Tag avic-x930bt

As promised, here is my experience installing my Pioneer AVIC-X930BT radio in my 2005 6 speed Chevy SSR. DISCLAIMER: I am not a professional car audio installer.  In fact this was the first radio I have installed in a vehicle in at least 25 years.  I have some decent technical ability and didn’t feel like forking over $500 extra to an installer to put the radio in.

My SSR had the factory Bose Premium sound system in it.  Although this radio worked fine I wanted the techo-geek features like GPS, Bluetooth support, Iphone integration and a rear back up camera.

I did a lot of reading leading up to the purchase and install of the equipment, especially on SSRFanatics.  Some people advised to rip out the existing Bose amp/speakers since they don’t have the best sound quality.  Not being an audiophile, I thought the existing system sounded just fine so I decided to leave the amp/speakers intact.

So with that being the case, here is the list of items I purchased from SonixElectronix.

1. Pioneer AVIC-X930BT (head unit)
2. Axxess GMOS-04 (wiring harness adapter designed for systems that include the Bose amp)
3. Metra 95-2009 (generic mounting plate/adapter)
4. Metra 40-GM10 (antenna adpater)
5. Pioneer ND-BC20PA (rear back up camera with parking assist)
6. Axxess ASWC (universal steering wheel controls adapter)

I already had the Ipod interface cable for the 930BT which I received as a Xmas present.

Now in addition to this I purchased several other items for the install like a set of nylon prying tools to prevent damaging the trim as well as some connectors for the various wires that will need to be connected between the radio harness and the GMOS-04.

The first order of business was getting the old radio out of the truck.  The first thing I did was pull a few fuses.

The first two I pulled were the radio and amp fuses located in the fuse box behind the passenger seat.  The third fuse was the air bag fuse which is located in the fuse box in the engine compartment.

Next up was to start the front dash disassembly. I removed the center silver trim piece using my nylon tools, it simply snaps out.

Once that was off there are 5 screws that need to be removed, 4 on the right of the steering wheel, one on the left of it.  You don’t need to remove the screws that connect to the lower dash.  It is pretty easy to tell which is which by looking at them.

Now comes the fun part, getting the dash panel popped off from the passenger air bag area.  This quite simply is a large pain in the ass.  At first I tried using my prying tools to help me but I eventually relied on simple hand strength to bend the corners of the air bag cover in such a way that they would pop through the dash opening.  The corners of the cover are pretty flexible but it still takes some serious work to get them through the opening.

I have read some suggestions that once you get the dash cover off you shave down the lip that the air bag cover sits in front of to make future reassembly and disassembly much easier.  Unfortunately I didn’t read that suggestion until after I had it back together.

In the picture to the left you can see the dash with the front panel completely removed.  Once the air bag cover is popped through the dash the rest of the removal is pretty easy.  The only other part that was a bit difficult to get off was the area around the steering wheel.  Dropping the tilt steering all the way down helped here.

All that remains is to remove the three screws that hold the factory radio in, slide the radio out and disconnect the wiring harness and antenna cable from the back of it. You are left with a nice clean hole to slide your new radio into.

So next I gathered up my GMOS-04 wiring harness (already did the parking brake bypass mod) and my factory Pioneer harness and did some reading.  To be quite honest, I felt quite overwhelmed at first, don’t be surprised if you feel the same way.  Relax, it will get better.

I was particularly confused by the GMOS-04 harness, it had a total of 5 wire connectors on it but I could only figure out where three of them went.  At first I thought somehow I ordered the wrong thing.

Slowly I started to figure out what went where.  One of the connectors was indeed unused, the gray one that only has two pins in it.  I have no idea what it’s intended use was.  The other small black connector turns out to be a quick and easy way to tie in the Axxess ASWC steering wheel control module.  I was confused by this because the AWSC comes with it’s own connector harness which I realized I simply didn’t need.

So I started going through the connections between the GMOS-04 and the Pioneer harness one by one, twisting the wires together but not crimping them until I knew everything was working.

For a ground I used a bare metal spot with a screw to the left and below the radio mounting location on the dash.  It was relatively close.

Eventually I got everything that was supposed to be connected, connected, or so I hoped.  I had a huge mess of wire in my hand that looked like shit.  I was not quite sure how I was going to transform it into a more organized mess.

I plugged all the harnesses in, put the fuses back in and nervously turned the key.  I was happy to see the radio light up and hear static from the speakers.  I tuned the radio to a local station and heard music.  Ok well that meant that I had the basic functions working.

I further tested the unit by stretching the GPS antenna and laying it on the ground in front of the truck so I could see if it picked up satellites, it did.  I also sloppily connected the rear camera just to see if that worked as well.  It did although it didn’t seem to have any connection to the truck being put in reverse. Oh well I can figure that out later.

Programming the AWSC was pretty easy once I realized I could use the built in connector on the GMOS-o4 to tie it in.  You basically just keep hitting the up volume button while turning on the car until the light stops flashing on the AWSC.  After that there are a series of flashes and if all goes well a solid red light at the end of the sequence, indicating the unit is now synched to your car and the new radio.

Ok so now I knew that everything more or less worked.  I took the harness back out and worked on securing the connections and cleaning up the wires the best that I could.  I read that some places recommend soldering the wire connections together.  I didn’t go this route, I just twisted the wires together and crimped them together securely with my bell connectors.

Even with a considerable amount of time spent cleaning everything up I wasn’t all that pleased with the end result.  You are shoving a lot more junk into the dash than what was in there originally.  I would be curious to see what a “pro” installation looks like in comparison.

