New install: JVC GPS replaced JBL HU

With encouragement from ABL and Austingreen, I spent Friday afternoon and evening upgrading my JBL HU with a JVC KW-NX7000 with backup camera. Here are my installation comments:

I did my shopping at Sonicelectronix. They are good guys. I saved about $200 on the JVC HU by buying refurbished. Aside from coming in a brown “Refurbished by JVC†box, it looked brand new and worked perfectly. They also had all the extra stuff including the Pac TATO, Pac SWI Jack, satellite radio items and Scoshe install kit. At their recommendation, I selected the Lock Pick Mini Cam 221. Great choice and reasonable price. This color camera inverts the image (just as if you'd be looking at your rearview mirror. It also places lines on the screen with measurements for 1 ft and 6 ft just like on the Lexus backup camera. You can see them in the picture.

Taking the car apart
In particular, I removed all the interior panels of the back door so that I could install the camera neatly. I bought a two day pass to technfo\toyota and downloaded all the disassembly instructions for the car. Panels and covers all unsnap easily.
As described by others on the forum, getting the old radio out takes about five minutes, again, thanks to instrument panels that easily unsnap with only fingernails for tools. I removed the drink holder trim, then the trim around the shifter and then the upper trim around the radio and AC controls, all without tools. It’s good that I don’t bite my fingernails.

Disconnecting the battery
I wanted to disconnect power to the car before digging in. As recommended by Toyota, I removed all the trunk plastics to get to the 12v battery and then removed and taped up the negative lead on the battery. Click here for picture. Before doing this, I put all the windows down in case I somehow locked myself out.
Helpful hint: With the back lid up, cover the hole where the latch from the lid locks to the car when you close the door. How'd I learn this? When I began working on the camera install, I had to lower the lid. But it was so well-balanced that if I closed it almost all the way, it locked. Guess what? With the battery disconnected, I couldn't unlock it. I had to climb in the back through a side door, reconnect the battery, unlock the hatch, open it and then disconnect the battery again.
Another hint: You need something more substantial than cardboard. I used cardboard the first time and the back door lid was so heavy it punched through the cardboard and locked again. Finally, I taped a piece of scrap metal I had laying around over the hole to prevent the hatch from closing/locking. Success!

Installing the camera
As advised in this forum, the camera install WAS a PITA. I removed four nuts on the inside back of the deck lid, unclipped the license plate lights and back door latch switch. Here's a picture. With a firm yank, the exterior plastic strip containing the Toyota logo and Prius badge literally unsnapped from the back door. I removed this strip so that I could mount the camera. I mounted it on the black knockout plate where the factory camera would have gone. Here's a picture.
Because the camera is mounted on the door, the wiring had to go through the boot at the top of the door above the window. I didn’t want to drill any holes because this is the area where rain-water runs down and off the car. I was afraid of leaks. Unfortunately the camera has two connectors that had to go through. I was able to get a coat hanger through the boot onto which I pulled a length of string. But the camera connectors are large and there’s already a thick bundle of wires inside that boot. It looked impossible. The answer? Lube! (Yes, THAT kind of lube!) Those connectors and the wiring slipped through that boot like nobodies' business. Here's a picture.
After that, the the rest of the wire routing was easy. I also ran a single 18 gauge wire from the left taillight compartment along with the camera wires to the front. Later, I connected one end of the wire to the backup light and the other end at the HU to the reverse gear lead wire. This tells the HU to turn on the camera and show it on the screen when the car is in reverse.
Even though the camera came with 21 ft of wire, it wasn’t enough. I made a trip to Radio Shack for a 6’ male/female RCA extension cable and some hookup wire. That did the trick. The whole thing looks pretty good. Here's a picture.

Physical install of JVC HU
This part of the install was easy. The Scoshe Toyota adapter doesn’t have the same texturing as the JBL radio and dash, but the color match and fit is good. It went together easily and while it seemed flimsy on my bench, once installed, was rock-solid rigid. I was a little concerned about the faceplate removal mechanism on the JVC not clearing the edges of the adapter, but the way the mount worked out, the JVC protrudes at the top the depth of the screen and the motor mechanism operates unimpeded. I didn’t have to use the metal sleeve, brackets or plastic frame that came with the JVC. There are no unsightly gaps between the JVS HU and the adapter. As directed by ABL, I put the GPS antenna right on top of the HU and it works just fine.

Pac Electronics controllers
The TATO unit from Pac Electronics to adapt the JVS HU to the factory JBL amplifier worked perfectly first time. Plug it together, connect a few wires and you're off the races. The SWI-JACK to make the steering wheel buttons work did not and I couldn’t figure it out. It wouldn’t program and the instructions I had didn’t seem to match the unit. It might have had something to do with the fact that it was 10 PM Friday night and I was so tired I couldn’t see straight. I gave up and buttoned everything up. It was only Monday when I discovered that the problem was how I read their website. They tell you to get the most up-to-date instructions from pac-audio.com. The way their website is set up, it appears that you’re getting instructions for the SWI-JACK, but if you’re not paying close attention, you’re actually getting the instructions for the SWI-X. I’m going to give it another shot later today.

Parking Brake lead connection
It was my desire to allow the DVD player to work while the car is in motion (I know, I know. I’ll be careful). To cause this to work, instead of connecting the parking brake lead from the HU to the parking brake switch, I connected it to the black ground wire right at the back of the radio. Success! I tired it once in the street (at 10 PM at night, I might add) and what they say IS true. It's a major distraction.

