2008 350Z Installation Process

[Side Show 10+ year member]

welldone champ, hope ya happy

 

[Chromatic]

welldone champ, hope ya happy

Thanks. I won't lie.. was one hel.l of a job.. But you do get satisfaction from doing it yourself,.. and frankly the only way to get it done right is really to do it yourself,.. depending on how picky you are I guess. No one cares about your own possessions more than yourself I suppose.

I am happy.. sounds phenomenal.. glad to have it and to enjoy it + now with the Kenwood DDX470 I have bluetooth plus some other nice features that I have wanted for some time now.

If anyone is on the hunt for a headunit.. I do strongly recommend the Kenwood DDX470.. nice UI,.. tons of options, Front/Rear and Sub active X-overs.. plus analog controls on the left as well. Also runs $349 at Bestbuy.. and online I'm sure it's cheaper. Really can't find anything cheaper that has built in bluetooth, 3 sets of RCA's at 4V, DVD player, CD player, mp3, USB, Auxillary, rear view, blah blah..

Perhaps in the future anyone with this particular car can grab some ideas from this thread.

Take care,

 

[Chromatic]

Done!

Put the Reverse Camera on the Driver side -- It's super "stealth" ... I like it, really no need for brighter tag lights, but I have them on the way anyways.



Then here's the image from the $24 Camera -- (Keep in mind it's at night)



Only thing I really noticed was it doesn't have any numbers.. But it's very accurate and super center from the start. Personally I don't "need" the numbers whether they are in Meters, Feet, etc..

I did test the "zones" Red, Yellow and Green. When I get up the "red" edge.. I got out and looked and I have about 5-6 inches till I am about to hit what is showing on that Red edge,.. I like a little room for error.

Did a TON of wire work,..

I completely and utterly gutted out the Pioneer Sirius XM system in the car.. and it was two boxes one on each side (Driver and Passenger side) -- I pulled all wires, and I even figured out how to get the Magnetic Antenna off without cutting anything. So now I have a Pioneer Sirius XM system that's 100% complete (and I think the original owner never turned off his subscription.. doh) that I can sell for something.

I GROUNDED the headunit,.. man was that needed. I decided to run a slightly larger ground wire down to the floor where some large bolts were,.. and it was a super solid ground (be good enough for any wattage amp).

When I hooked the headunit back up ,.. I left the antenna out,.. and it fired right up,.. so I know the "lack" of a ground was an issue for the car.

Plus no more SHOCKS.. that lack of a ground was causing the shock, I knew it wasn't normal.

I wired in the Illumination wire (although it doesn't do anything with this headunit that I've found out yet,.. maybe a setting I need to adjust.)

I wired in the Power to the Power Antenna Amplifier (FM Radio now is clear, yay.. that wasn't wired in on the old headunit.)

Obviously wired in the Reverse wire, and plugged in the Video In RCA I ran from the Tag.

Pulled out two USB cables I had piggybacked -- And "wired"/plugged in the Kenwood KCA iP-202 cable,.. One into the Ipod/Aux line on back of headunit,.. and run the USB female connector up into the cubby above headunit.

Ran a Male to Male 3.5mm to another 3.5m Jack (I think it might be an output,.. meh.) But it's in the Cubby just in case.

I did an unbelievable amount of "cleanup" wiring. I had it all apart and was looking at previous installs and where every wire actually went, and there was all sorts of wires tapped in going nowhere, wires that were spliced together for whatever reason with like 1-2" pieces of wire, etc. So I cut a ton of wire out and Soldered new single connections in just for peace of mind.

Cleaned up the Reverse Camera wiring from back to front last. Took a little longer than I thought, but not bad. Really took my time Zip tieing and using a little tape where necessary, Runs all along factory wiring that's grommeted.

Took me some hours doing this.. Near the end (the whole time I had the Headunit on listening to music.. ) The Music stopped, then would come back on.. I was like, hrmm CD? Then I started to hear a click off.. click back on.. and eventually it just clicked again and stayed off.

I was like,.. oh no, what now! I better not have to pull that **** headunit out again. Looked at amp and sure enough it was in protect mode (but protect light was sort of flickering).

