When I have an hour or so to sit down and make a write-up, I'll do that and post it here, but for now, here's some pictures of my work.

On a scale of 1-10 (10 being most difficult) I give this mod a 9. Replacing an engine might be harder. MIGHT be. Even then, Im not sure. Im just glad its over.

Before:


After:


The dash pieces were tan, so I had to paint them.

 

I connected just enough wires to make the thing work, so it sat on the floor for a while while I waited for the stereo half to come from UPS.



After paint:




Paint I used (minus the can of the clear enamel which I added later):

 

Never Again.

Never. Ever. Again.


Mounted my aftermarket GPS antenna in the sunroof.


Crappy picts for some reason, but here's the final product:

 

Isn't this thread a re-post?

http://forums.maxima.org/infiniti-i3...i35-picts.html

 

Yes and no. Now that Im done being a pain in the @$$ with all the questions, I wanted to make a new thread where I can post a write up and give answers rather than ask.

 

Awesome job!! I'm pretty sure you're the only person to ever pull this off in 5th gen Maxima, I30, or I35. The difficulty of 9 out 10 is probably a good reason why, I know I wouldn't have the patience to do this.

 

I just got a TomTom and hardwired it to where the factory Navi would have gone, saved me money and didn't waste nearly as much time as you did.

 

Nor did he waste time trying to convert his car into RWD like you once did.

http://forums.maxima.org/infiniti-i3...89370-m45.html

 

lmao!

It was time consuming, but if you know what you're doing from the start (like I did not) it shouldn't be too insanely difficult.

 

We opt to get factory nav in our last two new cars. Frankly I was disappoint with both.

Would I get nav in my next new car? Yes, just because they are like power windows, a standard feature in cars from now on.

Would I install factory nav where it is missing? No, I declined Toyota's Nav offer for our '01 Prius and use an aftermarket device instead.

Ming of the Garmin fame (founders Gary and Ming) worked on the military GPS system in the eighties. These devices simply have more experience as a nav device than let's say Clarion (Nissan/Infiniti), Fujitsu-Ten (Toyota/Lexus), Harmon/Becker (MB/Chrysler), Delco of the world.

Toyota FJ's nav is from Garmin. Volvo, MB and others offer Garmin a dealer accessories.

I have an aftermarket nav in each of my older cars.

ZG's efforts is an admirable one and he now has a factory look, max out i35. Good for him.

 

Your right, I did it instead of wasting my time with that I bought myself a real car that doesn't have a autotragic tranny shift for you.

 

Your ninja edit fails, so what manual tranmission RWD vehicle did you happen to buy?

*Sorry for OT but I'm curious

 

lmao. BURN ad DOUBLE BURN!

i'm not sure what was so complicated about the install but i personally would much prefer an in dash nav/dvd unit. props on doin your thing though.

 

Eventually I may get something a little more advanced and updated, but my main goal was to get the pop up screen to work because, frankly, I think its sexy. Starting the car and watching the screen rev to life is my own little version of Jaguar's gear **** extending up from the center console. I like to watch the car come to life. Maybe someday I'll get an indash unit like an AVIC D3 or whatever is available (and have to **** around with finding a double DIN dash piece that doesnt look like crap) but for now, Im perfectly happy with my stock navigation. I've never had nav before, so for me personally, this is all I need. enough to fullfill my need for gadgets and cool **** in my car that can tell me where I am and how to get where I'm going.

 

thats cool. you got what you wanted and thatsall that matters. i'm not personally a fan of pop-ups but im a fan of all kinds of other wierd stuff so i can dig it.

 

Very impressive conversion. I wish my I30 had nav. BTW, what did you do with your original head unit? I might be interested in buying it if works properly and you want to sell it.


Does trying to put down someone else's efforts make you feel better about yourself?

 

Admittedly, I didn't know much about the I30/I35's amenities, so I was surprised to find pictures on Edmunds.com that showed a pop-up nav instead of an in-dash system like the Maxima from the same generation.

Then I come up here and see that someone's installed one in his car.

Much respect.

 

I've thought about selling my 6-CD changer, but without a decent (and cheap) aftermarket dash kit for a single DIN stereo, I'm most likely going to keep it as backup in case something happends to the Nav unit. Would be very easy to swap it back in, too.

Another reason I opted to install the Nav system was because my 6CD changer stereo that was in the dash had some serious CD skipping issues as most of these units eventually end up having after several years of use. I wouldn't want to sell it to someone and have it not work properly - that's poor business tactics.

