Has anyone done this?

[BAC5.2]

OK, so I am running into a dead-end with the OEM 6-disc swap. I know it COULD work, but the combination of modifying and interchanging parts is less than exciting.

 

Ultimately, my goal was to have the setup that the H6 cars could have. 6-CD changer and OEM Navigation.

 

It's starting to sound like that is going to be more and more difficult to acheive. My incentive for the OEM nav was to keep as OEM a look as possible. I don't want some jackass to bust into my car while it's parked in Washington DC to steal my radio. Plus, I like the clean lines of the OEM setup.

 

I do have a Kenwood DNX-7100 touch-screen Navigation unit that I was trying to sell.

 

So I could get an AVO/Rallitek/Japanparts double-din housing for the dash, and place the unit up there, right?

 

No problem.

 

BUT, I don't want to use this unit as my headunit. I only really want it for navigation and iPod control purposes.

 

So, would it be possible to wire it all up, but for the speaker outputs, simply to tie the left and right front outputs into what effectively becomes a stereo 3.5mm jack, and plug that into the AUX-input of my OEM headunit?

 

I DO have a 6-disc CD changer for that headunit, which I could just put in the back of the car. That's less than ideal, but at least I would have sattelite radio, and better iPod control with the new unit.

 

Can anyone see anything glaringly wrong with this setup? The OEM knobs would all remain functional (because they would be being used...) and the AUX-IN control would operate as normal as well.

 

The only downside is the fact that I will have exposed buttons from the Kenwood, which doesn't look OEM at all. I'm awaiting a reply from Kenwood to see if one of their other touch-screen monitors would work with this unit, so I could simply have a normal screen without buttons.

 

Has anyone done this? Any input? I don't have any problem with the OEM headunit. It all seems to operate just fine, my only complaint being radio reception.

 

I feel like this would probably work pretty well. But I haven't actually looked at wiring to see if it will work.

 

Does anyone have any pics of a car with a double-din mounted in that location?

 

Thanks!

[biz77]

The AVO JDM unit is for the JDM market - meaning right-hand drive. The fitment sucks in USDM cars. Besides that, the AVO piece was designed to mount a screen, not a double-din DVD unit. You would need to fabricate brackets and do some cutting of the center dash support. Plenty of discussion on this forum around this topic, including a topic that should be up on the first page of this sub-forum today.

 

Your idea of tieing in your current Kenwood unit to your OEM source unit is not something I would do.

 

What I would do:

 

1. Source an OEM nav panel for USDM car.

 

2. Look at Kenwood CarPortal OEM integration products, including 7" screen: http://www.kenwoodusa.com/Car_Entertainment/CarPortal™/

 

3. Search out a qualified shop that can customize and fabricate to OEM apperance to make said 7" screen from Kenwood CarPortal line look like it came there from the factory.

 

4. Relocate info display (if you want to keep it) to ashtray area with AVO relocation bracket or custom fab.