I was like, maybe it's just a low battery (I had no idea amps went into Protect when Voltage dropped low enough).

Sure enough the Battery was 11.xx volts.. Just to test I tried to start the car, and clickkkkkk.. I actually breathed a sigh of relief lol. -- Hooked up my Battery Charger on 6amps @ 12v DC,.. let it charge for 30 minutes or so, had a meter on it, and it got up to about 13 volts'ish.. and I pulled charged off, and it fired right up.

Turned music back on with car running and everything was fine! Yay, for once I finish up and everything is koscher, lol.

I'm glad to have the reverse Camera,.. but I'm really happier to be honest about the headunit being Grounded now. **** car doesn't shock me anymore, and I know that shock couldn't have been "Good" for the electrical system and equipment in there.

I think I've just about exhausted everything "Electrical/Stereo" wise now..

Sooooo.. Time to shift to Performance mods haha..

Thanks for all you guys help and advice,..

 

[jackreacher]

Wow man great car with great spec and modification looks great...

 

[Chromatic]

[quote name='jackreacher']Wow man great car with great spec and modification looks great...[/QUOTE]
@jackreacher ; Thank you! Was hard work, but doing things yourself really gives you a sense of accomplishment and you learn a great deal of knowledge and a "skill set" of sorts you didn't have previously. Plus when doing it yourself you take the care most others just wouldn't, because it's your "baby" if you will. I'm not as knowledgeable as some of the people who post here, but I feel I've gone from Amateur to at least the ability to help some others who are in my previous position with questions, etc. -- And the main purpose of this build log was to give anyone with the same car, or even a different vehicle some ideas on the process from A to Z. As this forum really has the best collection of build logs on the Internet for Car Audio.

Do you have a setup in your vehicle?

 

[Chromatic]

Intake Holes (Not perfection here.. but not finished):



Fan Wired via Relay - mounted on spacers Pulling Cabin Air:



The holes aren't perfect,.. but I am not finished with it. I am going to get a vent and essentially cut a box out from the edge of the outer holes,.. and then place a vent so the outside looks better, and the airflow should be a bit better as well.

Cleaned up the Fabrication work -- It's finito now.

 

[pickup1 5,000+ posts]

Got to watch that low voltage...... got lucky this time.

 

[Chromatic]

Got to watch that low voltage...... got lucky this time.

Yeah.. I had never experienced an Amp going to protect with low Voltage. I got lucky? Is low voltage a quick way to Fry an amp? If so.. hel.l yeah I got lucky. Was just because I was doing work with the car off and so many accessory lights on, etc for so long.

Considering I'm literally 100 percent done with that final Fabrication bit I just posted,.. There should be no reason voltage should be an issue any time soon.. Battery is less than a month old,.. Alternator is healthy with 27k miles on it.. Charge is in perfect range on the meter when car is idling.. And the 900watt amp That I'm running 580watts RMS off of I don't think is too much for my stock charging system to handle.

 

[pickup1 5,000+ posts]

Yea, you just was listening too long before the battery pooped out.Same thing on my altima, I added a small hc600 to the back to help out on that.

Low voltage can sometimes kill an amp...might want to invest in a voltmeter if you listen to the system with the car not running.

 

[Chromatic]

Yea, you just was listening too long before the battery pooped out.Same thing on my altima, I added a small hc600 to the back to help out on that.Low voltage can sometimes kill an amp...might want to invest in a voltmeter if you listen to the system with the car not running.

Have one in the car already.. I just didn't know the "Cutoff" point for the amp.. Which is a bit under 12volts. I don't typically listen to it for LONG periods of time with the car off.. But this battery is strong.. I watched a DVD loudly for 2-3 hours and it didn't affect the amp or car starting.. I think much more than that is pushing it.

When the voltage dropped so low was when I was doing actual work with the system going.. had all the interior lights on,.. doors open, hatch up.. etc.. and was pulling ridiculous current with the engine not running.

The one in the car is very accurate.. compared it to the DMM on the battery and it's dead on.

But definitely great to know that low voltage fry's amps.. I thought it was no big deal other than a low battery,.. and the amp just went to protect due to sensing a voltage below X. Now I know,..