 

I should add that my point was not to save time and money. Some people sit at home on the couch the second they come home from work or school. I could have bought a TomTom, but I decided to put my free time to good use with a goal and a challenge instead. For a guy with NO ELECTRICAL EXPERIENCE, I think I passed with flying colors.

 

E28 530is




I didn't mean for my post to come the way it was. I was just saying that for the cost of a TomTom you could have samed time aswell and use the Navi as for other purposes

 

Can you post pics of your TomTom install? I would like to do this, but not sure how to hinge the dash piece.

 

Right now I just have it hooked up to my window. I When I go to change the dash bulbs I'm going to hard wire it to it and I'll write a DIY for you.

 

Z and I are looking into adding aux inputs to the pop up nav screens so there is more to it than just adding the outdated nav system. I hopefully will have a cellphone/media player with Video out soon (6 months to a year) and plan on having that output drive my audio/video. I already tapped the audio from the 6 disc changer to an aux input (Moto Q).

 

I appreciate the honesty...I wasn't aware of the 6CD's problems. I've never had a single issue with my I30's 1 in dash/6 in the trunk setup.

 

Im looking to get the CD changer for the trunk for use with my navigation - sucks that you can't use nav and play a CD at the same time.

And Nork - how'd you tap into the CD changer input? For now, Ive got an el cheapo MP3 player that I've thought about connecting and just hiding in my center console. (Better yet, if I had some sort of bluetooth thing I could use on the cd changer input, I could connect my Juke phone to it...)

 

I did a total hack job... The CD player is still on and plays 1 cd over and over, lol.. Instead of the CD audio playing, its my Moto Q's music. I hacked the audio wires from the cd changer and tapped in a headphone "input" wire. Dont ask me which wires go where because I had to switch around for about an hour to find the combo that played out of all speakers. I ended up blowing the fuel door trunk fuse so beware. The audio isn't very strong with this method, so I bought a boostaroo headphone amplifier which brought the stereo to life!!! I honestly think I am not only louder than stock, but more punchy on the bass and higher treble than stock. The amplifier not only cranks up the levels 4x, it has a filter that seperates the sound and cleans it up. Total cost of all materials was about $70. The boostaroo is so small I actually wedge it next to my driver seat with the input plug sitting up. You could mount the set into the center console, but I wasn't in the mood to take it out when its pretty much out of sight as is. I'll take pics later to show the input..

 

Can you still play CDs that way?

 

Nope.. I sync up my phone everyday via usb (smartphone), so songs get dragged into my MP3 folder then are good to go.. Why burn when you can do this?

 

Yea, picts of that would be cool, Nork.

 

Here is a pic of the booster and the wire fed from the trunk.. The short wire is plugged into the source. The boostaroo uses to 4a batteries which last a while.. 3+ weeks at least on this first set.

 

Nifty idea! I still wonder though if there's a bluetooth input device I could connect to the stereo. I don't like seeing wires , but I think I could tollerate them if it meant having any song I want at my fingertips.

 

The black wire is hidden once I tuck the boostaroo inbetween my seat and the console. Thats what the rubberband is there for. The white wire is obviously visible, but you could mount it through the ash tray area for a hidden look when the door is closed.

 

On the other hand... If I actually get this RCA to RGB converter for my DVD player input, I can use that for music. The DVD player Im going to use has a USB port, and its so small that it can mount under the driver's seat. The remote is IR, but its one that can be used from another room even, so with the DVD player mounted under the seat, the remote will still operate the player. I can just plug my iPod into the USB port on the DVD player and use the DVD remote to work my iPod through the stereo. Genius!

 

How would the audio tap into the stereo? Isn't that only a video input solution? If you were to combine the hack job I did and tapped into the video I could see a nice audio/video combo. The boostaroo is strong enough for you to split the input so you could have the MP3 and/or DVD hooked up. The only downside to the boostaroo is the fact you have to unplug it (input source) when out of the car.

 

Audio could tap into the stereo the same way you tapped into your CD changer wires - basically make an AUX input for the DVD sound.

 

I see.. The only thing I would throw out there is that the input is a low level input meaning the power isnt enough to get loud sound. Some type of amp would be needed to get the levels up to stock.

 

This is where your boostaroo thing comes into play

 

There's currently a complete OEM navigation system on ebay for $20. Thought I'd post it here if anyone is interested. (Note that it does not come with connectors)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Infin...spagenameZWDVW

 

Project #2: Audio/Video Input:

http://www.geocities.com/wonderer369/G35Nav.html

 

Whats the benefit of going this route instead of the unit posted above? Save money?