JTS06Z06

Looks good keep us updated with pics.

Just curious what type of wood is that? I ended up ordering my Avic-X920BT and will have it in a couple days. I also purchased a couple sheets of very thin Bird's Eye maple which is the exact wood used in my 00 Platinum and has the exact same texture as the original wood. I will also be staining it then clearing it hopefully with good results. I to will be posting pictures of the nav install and wood install. If the Bird's Eye Maple turns out good I would be willing to make more than one.

James

GoodRevs

I think the carpenter said it's maple. The grain doesn't match but I'm more concerned about the staining which is so far coming along well. It's gonna be such a tight fit that I'm not going to need to attach the trim to the radio brackets for support.

I'm interested to see if you can eliminate the background noise, hissing and/or pulsating when you install your Avic. Keep a note of what you did for grounding and organizing of the RCA's/power wires if you can.

Benbendx

iTrader: (1)

You guys are so lucky. I'm retarded when it comes to these things it's not even funny. I would love to have this. Good job guys!! Hope there's a diy soon for this.

JTS06Z06

GoodRevs,

I know you saw my other post about my Avic-X920BT install and you asked if I had any noise. Yes I do and its pretty bad. I ended up trying several different grounds including straight to the battery and nothing made it quiet. So I see in this post you got two of the PAC isolators. I would prefer this over rewiring my factory amp and bypassing that, so did these things work for you? Is there any noise at all or is it 100% quiet now?

Thanks,
James

GoodRevs

Sorry to hear you have noise too, I was keeping my fingers crossed that you wouldn't so we could try and narrow down the issue with these ES's and aftermarket headunits.

Yes they did work and they removed a large amount of the background noise. There is however some background noise there, which I'm afraid is because I blew the PICO fuse (a small fuse deep inside avic's that blows if you disconnect the RCA's with the power on). Did you ground the amplifier ground on the metra harness to the avic's chasis or the avic ground wire? I played around with the three grounds and tried swapping the amp ground and chasis ground on the metra harness between the avic's chasis and the avics ground wire. I alleviated a little of the background noise by doing that. I got the idea for those isolators from this guys thread;

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/lex...000-es300.html

JTS06Z06

I did the same thing I tried messing with the grounds in all sorts of different methods but there was still noise. I tried grounding the AVIC directly to the cars chassis, directly to the negative terminal of the battery, and a couple other locations. It made no difference there was still noise. So the avic ground wire is attached to the metra harness so im just untilizing the original ground for the stock radio. Noise didnt change and its the easiest and cleanest ground so thats what I will use.
I was not aware of a fuse that would blow when you plug and unplug RCA's with the power on. If thats the case mine is for sure blown as I was messing with the RCA's a lot as well. That stinks lol
Just to test them out and be able to return if they didnt work I picked up two isolators from radio shake but I forgot to look and the damn things are male connectors on both sides which wont work for me unless I go back to a store and pick up some adapters. Man this really is a pain in the *** trying to add a radio in a Toyota/Lexus car. I have installed a lot of radios and never had any issues like this in any other car even factory amplified ones.

James

GoodRevs

- Yeah, apparently unplugging the RCA's while there's power running to the unit (even if the car is completely off) can blow this little fuse deep inside the unit called the PICO fuse. Google it, there are multiple methods to "fix" it. Some folks ground the RCA's to the chassis (which I'm not sure is safe, I've read it can cause the unit to fry) and one guy actually took it apart to replace the fuse - Looked like a big pain in the ***. I think it's only Pioneers with this pico fuse too. I grounded onto the metra harness too with no additional noise, easiest method.

- That radioshack ground loop isolator won't work. When I first installed my avic I forgot to order a second PAC isolator so I too went down to radioshack and bought that same one. It's male ends because if you look on the back of the package it's for home stereo systems, not cars. Using adapters won't work either, I tried that and it was worse than without the isolators. Just order the PAC SNI-1, many people use it on a variety of cars with great success.

- If it's the fuse and you bought your avic from an authorized retailer look into having it repaired under warranty

Do you notice less noise with the engine off? I do (almost no background noise) which I'm thinking has to do with the engine/alternator whine due to the pico fuse being blown. You may not have noticed but I've found that there are multiple types of background noise, the first being the whine I think you're experiencing, and then a pulsating as a result of the organization of the wires behind the avic. Try moving them around in different places, it may alleviate some of the noise.