Sirius satellite tuner install
I put the satellite antenna on the roof behind and to the right of the factory radio antenna. The antenna wire was skinny enough that I ran it under the back door gasket with no risk of leaking, I’m sure. There was enough wire to go from there to the radio tuner in the glove box area. I removed and discarded the metal bracket that came with the tuner. Then, I applied three layers of 3M permanent foam tape. After dropping the glove box, I stuck the tuner to the sheet metal wall on the right side. It did not obstruct the operation of the glove box at all.

Impressions
The whole thing is PHENOMENAL! Satellite radio sound in combination with the stock JBL amplifier and speakers is nothing short of stunning. This was a worthwhile upgrade. Ditto for DVD and CD’s. If not for my obsession with the backup camera, the entire install would have been completed in less than two hours. Yesterday, we drove five hours from Connecticut to northern Vermont and used the GPS functionality extensively. Road database was VERY current. It reflected redesigned road layouts near our house that were only completed about nine months ago. I especially like that the GPS controls can be adjusted while the car is moving. I did not buy the iPod adapter because I'm probably the last person on the planet to not own an iPod. I use my Blackberry as a music player. My plan is either put my music library on an SD memory card (there is a question whether the JVC will read a 16 GB memory card) or put it on a portable hard drive and plug it into the USB cord coming off the JVC. I did not buy the Bluetooth adapter because I didn't care for the Bluetooth functionality in my '05 Prius, but as I read the JVC owner's manual, I think I might have made a mistake and will go back for it. Here is another finished pic.

FM Radio performance issues
There has been a lot of postings about radio reception in general on the 3rd gen Prius. In my situation, where the factory radio pulled in a dozen stations, I was lucky to receive three with the JVC. Some posters to the forum suspect that there’s an amplifier built into the antenna and that it receives power through the antenna connector and that with an aftermarket HU, it’s not getting any power. I think they’re partly right. I think there is an amplifier but I’m betting/hoping that it’s not line powered. The basis for my thought is that Metra makes adapters for all kinds of different cars equipped with factory antenna amplifiers that are powered through the antenna connector. They don’t make one for Toyota and I can’t imagine this is an oversight on their part. Furthermore, on other Toyota vehicles that use their Diversity antenna system, the amplifier for the Diversity antenna is powered from the power antenna wire, pin 13 of the 20 pin connector. I’m going to take a chance and put 12v into that same pin on my Prius and see if my radio reception improves. I’ll let the group know how it works out.

Next up: Smart Key for passenger and back doors
I'm pretty bummed that the Smart Key system on my Prius III won't unlock the passenger and read doors as it does on my 2005 Prius. While I had access to techinfo\Toyota, I downloaded all the relevant service manual sections. I'm comfortable now with removing panels so I want to see how much of the Prius IV Smart Key wiring and associated components are in place inside the doors.

 

Here are the items I used:
JVC KW-NX7000 Head unit
PAC SWI-JACK adapter (for steering wheel controller if you have steering wheel buttons)
PAC TATO adapter (to connect JVC to already in-place JBL amplifier if you have upgraded JBL audio system)
Scoshe TA2105B double DIN installation kit for 2010 Prius
Lock Pick Mini Cam 221 weatherproof backup camera
Sirius SC-C1 Universal vehicle tuner
JVC KS-SRA100 Sirius adapter
Miscellaneous hookup wire (18-20 gauge), heat shrink tubing, duct or electrical tape.

As for connections details, other than my hack for the DVD player in motion as described above, I just followed the instructions that came with the JVC and PAC adapters. In the grand scheme of things, it's not a complicated install. I got a quote from a local car stereo place to do the job for $250, but I'm a cheap bast*rd and I like to do these things myself.

 

Yes. You could certainly go with a Prius II. I understand but haven't heard that the JVC KW-NX7000 (and many other aftermarket HU’s) have very competent amplifiers. A little background…
When I went shopping for my '10 Prius, my original consideration was a III or even a IV with the Toyota Nav. Our family owns an ’04 and an ’05 Prius, each with theToyota nav. If you know those cars, you know that that the MFD display is tightly linked to the A/C, Radio and the Prius mileage display features. I’ve always been majorly dissatisfied with the JBL implementation in those cars, but doing an aftermarket install to improve the audio in those cars at least in my opinion would be very complicated so I never considered it.
As I began looking at the 3rd gen Prius, and as a result of posts I read here (thanks A LOT ABL!), I realized that for better or for worse, Toyota had delinked the radio from the rest of the systems and that they moved to the world-standard DIN mounting configuration making an aftermarket install much easier. The Toyota nav is grossly overpriced and under featured and I found the naughty inability to not be able to set the GPS unless the car is stopped just plain silly.
Then I compared the sound in non-JBL vs. JBL ’10 Priuses. I found a huge difference between the speakers/amp in the JBL system found in the Prius III and the regular audio system in the Prius II. It’s true that you can replace the speakers in the II or add more, but the JBL sound in the ’10 unlike that in my ‘04/’05 was just stunning. Plus all that I’d read make an aftermarket install with good sound way easier. Leave the speakers and amp in place. Use a Pacific audio or other adapter to utilize the amp and speakers and it all pretty much plugs together. Plus with the III, you also get the steering wheel audio controls. Bottom line… for $1,000 more you get an easier aftermarket installation, phenomenal sound and the convenience of the steering wheel controls. Just my two cents.

 

Don't know about the Bluetooth. My JVC KW-NX7000 didn't come with it and I chose not to buy it. I see at Crutchfield and Sonicelectronix that the KW-NX7000 is now the KW-NX7000BT with the "BT" being included bluetooth.