcbrew for his help in shift boot color and length plus the coat hanger trick.(that was a real MF to get it to look halfway decent It took me 3 coat hangers and I'm still not sure I like it yet)

Here are some quick snapshots I took earlier today of the finished product. BTW does anyone need a stock 2010 Pioneer Head unit?



I'm thinking I may have left the boot a little long ultimately. It was too short on my first 3 tries. I'd shift through the pattern and the trim ring kept popping out.

katchkillah

good to hear!! =)

XD40tC

Well thats nice of you! Congrats on the mods

CL65Pilot

No problemo. Guess my forum name is a dead giveaway that I fly "da fiddy" seater.

JJGeneral1

cool mods!!!! i just got myself a 2010 black currant xD cause i rolled my black sand pearl 2009 xD.

looks like you did a good job. did you get the NAV with the alpine upgrade? i just got the premium radio, no nav, and no rear camera.

KaneoheKoa

You're a good man Asurjc!
They still make people that say thank you! That's cool.

mr_slim

iTrader: (1)

thanks man!
interior looks great!

asurjc

I did the same as you. No nav or rear view camera. How do you like yours so far? The HD radio is really nice. I have been debating the plug in nav add-on. Let me know if you get one how easy the install goes.

JJGeneral1

@asurjc - i gotta find the nav unit plug in first.

second, i don't like HD radio. when you lose the HD signal, and it goes back to analog, then back to digital, the song "skips". it blows.

third, i can't wait to get an 8" under passenger seat sub. will sound better. sound is good though right now.

rear camera.... eh. we're not driving semi's or a fire truck that you can't see out the back. our car is small enough that if you need a camera too, you shouldn't be driving period.

xDTool

When you have wifes, sisters, daughters, aunt's and nieces that may be driving your car, you wont want to be without

JJGeneral1

ah, but i am the only one that drives it. so i am in the clear. and i DO drive firetrucks, without rear cameras. LOL

asurjc

First, here's the best price I've found for a nav plug-in. This is the seller I bought my head unit from and I can vouch that it came new in box plastic foam cloth and all. I'm probably just going to stick with my garmin for the time being though.

Second, I don't seem to have the 'skipping' problem. I live right in the Atlanta metro area so I'm pretty lucky, all of my presets come in great in HD. I can see how it would be really annoying if you don't live right in a larger metro area. I bet I'll be cursing it the first time I drive out of town however.

Third, you tempt me when speaking of an under seat subwoofer. How hard are these to install? Would a front passenger still be able to slide the seat back and forth, and the rear passengers still have space for their feet? (not that I carry rear passengers much but still....)

I haven't ever been much of the modifying type but you all are a bunch of enablers!

JJGeneral1

what i'm planning on doing is getting a flat sub. an inducer. and yes, it would be short enough for the seat to slide.

i got the plans laid out, now i need to put it to action.


speaking of, i got a 12" infinity dual coil wired in parallel at 2 OHM with a 1000W kenwood mono amp. i paid about $400 for all of it a year ago, with a 3 year maintenance agreement that's transferable from best buy. I would like to dump it for about $300. i would also include the $10 wiring kit (10 gauge) for the power and such.

asurjc

Let me see if I understand this right. To make a subwoofer like this one work with our Alpine unit, all I would need to do is to hook up RCA cables, power, and ground right? Probably not as good as what most people would do but I'm just looking to start out easy here.

JJGeneral1

and the "input" power to the amp. what i mean by that is some type of constant power source. there's 3 inputs and one output on an amp. usually. power, ground, RCA cables, and the "constant" voltage. i don't know what that last one does, but it won't work without it. my buddy wired mine to my hazard lights. he said he could've done it to the cargo light. it just has to be a constant source. and no, it doesn't drain your battery.

JJGeneral1

that subwoofer is a good find. i might just buy it!!!

xDTool

The 3 power sources are 12v, Ground, and Remote.

12v is what you wire in from the battery,

ground is fastened somewhere to the chassis

and Remote is fastened to a power source that is only current when you want the sub to be current. mine is sourced from the head unit's power, so that any time the radio is on, the subwoofer is on, (ex: if you wired it to the fuse with the windshield wipers, your sub and amp would be on when you turn your windshield wipers on)

if you need to get ahold of a good wiring kit, http://www.knukonceptz.com/ for a well priced, high quality kit. For that size application, id use 8-10AWG wiring for the 12v and the Ground, and 16-20gauge for the Remote (8 gauge kit here).

looks like a nice little setup, i still prefer seperate drivers and amplifiers in the case that one component gives out, your whole setup doesnt turn into junk, but thats all preference and for that cost its hard to go wrong.

asurjc

At first I had no idea what a 'remote' source was I ran across the installation instructions on the Boss website and there was the phrase:

Connect the remote terminal to the remote output of the head unit using 16 gauge (or heavier) wire.

'Remote output of the head unit??' Now I wish I'd looked a little more closely at the back of the Alpine when I put it in. I know there's already RCA jacks in the back, plus they market the thing as being subwoofer ready, but I have no recollection of anything that was labeled as a remote output. Do any of you know for sure (save me from having to tear out the radio just for a quick look) that there's this remote output in the back of the Alpine head unit?

I'd probably use the 12v constant power source listed in mcbrew's thread
and ground someplace below the seat rail. There appear to be bolts into the chassis all over the place down there.

xDTool

I'm not familiar with the oem alpine head unit. Most aftermarket head units come with a remote wire that hangs off of the wiring harness.... also used for powering the antenna. the key to the remote wire placement is to connect it to a power source that is ONLY showing power while you want the sub to be on. Like i said, tap off of the radio's power, or maybe off of the cig lighter's power, it doesnt draw anything, just needs the source to recognize and flip an internal switch to turn the amplifier on.

The only "best" place you can pull a 12v source from for the amplifier is the battery in my honest opinion. I'm not sure that you'll want to run 8 gauge cable out of that spot that mcbrew is showing, but im not familiar with the power source. just whatever you do, do not forget to place an inline fuse on the 12v line. if you get a kit from knukonceptz, then it comes with a fuse block and fuse.

JJGeneral1

ah yes, i forgot it was called remote current. thanks XDtool for the backup!!!!