So finally I was ready to put the radio in for “real”.  I mounted the GPS antenna up under the dash on top of a metallic cross brace that the magnetic antenna snapped on to securely.  I had read elsewhere this was a nice out of the way to do it instead of slapping it somewhere on the exterior of the truck.

I also fed up all of the various external connections that would connect to the radio from the floor up through the radio opening.  These included the wires for the back up camera, Bluetooth mic, and the Ipod interface cable.

I connected the GMOS-04 harness to the factory harness, the antenna to the antenna adapter, slid the AWSC onto a piece of metal that looked like a good resting place and tried to slide the 930BT back into the slot.  Oh I forgot to mention that of course I had already attached the generic mounting plate to the new radio so the tabs line up with the factory mounting holes.

Well I felt resistance as I tried to steer the radio in place.  Of course I knew the resistance was from the huge collection of stuff that is behind it.  I jammed my hand uncomfortably into the hole where the right air vent is normally located and got my fingers under the wires behind the radio to lift them up and out of the way so they aren’t pinned behind the radio.  It took a lot of frustrating manipulation but eventually I got the radio fully seated.

Ok so now I needed to make sure the radio still works with it mounted in place.  Guess what? It didn’t.  The thing was dead a s a doornail, I was pissed.  At first I just hoped I simply didn’t push one of the fuses back in but they were all snugly inserted.

Out came the multimeter and I started to troubleshoot where I was losing juice.  It took me a long time to figure out the problem and I was getting increasingly despondent before I did.  On the GMOS-04 the pin for the yellow wire, which is used for accessory power was pushed back a bit for some reason.  I pushed it from behind so it snapped firmly back in place.  Imagine my relief when everything fired up normally, whew.

Ok I thought the hardest part was behind me, putting the dash back together shouldn’t be that bad, right? Wrong.

If I did that little mod I mentioned around the air bag opening I am sure this would have went better.  I determined the air bag going back through the hole was the first step in getting everything else back together.  Doing so again was tough as hell, requiring even more vigorous hand manipulation than required to remove it.  I was quite frustrated but eventually persistence won out and I forced the cover back through the hole in the dash.  I wasn’t out of the woods yet.

In addition to getting the air bag cover back through the hole, you also have the difficult task of getting the dash air vents lined up with the ducts behind them.  It was tough as well.

Then I ran into another issue, the dash didn’t seem to want to snap back together a 100%.  Eventually with some vigorous pounding with the heel of my hand it did appear to snap into place but then I noticed the radio was sitting oddly.  Well of course I couldn’t have this and was dejected knowing that it meant I had to pull the dash cover all the way off again.

Once I did I saw that my pounding had snapped one of the plastic mounting tabs on the mounting kit, shit. I also realized that I must have had the radio mounted more forward than the factory radio, causing the tight fit.  The sides of the 930 BT have a number of mounting holes with different letters next to them but I just used what looked right.

So I had to run off to Best Buy to get another mount kit.  Putting it on meant I had to slide the radio out and then repeat the incredibly annoying process of getting everything shoved back in there.  I was pretty damn miserable at this point.

After some more futzing around I got the radio and dash back on albeit not perfectly.  There is still some slight issues with the fit and finish.  The radio still seems to protrude a fraction of an inch too far, causing the silver trim piece to be shifted down just enough that it causes some drag on the climate controls which will need to be addressed.

To the casual observer/rider they won’t notice the wart but I know it’s there.

I didn’t mount the camera in the license plate area yet, that shouldn’t be too tough to handle.

I didn’t try to be very fancy with my Ipod cable routing.  I have seen some guys modify their ash tray or glove box so it can house their Iphone.  I simply ran the wire along the passenger side of the center console and ended it in the parking brake area so I can just plop my phone there.  Since the radio supports Bluetooth streaming the cable isn’t really needed for a lot of stuff anyway.

I decided to mount the mic for my Bluetooth up to the driver side visor.  I have seen some guys mount the mic on the steering column but I think up on the visor is less obtrusive while being more effective since it is closer to your mouth.

There are some outstanding bug/question/issues I have with the radio which I have yet to address.

They are the following.

The rear backup camera does not flip over to the rear view automatically when the truck is put into reverse. (six speed manual) I triple checked that I had the correct wires connected between the GMOS-04 and the Pioneer wiring harness to support this but it still doesn’t work.

The voice guidance volume level seems too low even with having it configured to max volume.  It also doesn’t seem to cut out the music source when it gives guidance which makes no sense.  I will need to play with it some more I suppose.  The cabin noise in an SSR could make hearing the voice guidance tough I guess.

I think it’s weird that the standard map display does not have an option to display vehicle speed.  That is kind of annoying.

When I first tried the radio on a test drive I noticed my tach was “sticking”, reading about 1500 rpm’s higher than normal.  Luckily that problem seemed to fix itself.  I can only guess it was related to the banging to get the dash back together.

Be careful when banging on the dash.  I inadvertently knocked out some fins on the air vents.  I didn’t find all of them.

Other than those few items I am very pleased overall with the radio.  The GPS works well, the Iphone integration is pretty damn slick and I find the overall radio user interface visually pleasing and easy to use.  In fact it makes me want another one to put in my daily driving 99 Tacoma but that would be too financially painful at the moment.

As I address my remaining issues and complete my camera installation I will report back with more results.  I hope you found this somewhat helpful.  I may look into removing the top dash pad to make guiding the harness and wires back into the mounting location cleaner.

If you would like to see all of the pictures I took during the install you can see them here.