I've decided to take advantage of the lower price on the Pioneer nav units and pick up an Avic-F700BT. I've already installed a Pioneer single din unit in my car (a DEH-P500UB). Will this new unit use the same wiring harness as my current one? I'm using the Metra 70-7551 with the DEH-P5000. Is there anything else that would be different on the install of a nav unit versus a regular unit? Thanks in advance.

 

the answer is yes there is a few things different. i installed a D3 myself an im about to upgrade to the AVIC-F90BT or 900 is it? anyway u have to mount the gps antenna. i mounted mine inside my dash all the way in the back an the big metal bar. it wroks great because it has line of sight through the windsheild but still hidden back behind the dash. i would recommend tapping into ur cars variable speed sensor for more acurate gps as well. thats inside ur gauge cluster. the harness will have a wire just for that. then there is the reverse wire for rear veiw camera an the parking switch wire. everything else should be the same, excpet for maybe alot more rca's on the harness. OH!! there;s also the light dimmer wire. when u turn ur headlights on it will switch ur head unit to night mode an dim everything an black out ur gps

 

^ Mostly correct. To the original poster, yes the 700BT harness will be different, but it will NOT have a speed sense wire as posted above. It WILL have a parking brake and a reverse wire, but unless you are hooking up a rear view camera, the reverse wire isn't needed. If you are DIY'ing it, you will wire up the parking brake in the dash to bypass the unit, so all your wiring will be done in the dash and you won't have to run any other wires except the antenna. The 70-7551 will still work, but you will simply have to rewire it to the harness that plugs into the 700BT, wire it bypassed, and run your antenna.

Google search 700BT bypass and plenty of results should come up, avic411.com or the other avic forums are all over these bypasses.

 

^^ I just bought a 700BT as well, and everything I have researched, and everyone I have talked to on avic411.com says there is a wire for the VSS. Mine should be in this week, i'll have to check it for myself, but according to everyone with one, it is there.

 

I'm not sure if its my computer or not, but avic411 isn't working for me right now.

The 700BT doesn't have a speed sense wire. The 900BT and 90BT do. This was the topic of quite a few discussions when they first came out, because they are essentially the same unit, but one has a speed sense wire in the harness, and one is empty.

It has been a couple months since I have installed a 700BT, so if Pioneer has changed this very recently and they added a speed sense to it, then my apologies, but I doubt it.

 

yea, its not working for me at the moment either.

Like I said, i'm not defniite because mine hasn't arrived yet, I'm just going by what I have been told and read, including a wiring diagram on avic411. Hopefully there is one, because I would perfer it to be as accurate as possible, but I am in no way saying your wrong.

 

Cool! Thanks for the help guys. As far as the dimmer goes, my current Pioneer HU already has that, so that won't be any different. It's nice to know I can mount the gps antenna inside the dash. I wasn't looking forward to finding a place for that on the roof. I won't be installing a rear camera so I won't worry about finding the reverse wire. The only thing that makes me a bit nervous is this VSS wire, if the BT700 even makes use of it that is. Finding the VSS wire in the instrument cluster sounds like a pita.

I've also been reading the specs on the BT700 and notice it only uses 2.2v pre-outs. When I got my DEH-P5000UB last year, one of the big selling points were the 4 volt pre-outs. I guess from what it sounds like here the 2.2v's shouldn't be a problem?

 

Received my F700 today, and you were right, there is no extension lead for the VSS, altho it is ready in the harness. It says its not needed in the F700, but as far as I know it is much more accurate when being used, so I dunno what I'm going to do. I'm going to talk to some people on avic411 once its done being updated to a new server. I'll let you know what I find out

 

2.2v will likely be not very loud using the 7551. You might want to switch to the Pac or Scosche interface that uses the high level (speaker wire) instead of the preouts, so your volume will still be normal. Or you can test it and try it out first.

 

Since I already have the 7551 hooked up I'll give it a try first. I have a feeling it won't be loud enough though as I already have to crank the volume quite a bit sometimes with my current 4v out deck.

 

Installed my F700 today, love it! but I still have to find a way to make it work with VSS

 

Talked to the guys at Avic411, and there is no way to use VSS with this unit, as it does not recognize it.

As far as the bypass, I did the Hardware bypass, which was simply taking the Mute wire out of the harness, and relocating it on the same harness in the open pin between the 2 black wires (1 row up, 4 over). You then ground that wire and the parking brake wire, works great!

My next project is working on some of the hacks, most importantly getting rid of the key beeps

 

I just installed an F700BT today with the Scoche dash kit - looks pretty good but I have a few minor issues/questions I wanted to run by the experts here.

The dash kit looks nice, but the air-vents that sit above the headunit dont seem like they are 'snapped' into place all the way, it seems to bulge out slightly - any ideas or do I need to try to push them in harder? (kinda scared of breaking anything)

Secondly, where are you guys mounting the microphone? I found a little spot in the dash just to the right/slightly below the steering wheel that looks almost made for a microphone, but I'm having trouble figuring out how to run the mic back behind there and mounting it.

