Hey guys,
I bought an Avic Z1 and im thinking about installing it myself. Ive read alot of posts regarding the other pioneer units and they've said that installing the Z1 is pretty much the same. Well i went to circuit city and bought a toyota wire harness and a double DIN kit and they guy there pretty much told me that i need to have them install it because its very difficult. He said finding the speed sensor, parking brake, and reverse wires is difficult. My main question is, should i do it on my own cuz judging by the posts it seems pretty much self explanitory or should i pay 100 to have them install it?

 

do it yourself, run a few searches and you'll find the wire colors (i dont know them myself, sorry)

 

yeah i said DIY. my bro got his z1 installed, and they did a craptacular job. we ended up redoing it.. its not that bad, just search around and youll be fine.. i think the12volt.com might help you i remember seeing stuff about tCs there.

 

Also, check out avic411.com. They have some good info about the Z1 install. I did the Z1 myself, and with info here on SL and avic411, I had no problems

 

alright...i think im going to do it myself thanks guys

 

I also have a couple of more questions:

1. Where did you guys mount your antenna for the gps. The "expert" at circuit city said that its a pain in the *ss because the whole car is glass and he would mount it on the dash if he installed it. I saw on a post where someone mounted in underneith their sunroof in the track. Where did you guys mount your antennas?
2. I bought a scosche TA021 81' toyota and up wire harness and I didnt know if this would work

 

1. You can put the antenna under the 'vent' below your passenger side wiper blade. Safe and no one will see it.

2. Toyota harnesses haven't changed and the one you got is most likely correct.

 

and bout the gps antenna.. just search around on the forums.. there are a bunch of threads of where people put the antenna

 

The install really isn't very difficult considering what the unit is / does. Like said above, I mounted my gps antenna up under the plastic by the passenger wiper blade. Pretty easy to get that piece off, and there's a grommet on the passenger side firewall that you can use for the wire. (I removed the plastic end from the connector to make it smaller / easier to get through, there's only a tab holding it on) I mounted my XM antenna right next to it (they're all magnets, so just stuck them on a bracket in there), and while I haven't lost the gps signal, I do lose the XM signal frequently. Need to make a bracket to hold them up closer to the plastic vent thing, right now they're about 4" down.. But yeah, go for it! Unless you have an exceptionally good Circuit City installer, (there actually are some out there I hear.. ) you can end up with a hack job for your $100.

 

It really easy to do i jsut installed my kenwood 6019 with NAV and ipod adapter and took about 2 hours so its really easy man

 

sound advice did mine perfectly in august and i havent had any problems with it yet