JTS06Z06

Well I have good news. First off I wanna say that I got extremely lucky.

So I drove over to walmart to buy a couple of those adapters to try and use the radio shack isolators I bought. Well before I even got over to the audio department I stopped by car audio just to see if maybe they had a ground loop isolator. Low and behold they had a ton of Schosch isolators in stock marked down to only 10 bucks a piece. Im like oh sweet so I bought them went home and tried them. I had very little confidence in these but to my surprise with the car off they eliminated 100% of the noise. The sound quality is perfect and inchanged and there is not a single hint of noise. So I started the car and drove around the block and there is a very faint noise but it is so faint that it can only be heard with windows all the way up, music completely off, and A/C off. Its that faint! So I am VERY happy I thought I was going to be completely screwed and have to do a total amp re-wire.
So these Scocshe ones worked very nicely and I am now completely satisfied with my X920BT. Time to make a trip back to Radio Shack to return those crappy ones I bought from them.
I was very surprised to hear how much better the stock speakers sound with this radio. Sounds very impressive for a almost 11 year old base stereo.

My Birds Eye Maple sheets arrive tomorrow I will mess around with those and keep everyone posted. If that doesnt work out thats fine as im actually pretty impressed with how it looks with just the black scosche faceplate.

Now its time to learn all the functions of this unit especially the Pioneer applications for my iPhone integration (Avic Feeds and Pandora radio).

Thanks for all the help I really appreciate it.

James

decypher

The custom wood panels are very intriguing... A few good coats of polyurethane will really make the grain "pop out" in the finish...

On another note, is it possible the GPS radio/antenna could have something to do with the noise or maybe an unshielded cable?

Regardless I'm impressed, nice work!

JTS06Z06

^^^ no it has nothing to do with any of the antennas. This is something that would happen in the ES's with any headunit even an old single DIN unit would do it.

GoodRevs

Here it is. I wasn't able to match the stain but other than that its fantastic. There's able three other shades of wood in there anyway so it's anyone's guess as to what the color of the woodtrim is. Very sturdy even though it's not attached to the headunit or bracket. The wood is thick so it won't warp in the sun or heat, and I glossed it over so it shines. I'm very pleased.

intermec

good job,
it works for me

JTS06Z06

Not bad looks like the stain is pretty close but that seems to be a different type of wood than the original. Overall the fitment looks great! If you change your mind and want an exact match for the OEM wood let me know I have about 15 sheets of it left and since you have the stain matched pretty well you might be even more happy. Let me know.
I have yet to mess with the staining of my trim piece maybe I will mess with it more this evening.

James

decypher

hmmm and the ground is touching bare metal (non-painted surface)? i'd try to find a lexus electrical engineer on one of the forums and pick their brain.. I love the custom boot screen BTW!

I know its more work and you may already be satisfied with the custom wood panel but I'd give it a couple more coats of poly, wet sand it with an ultra fine grit, re-coat with poly, sand, repeat... until you get that smooth glass finish. Looks great, the only thing is the finish that makes it look "un-finished"

JTS06Z06

Not sure if your confusing me with the original poster but I dont have a custom boot screen yet just the standard Pioneer one for now. Both goodrevs and myself are doing very similar projects. We both have Pioneer navs but different models and both have been working on wood trim plates.
As far as my plate its coming along VERY nicely I started doing the sanding and staining last night. I purchased several different color stains and mixed for what looks like the perfect match so far!!! The texture of the wood is dead on with the original so I have a feeling its going to look very nice. I will also be putting on a LOT of polyuerathan gloss to match the thick shiny gloss coat on the original pieces. Its gonna take a lot of time and sanding between coats to get that thickness in clear but im in no rush.

As for the grounds it doesnt matter where I grounded it the noise was the same. I tried grounds in 3 different locations including directly to the battery. Nothing mattered so I just resorted back to using the original radios ground in the factory harness. Its the easiest and cleanest ground so I used it. I had no choice but to use the ground loop isolators since I did not want to bypass the factory amp. To my surprise the isolators worked flawlessly so I am very happy now. I will post more pics in my nav thread of the wood trim bezel as I go along.

James