Where are you guys mounting the GPS antenna -- any tips or anything to make sure I have correct? My brother helped me install and he ran the GPS-antenna behind the glove-box then up the passenger door pillar and stuck the antenna basically right in the front right corner of roof where it meets the windshield. The gps display seems to work fine, but I was curious about any issues I could see w/ water, etc?

I ran the green parking-brake-wire down beside the shifter and hooked it in. I guess I need to read-up on the bypass trick, my understanding is there are both a hardware bypass or a software hack that get around this.

Any good Apps for this thing? I'll check out that avic411 page for more info.

 

As far as the microphone, I mounted it on the top of my pillar on the driverside in the corner near the windshield, almost out of sight. I've tested it, and its plenty close to the driver and everyone I called said they couldn't even tell I wasn't on the cell. They could also hear my girlfriend from the passenger seat clear as day.

The GPS antenna, I mounted right behing the radio under the dash. There is no need to run it outside the vehicle or to anywhere else, the Nav works perfect with no GPS reception problems, and this can be verified by everyone on Avic411.com who did the same.

The unit can be bypassed either through hardware or software. I did the hardware, which is simply relocating the mute wire on the harness inbetween the 2 black wires in the empty pin (move the mute wire up and over 4 spots). You then ground the mute wire, parking brake wire, and normal ground wire. The software bypass needs to be done in Testmode WinCE, and you need to change the parking brake value from 16 to 128. More information can be found on that on Avic411, I can't be much help as I went with the hardware bypass because it seemed easier until I learn how to hack the unit.

I haven't found any apps, but there are alot of hacks you can do, such as showing 3D buildings on the map on 3D mode, getting rid of the annoying key beeps, adding different keys to the map screen such as a cancel route key, changing the red arrow on the map to an actual picture of your car, etc. More are popping up everyday, so keep your eyes open for new stuff.

 

Plano and Blkmagic, I'm curious what adapter you guys used. Was it the Metra 7551 by any chance? If so is it loud enough? If not what adapter did you use and how does it sound?

 

Blkmagic: Thanks for the info/tips. If that's the case I'd rather mount the gps antenna inside the cabin like you said, I will try this out! Does the GPS/Map seem kind of laggy to you at all? Mine seems a little sluggish at times..
Also I forgot to mention, under Settings, there are 4 options, but the first 2 options are "greyed-out" so I am unable to select them. I'll try to find out on avic411 about this when I get a chance.

Kbohip: Sorry man, my car did NOT have the Bose, so I didn't need that adapter. I bought a Metra wire harness adapter from Frys, I believe it is "Metra 70-7550 NISSAN 1995-UP - INTO CAR." Yesterday I went to Circuit City to p/u an antenna adapter, check it out, all harnesses are 50% off due to going-out-of-business sale - got it for 8 bux.
I have the F700BT running 4 x Polk Momo 6.5" Coaxes{MMC650- got killer deal} and it definitely sounds loud enough. I am going to try to disconnect the A-pillar tweeters today b/c they are still plugged-in and suck(distort) when I turn it up loud. I am a little mad I didnt get Components for the front, so may look into swapping out/upgrading that pair and eventually put an Amp on all 4 speakers as well but for now sounds pretty good to me compared to the stock [trash] that nissan provided us with :P

 

The GPS isn't too sluggish for me, but you have to remember its not hooked up to the VSS so it is going to move a little slower then the F900 or factory Nav.

I didn't have bose either, so I used the normal 95+ harness as well. I'm running factory speakers for now, going to switch over to components up front and coaxials in the rear, but my factory did seem to sound better after the install. But like I said, no bose.

 

Well, it looks like I'll be the first to test out the 7551 with the F700 then. If it doesn't work, I'll just head over to Circuit City and get a 7550. I used that harness before I had the 7551 for a few weeks and it sounded great.

 

GoodLuck w/ the 7551. From the sounds of it Kbohip, you are running the factory Bose amps/speakers w/ it? I dont know how the F700BT compares to your previous unit power wise, but coming from the factory to the F700BT provided a night and day difference to my Momo's.
I did a few more things today on mine: disconnected the stock tweeters, also did the hardware bypass -- i'm now able to get into the settings that were previously disabled. I'm still trying to get the video to work, though. I loaded some mp3s as well as some tv-show-clips(xvid, .avi format) The unit played the mp3s just fine, however when I tried to switch to video, it basically locked up the unit so I hit the Menu button and a few moments later it rebooted itself. I tried a few times but the same thing kept happening. I'll try to read-up on avic411 some more I guess to figure this out.

 

Yea, mine had the factory Blose. Going to the Pioneer head unit made a huge difference in sound quality. I honestly never expected the system to sound any better so that was a pleasant surprise. Wednesday won't come soon enough!

 

I got the BT700 yesterday and installed it last night. It's working great but I am going to have to get a different adapter. The 2.2v out just isn't enough for the 7551. I guess I'll go with the 7550 even though it isn't recommended with the Bose speakers. I did use a 7550 for a couple of weeks while waiting for the 7551 to come in and it sounded great, better than the 7551.

So far I really like the BT700. I have had 2 problems so far though. My usb flash drive isn't recognized on start up. I have to unplug it then plug it back in every time I restart the car. This is a pain. The other problem is I can't seem to get the front aux input to work with my satellite radio.

I love being able to actually see a list of mp3's from my flash drive! My old Pioneer HU played mp3's from a flash drive, but the lack of a lcd screen meant just going through songs one by one to find them. It made that feature almost useless. I can't comment on the Bluetooth operation as I haven't installed the mic yet. It did pair up to my phone ok after a few tries though.

 

Good to hear you got it up and running. I just ordered a Cadence TXA-3004 Amp to run my speakers, should be here next Wed per UPS.

I havn't played around w/ USB flash drive enough to see if mine has the same problem you mentioned on startup. Did your unit come pre-loaded w/ the 2.0 firmware? I hear this solved quite a few problems, my box had a decal indicating it came w/ 2.0 preloaded. Also, I havn't tried anything through the aux port, I'll try to play with that as well to see what my findings are.

I have enjoyed the bluetooth functionality; I think you will too. Have you tried any video stuff yet?

 

Yep, mine came with the 2.0 sticker on the box. Got it from 6th Avenue. I finally figured out a way to hook up my Sirius radio. I ran a 3.5mm to RCA adapter and hooked it up to the RCA input dongles. I just left the video one disconnected. The only problem is I only have one channel working! I'm hoping this is because I'm using an adapter that has a video cable on it as well. I'm going to try and pick up a decently priced 3.5 to rca audio only cable in town tomorrow. Otherwise it's off to Ebay...again.

I'm loving the Bluetooth features! Having a 6-speed, it's really nice not to have to hold the phone while driving. So far it's working great. One strange thing though, when I call someone, I get no ringing. I dial out from the HU and the radio plays until someone picks up. I see other people are having this problem too in the avic411 forum so hopefully this gets fixed. It's really not a big deal though.

I haven't done any video yet. I may not ever. This wasn't something I was interested in when I went shopping for one of these.

 

Put the audio only 3.5 to RCA adapter in and Sirius sounds great again! I'm loving the 700BT so far.

 

I was thinking about getting the XM/Sirius cable/carkit and one of the hand-held units that I could bring home/car/work, etc.. Are you OK having to change the channel/read info on the handheld unit, or would you prefer to see the info/control from the avic unit??

 

Sorry to jack the thread, but I guess it is relevant since I am asking in particular to the AVIC-F.

When replacing factory Bose HU, what do you do with the subs?

When installed with the factory, they are just connected by crossovers on the rear.
Can you just direct connect them to the discrete RCA-outs or are the discrete outs not compatible with bose subs? I already know about getting the harnesses for everything else.

 

I have my Sirius Sportster on a mount I bought off Ebay that places it right next to the HU. It's not a big deal for me to change channels on the Sportster, but I'm sure it would be nicer to be able to change them directly on the HU. Like I said above though, I like having the 44 minute rewind and I also didn't want to spend another $120+ for the tuners/adapters.

 

Is anyone having any issues with the AVIC-F700BT not going into night mode when the headlights are turned on? I have a 2007 Maxima with the Metra NIRD-01 kit and the darn thing won't go into night mode. I'm 100% sure that the illumination wire was connected correctly (watched the shop do it).

 

On my 02 it works fine, where when I flip the headlights on, it dims the display on the F700BT. If I remember correctly, the Illum/Dim wire is orange on the harness. Also, there is a setting on the F700BT where u can adjust the display's brightness when dim mode is active.

 

im installing this unit on the 03 g35 bose car, i have the 7550 harnes and wanted to know how the wire harness is hooked up. i read in the manual that if its a 2 ohm system then im not supposed to hook up some wires and if its a 4 ohm system then hook up something else.

any help would do thanks guys

 

i am referring to the green and the purple wires. also the 7550 harness has a dimmer ground so do ground that to the metal behind the stereo area on the car? because the 700's wire harness has no such cable only a dimmer cable.

 

I can't speak for the 7550/Bose harness b/c I had the base audio, however I did notice on mine there was the dimmer(orange) wire and an orange/black wire -- I did not use the orange/black wire.

 

I was also thinking about buying the Pioneer AVIC-600bt for my 2000 Maxima GXE. I was wondering what dash kit i have to buy, i was looking on ebay and they all say the none bose edition but mine has the bose CD player and speakers. Thank you very much!

Anthony

 

I used the Scosche NN1648B dash kit for my '02. I ordered off Amazon -- It arrived quickly and matches up pretty well.

 

Hey guys. I hope someone with this unit can tell me if you can hook up a backup camera? The specification sheet has the backup camera subdued but I need confirmation that you can't hook one up.

If any owners can clarify this for me I would greatly appreciate it.

 

Yes, you can hook up a reverse camera. Check out www.avic411.com for more info about the unit